《Transcending Dreams》 Glossary Glossary Characters William/Wei Liang - Our MC. Somehow an elevator malfunctioned enough to kill him, and now he¡¯s in a world where cultivators exist. Wang Xiaoling - She¡¯s the second person (non-murderous) William met in the new world. A short-tempered, money-focused, aspiring #1 merchant. Li Xinyue - She¡¯s a young cultivator at the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm. Works in the Jade Healing Clinic with her Master, Huang Jingyi. Disciple of the Jade Healing Sect. Huang Jingyi - He¡¯s the master of the Jade Healing Clinic. Elder in the Jade Healing Sect. Lan Yin - She¡¯s the Overseer of The Garden. A cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm and an Inner Court disciple in the Jade Healing Sect. Calls William her Junior Brother. Ren Bo - He¡¯s a young cultivator a few years older than William. Looked at as a genius by the Jade Healing Sect. Frequently gets rotating obsessions with female cultivators Minor Characters Daoist Chen - Powerful cultivator that saved William at the start of the novel Elder Yu (Yu Yanhua) - She¡¯s the Head Elder of the Outer Court in the Jade Healing Sect Guan Feng - Sect Master of the Jade Healing Sect Li Jie - He¡¯s a Captain in the Xuanjing City guard. Wang Xiaoling¡¯s pursuer Fatty Xu - Wang Xiaoling¡¯s follower Wang Mei - She works in the Administrative Building in the Outer Court. Lan Yin¡¯s friend Lan Yang - Lan Yin¡¯s twin brother Prince Yuan - Lan Yin¡¯s supposed betrothed. A known genius of the Imperial Family. Mei Lingxi - Manager of Xuanjing City¡¯s Treasure Pavilion (1st and 2nd Floor) A servant of Prince Yuan. Zhang Jun - He¡¯s an Outer Court Disciple of the Jade Healing Sect. He stays in one of the best dwellings avable for disciples Yang Fan - Restless Outer Court Disciple of the Jade Healing Sect. Ren Bo¡¯s friend Liu Yan - She warns William about Yang Fan¡¯s habits. Outer Court Disciple Zheng Tao - A responsible Outer Court disciple that tells William to take a safer mission Wu Jing - She¡¯s the attendant at the Mission Hall. At the Peak of Qi Gathering Realm. Wu Chang - Proprietor of The Golden Lotus Qin Yu - Guards the main entrance into the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s Outer Court Mei Lin - Attendant at the Phoenix¡¯s Nest Liu Ming - Mortal that works at The Garden. Cao Rui¡¯s friend Deceased Characters Zhou Chou and Zhang Biao - Bandits. William¡¯s first kills Cao Rui - Killed by Lan Yin for trespassing Known Cultivation Realms 1. Qi Gathering 2. Foundation Establishment 3. Core Formation 4. Nascent Soul 5. Spirit Severing 6. Dao Seeking Chapter 1: A Dream? Chapter 1: A Dream? William started reading cultivation novels recently. He liked them enough to binge chapters for hours, even though he skimmed the chapters in most parts of the story. There were only so many of the flowery words he could consume before he was lulled to sleep. Still, it was enough for him to vaguely grasp the simrities between most of these novels. Even though it felt like he was reading the same novel repeatedly, it didn¡¯t stop him from spending far more time on it than was reasonable. Enough that it was affecting his work. William¡¯s boss was already on his ass for his deteriorating work ethic, and if he didn¡¯t drop his recent obsession that was making it worse, it would make his currently working ass suddenly be an unemployed ass. ¡°William!¡± William flinched in his chair and straightened his back while trying to look busy. He didn¡¯t need his boss to see him distracted this early in the day again. As much as he cked off at his job, he still needed it with the way the economy was. ¡°Hey, Jeremy,¡± William tried to sound more awake than he was, ¡°Morning.¡± ¡°I need you to stayte to put in some numbers for me. We won¡¯t get them until the guys in the main branch finish their part.¡± William couldn¡¯t help the weary sigh that escaped him, but he quickly put on a smile when Jeremy narrowed his eyes. ¡°Sure thing. I¡¯d be happy to help.¡± He kept up the smile until Jeremy nodded and walked away. He groaned softly, reclined in his chair, and rubbed his eyes. This was something he brought on himself, so it wasn¡¯t something he could me his boss for, not that the sound logic stopped him from doing that anyway. William stretched in his chair and let out a small groan in relief. If he was going to have a long day at work today, he might as well get himself a cup of coffee. With the building having a coffee shop in the lobby, all it would take was a short trip on the elevator. William walked past the rest of the drones that were working in the office. An unfair description, especially since he is one of them, but it is the truth nheless. Was it a wonder why William frequently got lost in reading fantasy novels when this was his life? Even when he was younger, the habit wasn¡¯t much different. He was obsessed with games of the role-ying variety. If finances weren¡¯t an issue, he would have happily kept ying into adulthood. Learning the cost of owning aputer capable of ying games quickly broke him of the habit. He couldn¡¯t exactly ask his parents to buy him a gamingputer after graduating high school. He wasn¡¯t that shameless. Luckily, the novels hade to his rescue, and he had never thought about going back to games since then. William pressed the button to summon the elevator, cursing lightly when he saw it was twenty floors away. Another thing he hated about his workce, other than the seemingly meaningless work, was that it was in a skyscraper with what might be the world¡¯s slowest elevators. It took over a minute to reach his floor from the lobby. *Ding* William blinked in surprise when the elevator¡¯s door opened, wondering if it sped up because he was insulting it in his mind. With a shrug, he stepped inside and pressed the button to take him to the lobby. He just hoped there wouldn¡¯t be any stops on other floors to slow his trip. William sighed as he closed his eyes, wanting to get in a quick rest in the couple-minute long ride, and leaned on the metal wall. A cup of coffee sounded better and better by the moment. ¡°That boy is waking up.¡± ¡°Yang Hua, can¡¯t you even dose a kid properly?¡± William frowned and tried to open his eyes, but it felt like his eyelids were mped shut. Thest thing he remembered was getting on the elevator, and he had been alone at the time. Did he fall asleep? ¡°I did, I promise! Look at all the others. They¡¯re still unconscious.¡± William realized that his hands were tied behind his back and he was lying on the floor. What the hell was going on? His first thought was that he had been kidnapped, but the more rational part of his brain told him nobody would kidnap an office drone, especially not from a secure building like his office. ¡°I don¡¯t care! If it wasn¡¯t for Master telling me to bring you along, you wouldn¡¯t even be here! Take care of the kid, Yang Hua!¡± William started to struggle when he heard footsteps getting closer to him. Something told him that he had to escape or he wouldn¡¯t live much longer. However, the same thing made him freeze in shock. Since when had he ever thought his life was in danger? The sudden presence of other people, the vague conversation with a Chinese name uttered, and William¡¯s inability to open his eyes made him think of another possibility. He was dreaming. It hadn¡¯t been the first time William dreamt that he was personally experiencing being present in a cultivation novel. Still, it was undoubtedly the most realistic yet. He had heard of these types of dreams. Lucid dreams, it was called. William¡¯s frown turned into a smile as he imagined getting godlike powers and killing his captors like the main character. Since this was a lucid dream, his thoughts should control the dream world. ¡°Tsk, what a freak. You should be crying, kid, not smiling.¡± William¡¯s ears perked up at the voiceing directly above him. ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s better if you didn¡¯t cry. Senior Sister Jia would snap your neck, and we¡¯d have to waste time summoning another sacrifice.¡± William felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck before he lost consciousness. ¡°NO!¡± William woke up to a shrill, high-pitched scream that seemed to prate directly to the center of his brain. This time he was able to see, and he really wished he couldn¡¯t. It was something straight from a horror movie. No, even a horror movie would be better than what he was seeing. William¡¯s legs shook in fear, losing all ability to keep him standing if that had mattered. He was tied to a pole, just like all the kids in the room, waiting for their turn to be butchered by the human-shaped monsters. There was a pile of small, dried-up husks that used to be children carelessly thrown to the side of the room as a woman added to it slowly. William wanted to wake up. He wanted to go back to his tedious job and boring life. He would stop reading cultivation novels if this was what his brain came up with as a dream. And it had to be a dream. No matter how real it seemed. It had to be a dream. ¡°AHHHHH!¡± A new kid shrieked as something translucent was pulled out of her and entered the woman. William shut his eyes as tightly as he could and chomped on his tongue, almost slicing through it with the force he put into the bite. The only thing that got him was intense pain as tears appeared in his eyes. He would have taken it dly if it had sessfully woken him from this hell. It didn¡¯t. He screamed in fear, or at least attempted to, because no sound left his lips. However, that didn¡¯t stop him trying to scream until his throat felt as dry as a desert and he physically couldn¡¯t keep up the effort any longer. William couldn¡¯t do anything but watch child after child get killed by whatever that woman did to them. As terrible as it sounded, the screams blended together as he tried to block them out. That was the only way he could keep himself sane. Even if this was definitely a dream and nothing else. No. Not a dream. Rather, a night terror would be a more urate name for what he was experiencing. Another thought appeared in William¡¯s mind that he wasn¡¯t proud of. Why would they pick an adult like him when the rest were kids? Why didn¡¯t they get another kid instead of him? What made him special? ¡°Sister Jia, there¡¯s only one left.¡± William stared at the woman with dead eyes, happy that he was next and he would be able to get out of this hell. ¡°Hmm,¡± The woman licked her lips, ¡°Tell the others to summon fifty more. This batch helped, but my cultivation still has room to increase.¡± ¡°Yes, Senior Sister.¡± William watched two men rush out of the room. At the same time, the remaining man untied him and pushed him toward the woman who had to be a demoness with the evil she had justmitted. ¡°Be honored,¡± The woman smiled, ¡°You are a child that will help me break through mortal limits.¡± William blinked and looked down at himself. He hadn¡¯t realized he was a child in this nightmare. It only made sense, he supposed. No matter, it would all end. William looked back at the woman called Sister Jia and waited for his fate. Chapter 2: A Lucky Chance Chapter 2: A Lucky Chance A gasp of pain escaped William¡¯s lips before he gritted his teeth. The moment she touched his head, it felt like someone had taken a chisel and started to hammer it into his skull. If he was going to die to this bitch, it wouldn¡¯t be screaming. That surely counted for something, right? That¡¯ll show his fucked up brain for creating this nightmare. In fact, the first thing William would do when he woke up was take the day off work and go to a therapist. He must have some serious issues if he could imagine all this in such vivid detail. William had brave intentions, but those intentions flew out the window the moment the pain increased by another magnitude. The screech of pain he let out was a sound he didn¡¯t even know he was capable of making. Tears were running down his face as he tried to re the woman to death, still unable to believe what he was feeling. ¡°HA! You have courage, boy!¡± The woman cackled, ¡°I would have chopped you up and fed you to the pigs if you weren¡¯t my nourishment.¡± At this point, William thought he would prefer that to whatever the hell she was doing. He couldn¡¯t exin it, but it felt like he was losing something more important than life itself. It was like he was being ripped apart from something that had always been with him, and he didn¡¯t mean just in this lifetime. ¡°Hm? Who would dare disturb me?¡± William copsed to his knees when the woman stopped what she was doing, her attention going to the door. He really should be doing something, anything, to escape. He tried his best to will his body to move, but nothing responded. He could barely find the energy to keep breathing. ¡°Just a Foundation Establishment brat, and already so vicious.¡± William shuddered at hearing the new voice. It was a man that obviously had some authority since the demonic woman hadn¡¯t made a sound in response. The pressure that came along with the man¡¯s voice did no good for his damaged state. ¡°W-Who are you? Please, spare me! My master is the one that asked me to do this. I was forced to, I swear!¡± ¡°A master that teaches soul-absorption? Such techniques should be eradicated from this ne.¡± ¡°N-No!¡± William heard a soft thud, simr to a ball hitting the floor. He supposed that this was where the dream woulde to an end. The only thing he wished was that the man hade earlier to save everyone else. There was no doubt that the screams would haunt his sleep for the foreseeable future. Even with all the horror he had gone through, William smiled without humor at the thought of being the first to get PTSD from a damned dream. He wearily opened his eyes when he felt a hand touch his head gently. William looked up at the figure before him and felt a shiver run down his spine. The old man was ancient, his face lined with wrinkles and his hair as white as snow. He wore a shimmering purple robe that had intricate golden embroidery. But despite his age, he exuded a palpable sense of power and authority that made it clear he was no ordinary person. He was a cultivator, and a powerful one at that. If William was in a better state of mind, he would immediately file the man into the ¡®old monster¡¯ category. However, all that escaped his lips was a croaked, ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Ho? You can still speak in your state,¡± The old man stroked his beard, ¡°Your soul is damaged to an extent that it should leave you a fool.¡± William assumed that was what he felt being removed from him by the woman. As helpful as it was to get more information about what on Earth this dream was about, he wanted to wake up. ¡°E-End.¡± ¡°No,¡± The old man denied him, ¡°You cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation in this state. There is a way for your soul to be healed, but it will depend on your capabilities.¡± William saw the old man take out a small rectangr object made of smooth, green jade. The old man fondly stroked the jade¡¯s surface before looking at him with aplicated expression. ¡°My master left her cultivation manual in this jade. In the thousands of years I¡¯ve searched for a sessor, none have been epted by the jade. It is fate for us to meet, so I will let you have a chance.¡± William watched the old man flick his hand and felt himself rise from the ground. The old man tapped the card-sized green jade on his forehead without wasting time. [Initializing¡­ Initializing¡­ User detected] William stared nkly at the blue text that hovered before him, wondering what was happening now. [Checking host requirements¡­ General knowledge of RPG mechanics found] At this point, William questioned whether he had been drugged before falling asleep on the elevator. This dream was too strange to consider anything else. [Checking aptitude¡­ ERROR: SOUL DAMAGE] [Attempting restoration¡­ ERROR: USER LEVEL INADEQUATE] [Booting into SAFE MODE] William blinked when the floating blue text disappeared. The old man sighed in disappointment. ¡°It seems that the jade has rejected you. I have a pill that can stabilize your soul for you to live a mortal life, but nothing more. We have some karma between us, so this could be considered as me severing it.¡± William wasn¡¯t sure what that meant exactly. Still, from the novels he had read, some high-level cultivators ensured they weren¡¯t burdened by obligations. Perhaps this was what the old man meant. ¡°Here is the pill, little friend,¡± The old man paused, ¡°All this, and I don¡¯t know your name. What is it?¡± ¡°W-William.¡± ¡°Wei Liang,¡± The old man nodded, ¡°A good name.¡± William wondered if he had slurred his name that bad. No matter, that wasn¡¯t important since he wouldn¡¯t be here for much longer anyway. The old man was about to speak again when he heard a soft crack. He looked at his hand incredulously as the jade shattered before his eyes. William didn¡¯t notice the old man¡¯s shock since his focus was pulled back to the blue text that reappeared. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 1 Experience: 0/100 Cultivation: N/A Health: 1/10 Strength: 1 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 1 Points: 0 Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest: Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Side Quests: N/A ¡°W-What¡¯s going on?¡± The old man roared withughter. ¡°That, little Wei Liang, is you bing the true sessor of my master¡¯s cultivation method! For thousands of years, I¡¯ve been searching, dying my ascension, and I find the sessor when I decide to kill a vicious brat on a whim!¡± William didn¡¯t particrly like that his name was suddenly changed without his permission and that this system had popped up out of nowhere and seemingly agreed with the name change. ¡°You don¡¯t need this pill anymore. It will do more harm than good since you gained my master¡¯s cultivation manual.¡± The blue text moved to the corner of his vision and stopped blocking his sight. That was when William saw more text hovering above the old man. [Name: ? | Level: ?] It was immediately apparent that whoever the old man was, William was too weak to know anything about him. ¡°This should be weak enough,¡± The old man tossed a pill into William¡¯s mouth, ¡°It¡¯s the lowest grade Vitality Restoration Pill I possess. If the grade was higher, your body wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it.¡± William groaned in relief as he felt a rush of soothing energy circte through his body and erase any signs of exhaustion while also healing the wounds caused by the woman. His curiosity to see if he was fully healed pulled the health stat back in front of his vision. Health: 10/10 The screen disappeared when William was done with it. He was in perfect health, if not for the concerning trait that said he had soul damage. However, there was something he was even more worried about. William was finally starting to ept he wasn¡¯t dreaming. Chapter 3: Getting Started Chapter 3: Getting Started William had almost forgotten that he was floating in the air until he was moved into a standing position and set on his feet. ¡°Good, good, good!¡± The old man was full of smiles as he observed him, ¡°It looks like there aren¡¯t any negative side-effects.¡± The old man might be happy to talk to William as if everything was normal, but that couldn¡¯t be said to be the same for him. In fact, it was more than a little horrifying. William hadn¡¯t focused on the surroundings since he had been staring up at the ceiling most of the time. With him being able to stand with his own power, the sight of the happy old man surrounded by bodies of dead children and a headless woman was seared into his mind. ¡°Hm?¡± The old man noticed the hollow look in William¡¯s eyes and quickly understood the reason. With a casual wave of his hand, the hellish room changed into a paradise. In ce of the dead bodies and blood-stained walls, William saw a pristine beach with fine white sand as far as his eyes could see. The sun was setting on the horizon, casting a golden glow on the sand as waves gentlypped against the shore. It was like a balm on his soul and a much-needed respite after hearing the desperate screams of the children for hours on end. ¡°Is this real?¡± William asked with his eyes closed, enjoying the fresh air with relish. His question wasn¡¯t just about the beach paradise. He wanted to know if everything was real. As unlikely as it seemed, did he somehow get ced in a world that should only exist in novels? The old man stared at William with pity. While he didn¡¯t know the exact circumstances needed to be able to learn his master¡¯s cultivation manual, he knew enough to know that Wei Liang was more than he seemed. The cultivators that practiced the soul-absorbing art were hunted down centuries ago after an agreement between the top sects in the world. He had asionally lent a hand when a reclusive hermit was discovered, and others couldn¡¯t handle them. Ultimately, the true masters of the soul-absorbing art were destroyed, with a few low-level disciples escaping. However, the survivors had the intelligence to act discreetly, so they were able to exist in the present day. They abandoned the thought of using the cultivators from this ne as targets and instead chose an odd new method. They would kidnap scores of mortal children and summon a spirit from outside their world to upy their bodies. A truly ingenious way to get simr benefits. However, it still had limits due to the quality of the sacrifices. It would lead to the soul-absorbing art having a ceiling of a Nascent Soul cultivator. A far cry from their glory days when Spirit Severing cultivators weremon, with one even having reached Dao Seeking, the level the old man was currently at. ¡°When an illusion bes indistinguishable from reality, does that question matter?¡± The old man asked casually. ¡°So I might still be able to¡­.¡± William couldn¡¯t help but still hope for the possibility that he might wake up on the elevator floor. ¡°No,¡± The old man shut it down, ¡°My master often spoke of a peaceful world with no cultivation and where the rule ofw ruled thend. Her dream was to turn this world into what she had in her memories.¡± William was staring at him intently. ¡°Did she seed?¡± ¡°Somewhat,¡± The old man replied, ¡°When she was present, none could challenge her position in the world. But it has been millennia since those days. The problem with being too strong is that you will be forced to leave this ne and ascend after bing an immortal.¡± William felt his heart move. Wasn¡¯t the journey of bing immortal what he dreamt about while binging those novels? ¡°That gained your interest,¡± The old man smiled, ¡°Good. You will need that to get the full potential out of master¡¯s cultivation method.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± William paused, realizing he didn¡¯t know his savior¡¯s name. He sped his hands and bowed deeply, figuring this was the best way to show respect, and asked, ¡°May I know the name of the one that saved me?¡± The old man moved his pointing finger up slightly to straighten William from his bow. ¡°There is no need for that, little Wei Liang. You may call me Daoist Chen.¡± ¡°Daoist Chen,¡± William repeated, ¡°Thank you for everything you¡¯ve done today.¡± ¡°Like I said, it was on a whim. But if you want to repay me, use my master¡¯s cultivation method and be strong. I¡¯ll stay on this ne for ten more years before ascending. Be a Nascent Soul cultivator before then, and I¡¯ll give you a parting gift.¡± [Side Quest added: Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator within ten years] William blinked at the interruption by the system. However, shouldn¡¯t there be a prompt asking him if he wanted to ept or decline? It had been a while since he had yed an RPG, but he was sure that was a standard option. [The option to ept or reject a quest is avable when there are penalties for failure] William was surprised to see that he actually got an answer from the system. He mentally asked if an AI was attached, excited by the possibilities that could open, but was disappointed when no new text appeared. Daoist Chen chuckled, ¡°This brings back memories. My master often got lost in her thoughts in her earlier days.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± William felt sheepish, ¡°Sorry.¡± ¡°You¡¯re too quick to apologize, little Wei Liang,¡± Daoist Chen shook his head, ¡°You will be taken advantage of if it bes a habit. Explore the cultivation method carefully. I am not aware of all the details, but my master had once told me that it will give the practitioner a chance to cultivate to perfection if done correctly.¡± William thought that Daoist Chen almost looked envious and soon found that he was. ¡°If only the requirements weren¡¯t so strict.¡± William thoughtfully ignored thatment since it seemed like Daoist Chen was speaking to himself. Plus, he was aware that this was a man that could squash him like a bug by ident. Even though he was surrounded by paradise, William hadn¡¯t forgotten how unaffected Daoist Chen seemed to be by the numerous bodies surrounding them a few minutes ago. He had been able tough like they didn¡¯t exist. Daoist Chen might be benevolent when considering he was a cultivator. However, he was still terrifying to someone like William, who came from a mostly peaceful country. ¡°I wish it was possible to help you gain a foundation, but with your cultivation method, any external help will only stagnate you.¡± ¡°Daoist Chen already did more than enough,¡± William bowed again to hide his disappointment. ¡°Good!¡± Daoist Chenughed, ¡°You are already learning to know when to hide your true feelings. My master never did that, even after bing a half-step Immortal.¡± William¡¯s face flushed with embarrassment at being seen through. ¡°Find me when you reach the Nascent Soul stage, little Wei Liang. I would be disappointed if I couldn¡¯t see your progress before I ascend.¡± In the next instant, William found himself standing on a dirt road with endless grassy ins on either side. Daoist Chen had disappeared, and thankfully, he had taken him out of the ce where he was moments away from dying. By this point, William was convinced that this wasn¡¯t a dream. But even if he was wrong, Daoist Chen was right. If this was a dream, it was indistinguishable from reality, so why did it matter? [+25 XP] William frowned at the unexpected notification. He didn¡¯t think he did anything to earn those experience points. More text appeared with detailed information, like a response to his confusion. [ept your ce in this world: +25 XP] William stared at the blue text before scratching his head in confusion. Maybe this was one of those easy points for a simple task at the beginning of an RPG, like kicking ten chickens or something simr. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 1 Experience: 25/100 Cultivation: N/A Health: 10/10 Strength: 1 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 1 Points: 0 Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Side Quest(s): Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator within ten years. It had been a while since William had delved into an RPG. Still, he was reasonably confident that Stamina and Strength were the most important to spend points on early on¡­ he hoped so, at least. However, there was a ring issue with the trait he currently possessed. It could be a disaster if William went about leveling up and spent his precious stat points like normal. Getting his hard-earned points erased randomly was almost game-breaking. Even more so when his future growth depended on it. Rather than game-breaking, it would be life-ending. The most obvious choice here would be to bank all the points he would earn, but it was unlikely he could get to level ten with his base stats all at one. ¡°Hey, brat! Move out of the way!¡± Chapter 4: Wang Xiaoling Chapter 4: Wang Xiaoling [Name: Wang Xiaoling | Level: 3] The first thing William¡¯s eyes went to was the blue text hovering above the woman careening far too quickly toward him. He wasted a precious second gaping at the out-of-control wagon before tripping over his feet in his attempt to escape. William was barely able to get off the road, escaping death once more, and copsed on the soft grass to slow his rapidly beating heart. ¡°What the hell are you doing, William? You can¡¯t die because a horse trampled on you! An old monster¡¯s expecting you to be an immortal cultivator!¡± William scolded himself. He heard loud cursesing from the direction the wagon had gone and was surprised to see it stopped on the side of the road. He was even more surprised to see the woman, Wang Xiaoling, storming toward him with a clenched fist. Rather than surprised, the proper word would be terrified. She was two levels above him, and as far as William knew, it could be an insurmountable advantage. He had no idea what these levels quantified. William tried to ask the system information about Wang Xiaoling¡¯s base stats, his probability of winning, and many other questions that he received no answer to. In the end, the system only replied to him screaming the word ¡®tutorial¡¯ in his mind. [SAFE MODE has turned off the tutorial for the user¡¯s safety] ¡°Don¡¯t look like you¡¯re scared, brat! Wang Xiaoling cannot be scammed! I won¡¯t be tricked by the likes of you urchins. Where are your friends hiding? I¡¯ll beat you all up!¡± William blinked stupidly at the raging woman, wondering what in the world she was talking about. She was the one that almost ran him over, and he was supposed to be the victim. Not the other way around. ¡°What? Are you a mute?¡± Wang Xiaoling growled, ¡°Scared to talk now that you got caught?¡± At this point, even William, who was generally passive, was royally pissed. He had been taken from his old world, not knowing how he left but suspecting it wasn¡¯t good with how these things usually went in novels. His introduction to the new world was to be shown horrors that he was desperately trying to block mentally so he wouldn¡¯t break down. And after he had been saved by Daoist Chen, a terrifying old monster, a horse-drawn wagon almost ended his new life. ¡°Shut up!¡± William roared in anger as he swung a poorly formed fist at Wang Xiaoling¡¯s leg, the only part of her that he could reach with him on the ground. That was a mistake. [-6 HP] A rush of air left William¡¯s lungs as he flew back a few meters from a kick that felt like it broke a couple of his ribs. He wheezed in oxygen as hey t on his back, painfully reminded that he was the equivalent of an early-game character that would have an epic fight against a fluffy bunny. ¡°This¡­ This wasn¡¯t a scam? Did I, Wang Xiaoling, just kick an innocent but idiotic brat?¡± William gritted his teeth and red at the woman who was foolishly pointing a finger at herself. ¡°Maybe that was something you should have thought about before kicking me!¡± Wang Xiaoling looked guilty as she walked to William. ¡°You look fine. It was just a kick from a little girl. Don¡¯t try to y it up and try to getpensation from me.¡± William looked at the ¡®little¡¯ girl with an even harsher re. She looked at least five to seven years older than his current body. This meant Wang Xiaoling had long passed the age where she could call herself a little girl. ¡°I don¡¯t care,¡± William said before groaning from the pain, wondering if it would have been too much for Daoist Chen to leave some vitality pills with him, ¡°Leave me be before you do something worse.¡± Wang Xiaoling looked like she was waiting for him to suggest that since she moved as if she couldn¡¯t get away fast enough. William sighed in relief andid his head on the grass, d he was left alone. He still needed to figure out how this system worked and wasn¡¯t in the mood to meet others. Health: 4/10 William closed his eyes in frustration at over half his health being taken away by a casual kick. He was certain that another old monster wouldn¡¯t randomly pop up out of nowhere and gift him another pill to restore his health. He was also certain that staying in the middle of nowhere couldn¡¯t be of any help. Perhaps this hardship was another test given to him by Daoist Chen. William didn¡¯t know if that was true, but that would definitely be his truth, so he didn¡¯t have ungrateful thoughts toward the man that saved his life. Thoughts that suggested there could be better areas William could have been ced. William figured that his best bet was to go in the direction where that crazy woman was going. With the little he saw of the wagon, there were plenty of sealed barrels and boxes packed tightly in the back. The crazy woman was obviously a merchant, so there must be a city or town in the direction she was going. ¡°¡­ Hey, are you still alive?¡± William¡¯s eyes shot open and he stared incredulously at Wang Xiaoling, who was standing over him with a worried look on her face. ¡°What are you still doing here?!¡± Wim exploded as his repressed rage came back with a vengeance. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to leave a brat like you to die here. Even the stupid deserve to live, you know.¡± William was tempted to tell Wang Xiaoling to fuck off, but while that would feel good at the moment, he would still be left with the same issue. Stranded and hopelessly lost. Besides, even if Wang Xiaoling was a crazy bitch, he didn¡¯t think she had any bad intentions¡­ other than injuring him greatly based on mere suspicion. No, it wasn¡¯t her intentions that worried him, but her judgment. ¡°You¡¯re not going to attack me again, are you?¡± Wang Xiaoling chuckled awkwardly and said, ¡°You can only me yourself, brat. You can¡¯t expect to punch someone and not get punched back.¡± It was William¡¯s turn to feel sheepish. That fact was true in his old world, let alone a world where strength was everything. Maybe they had got off on the wrong foot. ¡°Sorry,¡± William muttered as he looked away. ¡°Hm?¡± Wang Xiaoling looked at him strangely, ¡°You really are an idiot! What¡¯s there to apologize about? I already kicked you anyway, so we¡¯re even.¡± William wanted to point out that his punch and her kick were in no way equal, but he understood what she meant. ¡°Right, so how about I give you a ride to the city? I don¡¯t want another honest merchant like me mistaking you for a scammer.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a scammer!¡± ¡°I know that now,¡± Wang Xiaoling rolled her eyes, ¡°But what was I supposed to think when you stood in the middle of the road? Only scammers do that!¡± William sighed and stopped arguing with her. He knew it wouldn¡¯t get him anywhere. ¡°Fine, you win¡­ and thanks. For the ride to the city, I mean.¡± Wang Xiaoling smiled and said, ¡°No problem, brat. You can entertain me on the way there. It¡¯s still more than half a day¡¯s travel to Xuanjing City.¡± William was struggling to his feet when he heard the name of a city for the first time. That reminded him that besides learning the best way to use the system, his next priority was to figure out the situation in this region. ¡°This is painful to watch,¡± Wang Xiaoling muttered to herself before suddenly hoisting William over her shoulder. William gasped in pain when her shoulder dug into his most-likely broken ribs. He would have said something, but there was a chance she would try to lessen the pain and unintentionally hurt him even more than she already was. At least his health wasn¡¯t affected by this. [-1 HP] Wang Xiaoling was going to kill him. Chapter 5: The Greatest Merchant Chapter 5: The Greatest Merchant In the hour that William had been on the bumpy wagon, he hadn¡¯t been able to make the system show him anything other than his stats. As much as he loved to see that he only had three hit points left, he didn¡¯t need to constantly be reminded of that fact. ¡°Hey, brat. Do you know it¡¯s rude to not introduce yourself?¡± William was surprised to hear Wang Xiaoling speak to him. He had expected to have his ears talked off when he agreed to her offer for a ride, but the opposite happened. Wang Xiaoling had quieted down and seemed to be on high alert as she drove the wagon. William followed her actions and refrained from asking the questions that were bubbling inside him. He wondered how the power hierarchy was set up in this world. Was it controlled by kingdoms and empires, or were the cultivator sects the ones that were pulling the strings? It might be neither, but William doubted that with how cultivation worlds generally followed the strong. ¡°It¡¯s William,¡± He replied before saying, ¡°You know you haven¡¯t told me your name either.¡± William might be able to see Wang Xiaoling¡¯s name floating above her head and heard her talking in the third person. Still, none of that could be considered an introduction. ¡°Hm?¡± Wang Xiaoling looked away from the road momentarily to stare at him before turning back, ¡°Do you not know how to say your name? It¡¯s not wee-li-eng. It¡¯s Wei Liang. It¡¯s too good of a name for you to butcher, brat.¡± William wondered if this was worth correcting constantly. It seemed that if he told anyone his actual name in this world, they would think it was Wei Liang, but he was just horrible at pronouncing it. He didn¡¯t relish the thought of exining to random strangers that his name wasn¡¯t a badly pronounced Wei Liang. With Daoist Chen already assuming his name was Wei Liang and the system apparently agreeing, William decided to do what some Chinese ssmates in university did. While they had an English name, he would have the opposite. ¡°Right, it¡¯s Wei Liang,¡± William pretended to correct himself, ¡°You still haven¡¯t told me your name.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Wang Xiaoling! The greatest merchant in the Tanxia Empire!¡± ¡°¡­ Really?¡± William gave her a look filled with disbelief. Wang Xiaoling¡¯s smile grew stiff as she flicked the reins, encouraging the horses to run at a brisker pace. She cleared her throat and said, ¡°I¡¯m getting there! At least I¡¯m doing something productive with my time rather than scamming honest people like you are.¡± William rolled his eyes at her insistence on calling him a scammer. ¡°What were you doing there anyway? There¡¯s no town close by. You must have been walking for hours.¡± When William didn¡¯t answer, Wang Xiaoling thought he was too embarrassed to say. However, he didn¡¯t know how to tell her something believable. It wasn¡¯t like he could tell her that an old monster saved him from bing a cultivator¡¯s nourishment. ¡°Were you kicked out by your n?¡± Wang Xiaoling asked with pity. It was amon urrence for the disappointing descendants to be cut out. When William looked at her nkly, Wang Xiaoling thought her assumption was correct. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Wei Liang,¡± Wang Xiaoling patted his shoulder a little too roughly, ¡°I was like you at your age. Of course, I didn¡¯t try to scam people, but we are simr enough.¡± ¡°Will you stop saying I¡¯m a scammer!¡± ¡°I could use a little help with my business,¡± Wang Xiaoling ignored William¡¯s protest, ¡°Why don¡¯t you stick with me for now? I won¡¯t have to hire a helper to unload my goods, and you¡¯ll learn how to do some honest work.¡± William¡¯s first instinct was to say no, but after thinking over Wang Xiaoling¡¯s offer, he had to admit it was highly convenient. It would give him time to heal his damaged soul while also providing a way to earn money. With all the excitement William had experienced, he hadpletely forgotten that he was a mortal, with all the mortal needs thate along with that. Before he could start his cultivation journey, he needed to be able to eat and find a ce to sleep to live till then. Perhaps Daoist Chen had foreseen this and left him in the middle of the road for a reason. Meeting Wang Xiaoling might not have been a chance encounter if that was the case. ¡°¡­ Okay.¡± ¡°What was that, brat?¡± Wang Xiaoling gave him a stink eye, ¡°Why do you sound depressed while you¡¯re agreeing.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± William gave Wang Xiaoling the brightest smile he could until a hard push almost knocked him off the wagon. ¡°Stop that!¡± Wang Xiaoling shuddered, ¡°That smile was too fake. How can you try to be a scammer when you don¡¯t even have a convincing smile?¡± William red at Wang Xiaoling while holding tightly onto the wagon¡¯s side. He wouldn¡¯t let go until they reached their destination. Who knew when Wang Xiaoling would decide to yfully push him off the wagon. ¡°Have you ever been to Xuanjing City, brat?¡± William¡¯s eyes lit up in curiosity as he shook his head. ¡°No, I never left my vige before.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be a new world for you, then. The number of people in the city will initially seem impossible to you. I know that¡¯s how I felt when I saw a city.¡± William was sure he would be impressed, but not because of the people. He doubted that Xuanjing City could match the millions that weremon in his old world. Still, he pretended to be amazed and asked, ¡°How many people live there?¡± ¡°Thest count had the number at over fifty million!¡± Wang Xiaoling smirked at his shocked face, ¡°Amazing, right? More importantly, that means the city is a perfect ce for an aspiring number-one merchant like me!¡± ¡°Are all cities this big?¡± William wondered if this city was an anomaly or amon urrence. ¡°Of course not,¡± Wang Xiaolingughed, ¡°Only three cities are this size in the Tianxia Empire. The rest have less than ten million people.¡± ¡°Oh¡­,¡± William felt that this empire was simr to his world¡¯s China in terms of poption. However, the fact that there was something called the Tianxia Empire meant that there wasnd that the empire didn¡¯t control. He used his vige bumpkin image to his advantage. ¡°What¡¯s the Tianxia Empire?¡± Wang Xiaoling sighed at his apparent ignorance. ¡°You must havee from one of those backwater viges. Wei Liang, it might be your fortune to be expelled from such a ce.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Williams shrugged, epting the insult to his made-up vige, ¡°But really, what¡¯s the Tianxia Empire? Is it powerful?¡± Wang Xiaoling nced at him and said severely, ¡°Don¡¯t say such things near the city guards. If you doubt the empire¡¯s stability, that¡¯s enough reason for them to harass you.¡± ¡°All I asked was if it was powerful!¡± ¡°Well, don¡¯t. You don¡¯t know what mood the people around you are in. It¡¯s better to avoid speaking about the empire unless you¡¯re praising it.¡± William frowned in distaste. Knowing that he would have to choose his words carefully was far different from being told to do so. ¡°The empire used to be an overlord in the northern region, but the neighboring kingdoms show signs of rebellion. I¡¯m not an expert, but I think the Tianxia Empire is weaker than ever but still the strongestpared to the kingdoms that could threaten it. At least, that¡¯s what the merchants near the borders say.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William nodded dumbly. That made sense, he supposed. Coming to a world where the empire might crumble would be perfect for encouraging growth. But where did the cultivators fall in the hierarchy if the empire was so powerful? ¡°Who rules the Tianxia Empire, Wang Xiaoling?¡± William winced when Wang Xiaoling rubbed his head roughly, wondering why everything she did had to be so¡­ extra. ¡°You really are an idiot, Wei Liang. It might be better if I seal your mouth shut. You¡¯ll implicate me with your talking. Who else rules the Tianxia Empire other than the Emperor?¡± For now, William refrained from asking more questions, even though he still had plenty in mind. The more irritated Wang Xiaoling looked, the more he feared for his remaining three health points. Chapter 6: Arrival at Xuanjing City Chapter 6: Arrival at Xuanjing City William rubbed his stomach as the hunger pangs started to grow stronger. The previously inaudible growls were getting loud enough that Wang Xiaoling could hear them. ¡°You¡¯re strange, Wei Liang,¡± Wang Xiaolingmented when she heard his stomach growl again, ¡°Most brats your age would be whining about wanting food by now.¡± William didn¡¯t doubt that, but he wasn¡¯t a thirteen-year-old mentally. That did bring up a thought that he had been ignoring all this while. What happened to the boy that owned this body? There wasn¡¯t any phenomenon of suddenly gaining a decade¡¯s worth of memories when he arrived in this world. If that had happened, William would havee to terms with the reality of being a transmigrator much faster than he actually did. William vaguely remembered a man mentioning that he had been summoned for the sacrifice when he first gained consciousness. Yang Hua was his name, if William recalled correctly. If that memory was urate, it was likely that the original soul inside this body had long been eradicated. William was strangely relieved by that. He didn¡¯t know if he was ruthless enough to steal a kid¡¯s body from him if there happened to be a fight. Then again, didn¡¯t that make him seem even worse? ¡°Hey! Wei Liang, are you ignoring me?!¡± William blinked and could barely dodge the hand aiming for his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. What did you say?¡± Wang Xiaoling pointed at a tiny dot in the distance. ¡°We¡¯re almost at Xuanjing City. Since you¡¯re working for me, I¡¯ll treat you to a meal to celebrate when we arrive.¡± ¡°A meal?¡± William asked as another growl emanated from his stomach, ¡°Sounds good, but I hope you haven¡¯t forgotten to pay for the medical fees.¡± Wang Xiaoling pursed her lips and lightly touched her coin pouch. Her guilt pushed her to assure Wei Liang that she would cover his medical costs. Still, the merchant in her was whispering ways to avoid the unnecessary expense. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± William asked warily when Wang Xiaoling started to get a weird look in her eyes, ¡°I won¡¯t be able to work if I¡¯m not healed.¡± That seemed to erase whatever thoughts Wang Xiaoling had. ¡°Fine,¡± Wang Xiaoling sighed, ¡°But you better work hard for me!¡± William nodded, happy that moving around wouldn¡¯t be torture soon. He wondered if regr food would increase his health like in an RPG. And if a good night¡¯s sleep would fully heal him. If the tutorial was avable, William was sure he would already have the answers to those questions. [SAFE MODE has turned off the tutorial for the user¡¯s safety] William impatiently erased the alert from his vision. He had already received that canned answer before and didn¡¯t need to be reminded of it again. As the dot that was Xuanjing City grewrger, Wang Xiaoling pestered William with repeated instructions on how to act with the guards at the entrance. Most of her advice was to shut his mouth and behave like a mute, but William wasn¡¯t offended. He was tantly unfamiliar with the culture in this world, let alone the Tianxia Empire. The pestering tapered off as the grand archway into Xuanjing City came into view. William expected the buildings in this world to stun him due to the fact that cultivators that strived for immortality walked thend. If they wished for something grandiose, it would be unmatched with their powers. However, William didn¡¯t expect to be stunned by a structure built by what he had assumed to be an empire controlled by mortals. The grand archway was made of white marble, with intricate carvings of mythical beasts and golden ents adorning the arch itself. The two pirs had golden dragons coiling around them before their heads extended away to re at all who entered the city. Even at this distance, William could see the incredible detail put into the carving of the dragons. The scales almost looked lifelike as they glinted gold from the light shining off them. If he didn¡¯t know better, William would have thought that two real dragons were protecting the city. ¡­ On second thought, he didn¡¯t know enough to know better. ¡°Wang Xiaoling?¡± ¡°What is it, brat?¡± Wang Xiaoling replied between yelling at the increasing number of people to get out of the way. The road was no longer as clear as it was in the countryside. The proximity of the city crowded it greatly. ¡°Are those dragons real?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± Wang Xiaoling looked away from the road in confusion beforeughing when she saw what William was pointing at, ¡°They¡¯re just statues, Wei Liang.¡± ¡°Then why does it feel like I¡¯m being stared at?¡± William felt a shiver run through his body every time he met either of the dragon statues¡¯ eyes. It was like he was being looked at by a predator. ¡°The empire¡¯s experts are said to keep a close watch over the city. There¡¯s a reason Xuanjing City is the trading center of the empire. As long as you pay the proper fees, all transactions are guaranteed by the officials, no matter who you are.¡± William¡¯s interest stirred. This was the first time Wang Xiaoling mentioned anything about experts existing within the empire. Perhaps the cultivating world wasn¡¯t hidden like he had assumed. ¡°Experts?¡± William didn¡¯t hide his curiosity. Wang Xiaoling hummed in confirmation as she went back to directing the wagon to the long line that looked to be for merchants. ¡°The experts are the true power behind the empire, and it¡¯s rumored that the emperor himself is the strongest.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William frowned, ¡°So you¡¯ve never seen any experts yourself?¡± ¡°The day I see them is the day I lose my little life!¡± Wang Xiaoling red at William, ¡°Wei Liang, haven¡¯t I told you to act like a mute? What good reason would an honest merchant like me meet an honored expert?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean anything by it,¡± William raised his palms in surrender until Wang Xiaoling calmed down. ¡°Hmph,¡± Wang Xiaoling snorted lightly and muttered, ¡°This must be karma for injuring you. Who told you to be so weak?¡± William felt his ribs throb in pain as if to emphasize how injured he was due to Wang Xiaoling. He noticed how slow-moving the line was and estimated that it would take at least a few hours to get to where the guards were running security checks. ¡°Is this going to take as long as it looks?¡± William asked as he stared into the distance. ¡°Wee to the life of a lowly independent merchant, Wei Liang. Without powerful backing, it¡¯s best to follow the rules and avoid trying to cut corners. The benefits aren¡¯t worth the risks.¡± William might have got off to a terrible start with Wang Xiaoling, but the more she shared about herself and how she viewed the world, the more he respected and liked her personality. She might be an ill-tempered hothead and possibly a bit too naive, but she kept proving to him that she was knowledgeable where it mattered. Wang Xiaoling noticed that William was staring at her and assumed he was worried about not getting to the clinic in time. ¡°Rx, Wei Liang. Your injury won¡¯t worsen if we¡¯re dyed by a few hours.¡± William nodded when he realized he had been looking at Wang Xiaoling with unblinking eyes. He didn¡¯t mention why he was really staring at her. Even if he now had a higher opinion of her, that didn¡¯t mean she still wasn¡¯t ill-tempered. ¡°The real problem will be where you can sleep. I don¡¯t want to pay for another room just for you¡­.¡± Wang Xiaoling tapped her chin thoughtfully before her eyes lit up, ¡°Wei Liang, I think one of your responsibilities will be to look after my goods during the night!¡± ¡°No,¡± William denied tly, leaving no room for negotiation. ¡°I¡¯ll pay you extra coppers!¡± Wang Xiaoling threw what she thought was an ignorant kid a bone. William didn¡¯t know how much coppers were worth, but if Wang Xiaoling was willing to pay him that instead of getting another room, it couldn¡¯t be much. ¡°Are you going to force me to do it anyway if I say no?¡± William asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering if Wang Xiaoling was stingy enough to do so. The look she gave him wasn¡¯t promising for his sleeping situation. When Wang Xiaoling opened her mouth to reply, William conveniently found something that would distract her while also giving him a healthy dose of nervousness. ¡°Wang Xiaoling, why is that guard walking right to us?¡± Chapter 7: The Guard, Li Jie Chapter 7: The Guard, Li Jie [Name: Li Jie | Level: 9] This was the highest level William had seen. Not including Daoist Chen, of course. The old man¡¯s status was hidden anyway, so did it really count? That was something to think about at a different time since William was worried that this was one of those situations where a guard would harass someone who looked weak. If that was the case, this Li Jie picked a suitable wagon as his target. William waspletely useless with his level one strength. While Wang Xiaoling could easily injure him with her greater strength, he was sure she would fare no better than him against this guard. ¡°Wang Xiaoling! I was worried you wouldn¡¯te to Xuanjing City!¡± ¡°Li Jie?¡± Wang Xiaoling asked with surprise, ¡°Why are you on patrol? I thought you were promoted thest time I was here.¡± ¡°Ah, it¡¯s a favor for a friend of mine. I¡¯m taking his ce for today.¡± ¡°Tsk,¡± Wang Xiaoling shook her head, ¡°That¡¯s what you always say! You¡¯re always on patrol when I arrive, and you always say you¡¯re picking up an extra shift. Li Jie, that might be okay when you were a patrol guard yourself, but it¡¯s wrong of them to ask you when you¡¯re their boss!¡± William looked between the two and blinked at Wang Xiaoling¡¯s impassioned lecture. It was obvious that they were familiar with each other, and it was also obvious that Li Jie was trying to pursue Wang Xiaoling. William looked at her with a disappointed look, barely believing that she didn¡¯t see the feelings the guard held for her. It made him wonder why anyone would like the crazy woman like that. He couldn¡¯t bear the thought of having to tip-toe around her vtile personality. ¡°I understand,¡± Li Jie sighed, ¡°This will be thest time, Wang Xiaoling. I promise.¡± ¡°¡­You also always say that.¡± Li Jieughed sheepishly and looked away from Wang Xiaoling in embarrassment. That brought his attention to William. He had been so focused on Wang Xiaoling that he hadn¡¯t noticed the young boy sitting beside her. William narrowed his eyes as he stared at Wang Xiaoling and tried to figure out what the guard saw in her. It certainly couldn¡¯t be her appearance since she was a scruffy mess from having been on the road for so long. Even when William first saw her, she wasn¡¯t in the best of states with her unkempt hair and dirtied face. Perhaps when Wang Xiaoling was cleaned up, it was a different story? ¡°Hey, brat! What are you looking at?¡± Wang Xiaoling asked with an annoyed growl. ¡°Wang Xiaoling, who¡¯s this little brother? He looks hurt.¡± ¡°Ah, that,¡± Wang Xiaoling chuckled nervously, ¡°I thought he was a scammer, so I kicked him a little too hard. It¡¯s okay, though! He¡¯s working for me now.¡± ¡°What is this little brother¡¯s name?¡± Li Jie asked William while looking like he was apologizing for Wang Xiaoling¡¯s actions. William floundered briefly before dipping his head slightly and said, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Wei Liang.¡± His eye twitched in irritation when Wang Xiaoling burst out inughter and pped his shoulder, making it throb in pain. ¡°Don¡¯t be fooled, Li Jie,¡± Wang Xiaoling said between chuckles, ¡°This brat isn¡¯t this polite at all. All he¡¯s been doing so far is causing me trouble.¡± Li Jie doubted that when looking at William¡¯s frail body. In fact, he suspected that the boy had been bullied the whole way with how sorry he looked. ¡°I see,¡± Li Jie said as he looked on with pity, ¡°Little brother Wei Liang seems to need medical attention. Come, I¡¯ll let you skip the line as an emergency.¡± William looked down at himself and saw nothing that would be an emergency. Not that he didn¡¯t appreciate the favor, of course. ¡°I thought you said you didn¡¯t have any connections,¡± William whispered to Wang Xiaoling as she stirred the horses to follow Li Jie. ¡°Connections?¡± Wang Xiaoling repeated with confusion, ¡°This is just Li Jie, a friend of mine. Wei Liang, you don¡¯t use friends as connections unless you don¡¯t treasure them as such.¡± William noticed the slight smile on Li Jie¡¯s lips and looked at Wang Xiaoling with a bit of admiration. Either she was a genius maniptor and said that because she knew Li Jie would overhear, or she really meant that. William would bet on thetter. ¡°Captain!¡± The guards at the gate saluted Li Jie and stood to attention until he waved them off. ¡°Check the goods and let them through,¡± Li Jie ordered as he pointed at Wang Xiaoling¡¯s wagon. William was looking at each of the guards carefully to observe the levels they were at and was surprised at what he saw. [Name: Xu Hao | Level: 5] [Name: Wang Lei | Level: 4] [Name: Liu Sheng | Level: 6] [Name: Yang Ming | Level: 4] There were plenty more, but the levels were all simr. It gave William more of a clue about each level¡¯s strength. With Li Jie being a guard captain, he was likely much stronger than most mortals. That brought William¡¯s attention to a rather significant issue that became even more troublesome. The blue text appeared in his vision again. Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Level ten was no longer a simple matter to achieve from what he had seen with the guards. Other than Li Jie, they were all well into their adulthood. William hoped he was wrong, but he had a feeling it would be more challenging than he expected to preserve those precious stat points. His Soul Damage trait would be a headache to deal with. While William fretted over his future, the guards hastily did the barest of cursory checks before waving them through the gates. ¡°Let¡¯s leave little brother Wei Liang at the Jade Healing Clinic,¡± Li Jie suggested as he led them through the crowd, ¡°He¡¯ll be fully healed by tomorrow.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unnecessary,¡± Wang Xiaoling shook her head rapidly, ¡°A pharmacy is fine, Li Jie. The clinic is too expensive, and Wei Liang¡¯s injury is too minor to be worth the expense.¡± ¡°The elder there will treat him for free as a favor to me,¡± Li Jie replied with a smile, ¡°Since little brother Wei Liang is with Wang Xiaoling, he has to get the best treatment.¡± ¡°¡­ You¡¯re too kind, Li Jie,¡± Wang Xiaoling sighed in resignation. William ignored what he would consider an almost unbearable public disy of affection between the overly helpful Li Jie and an oblivious Wang Xiaoling. He had far more exciting things to pay attention to. Entering Xuanjing City seemed like traveling back in time to William. It reminded him of the historical dramas in his old world. The moment they stepped past the grand archway, the road broadened into a spacious avenue nked by trees and unlitnterns. From his seat on the wagon, the sea of people seemed unending, with each busily going about their business. The low murmur of chatter was a constant in the background, with the asional yells of merchants trying to advertise their wares. William loved the atmosphere, and it was evident by the broad smile on his face. ¡°Looks like this is little brother Wei Liang¡¯s first time inside a city,¡± Li Jiemented when he saw him looking everywhere. ¡°He¡¯s from a backward vige,¡± Wang Xiaoling helpfully exined, ¡°He¡¯s pretty much a country bumpkin.¡± ¡°¡­ Wang Xiaoling, saying that could be hurtful to him.¡± Wang Xiaoling blinked and turned to William as if confirming what Li Jie said was true. ¡°Is that true, Wei Liang?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m very hurt,¡± William replied ndly. ¡°Oh,¡± Wang Xiaoling shrugged before saying to Li Jie, ¡°I don¡¯t believe him.¡± William rolled his eyes when Li Jie smiled at Wang Xiaoling deferentially. He blocked them out to take in the sights and eventually noticed that the buildings started to get slightly taller and far more ornate. ¡°Here we are,¡± Li Jie stopped in front of a small building with a jade green exterior, ¡°Jade Healing Clinic.¡± William climbed down from the wagon with a wince when Li Jie motioned for him to follow. ¡°Take this token and show it to the attendant,¡± Li Jie handed William a small jade piece with an engraved eagle, ¡°They¡¯ll heal you without taking payment.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± William said appreciatively before waving goodbye to Wang Xiaoling. As he walked inside, Wang Xiaoling yelled, ¡°I¡¯ll have a stall set up in the market! Find me there after you¡¯re done!¡± Chapter 8: Jade Healing Clinic and the Monstrous Attendant Chapter 8: Jade Healing Clinic and the Monstrous Attendant ¡°Wee to Jade Healing Clinic, dear customer!¡± William stared nkly at the girl with the cheery smile behind a in counter. She was pretty, exceptionally so. If she was to be described in one of his beloved novels, it would no doubt include plenty of words simr to being able to squeeze water by pinching her skin and other such nonsense. William had a much simpler way to describe her. A monster. [Name: Li Xinyue | Level: 93] William didn¡¯t care if this girl was the most attractive he had ever seen. He wouldn¡¯t care if she was the ugliest either. All he wanted to do was try his best not to irritate her in any way. Too bad William had already failed at that. ¡°Master! There¡¯s another bumpkin that keeps staring at me! Can I kill this one?¡± ¡°Wait!¡± William¡¯s suddenly mmy hands fumbled with the jade token the guard gave him before shakily handing it to her. ¡°I was sent here for healing!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± William blinked when he found the token in the girl¡¯s hands. He looked at his own and saw that he was holding onto air. ¡°That guard gave this to you?¡± William nodded quickly, hoping to get this girl¡¯s thought as far from killing him as possible. ¡°¡­ Strange, I thought he was saving this for the merchant girl.¡± William¡¯s ears perked up, happy that he could attach himself to someone the girl knew. ¡°Wang Xiaoling is my boss!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Wang Xiaoling?¡± Li Xinyue asked with a confused look. ¡°The merchant girl you mentioned. Wang Xiaoling is her name.¡± William didn¡¯t dare have thoughts of ridicule to the girl¡¯s obliviousness. You don¡¯t think badly about monsters. You also don¡¯t wonder how a level nine guard had a token to a clinic with a monster as an attendant. ¡°I see,¡± Li Xinyue nodded and shattered the jade token with a squeeze of her fingers. William flinched, thinking it was over as the girl sauntered toward him with a sneer. The cultivators in the novels sometimes killed mortals for seemingly random reasons. If one of the reasons were to include staring at them for too long, it wouldn¡¯t be a stretch. ¡°Using Master¡¯s token to heal a mortal¡¯s broken ribs? What an idiot.¡± [-1 HP] William wheezed in pain when Li Xinyue¡¯s hands blurred and poked at his broken ribs, likely making it worse if the notification was anything to go by. It looked like the girl was a sadist and would not kill him painlessly. Still, William felt far worse with the demonic woman trying to suck out his soul. This was nothing. [-1 HP] William spat out a mouthful of blood. It should have sttered on Li Xinyue¡¯s pristine clothes, but it seemed to phase through her and added a red decoration to the floor. One hit point left until William¡¯s second life ended prematurely. ¡°Hm?¡± Li Xinyue frowned at the deathly aura that surged from William¡¯s body, ¡°You can¡¯t even handle the adjustment of your ribs without almost dying?¡± William red at her, barely able to believe that this was the result of her attempting to heal him. He should have just slept it off instead of insisting on getting professional help. There was even a thought that appeared in his mind that Li Jie was scheming to get rid of him for some strange reason. ¡°You!¡± Li Xinyue pointed a finger at William angrily, ¡°If you didn¡¯t have Master¡¯s token, I would have plucked your eyes out for this disrespect!¡± ¡°Yue¡¯er!¡± Li Xinyue froze for a second before all the disdain left her expression. William had the metaphorical front-row seat to the change. He had to admire how quickly she went from an arrogant cultivator to innocent maiden. ¡°Master! He looked at me lustfully!¡± ¡°What! No, I didn¡¯t!¡± William protested. [Name: Huang Jingyi | Level: ?] William¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He knew it wasn¡¯t the best time to be thinking about levels when there was a little bitch trying to frame him, but the question mark where the level should be made him curious. Since Li Xinyue¡¯s level could be seen, at what point did it be hidden? Why could he see Huang Jingyi¡¯s name and not Daoist Chen¡¯s? And how do cultivation levels equate to the levels he could see? [SAFE MODE has disabled data on cultivation levels] William wasn¡¯t as frustrated as usual at the alert. It wasn¡¯t necessary to have that information at the moment, and it was nice to find out that it would eventually be avable. ¡°Enough, Yue¡¯er!¡± William flinched at the stern voice right in front of him. Was this what Daoist Chen meant when he said his master had a habit of getting distracted? If so, William knew he had to get rid of it before he got himself killed by standing still like an idiot. ¡°No matter who enters this clinic, they must be treated respectfully. Don¡¯t force me to take the recipes away again!¡± William shivered when Li Xinyue looked at him resentfully as if he was the cause of all her problems. As if a thirteen-year-old mortal could do anything to a monstrous girl who had to be near twenty. ¡°As for you,¡± Huang Jingyi red at William, ¡°Consider yourself lucky that you carried that token, or I would have yed you alive for staring at my disciple.¡± William had assumed that the old man was someone reasonable when he had started to scold the girl. Who knew that he was a hypocrite. That wasn¡¯t the end of the man¡¯s warning. William¡¯s breath choked off as the pressure of the old man¡¯s power surrounded him. He was tired of having his life threatened, and he hated that there was no way to turn the situation around. All of a sudden, William understood why the main characters in most cultivation novels became psychotic killers with death as the solution to most things. It seemed ridiculous while reading it, but experiencing the needless torment gave him a different perspective. Just when the darkness started to seep into William¡¯s vision, the pressure suddenly disappeared, leaving him to gasp in much-needed air. ¡°I¡¯ll see to the boy. Go to the back and watch the cauldron, Yue¡¯er.¡± William was vaguely aware of Li Xinyue saying something before walking away, but he was busy trying his best to stamp down the rage that filled him. Since it seemed these were the type of cultivators that were clearly unreasonable, any sign of defiance would undoubtedly result in death. ¡°Now, let¡¯s get you healed.¡± William hadn¡¯t realized that he had fallen onto the floor until he was lifted to his feet. It was the second time today that a cultivator had moved him without touching him. ¡°Hm, Yue¡¯er was on the right track, but she didn¡¯t consider that you were so weak.¡± William kept his mouth shut, knowing that the man was talking to himself. ¡°Unfortunately, you¡¯ll need an immortal pill,¡± Huang Jingyi sighed, ¡°What a waste of a pill. No matter, since that boy used the token, I¡¯ll heal you regardless of the cost.¡± William¡¯s mouth was forced open before a pill was thrown inside. He immediately recognized it as the Vitality Restoration Pill with the rush of healing energy that filled his body. [+9 HP] William groaned in relief as all the damage on his body disappeared once again. He looked at the old man, making sure to look as grateful as possible. ¡°Thank you,¡± William said sincerely. William had no intention of getting injured by the old man because of something as silly as dignity. Besides, he had decided to borrow from the psychotic main characters to vow revenge once he was strong enough. [Side Quest added: Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation] William erased the alert and wondered what the point of these quests were. With it being automatically added, it had no penalties for failure. Still, he never got an exnation of what the reward was for sess. [SAFE MODE has disabled details for user-generated quests] ¡°Very interesting,¡± Huang Jingyi stroked his beard, ¡°You show signs of already having used a Vitality Restoration Pill. And it was one of a higher grade considering how much your body resisted my pill.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, not knowing it could be so easily discovered. Luckily, the man didn¡¯t seem to hold any ill intent. It only took the briefest of moments for him to decide that revealing Daoist Chen wouldn¡¯t be of any harm. Especially since keeping it to himself obviously wasn¡¯t an option with the way Huang Jingyi stared at him curiously. Besides, it may even get William some sort of benefit, though what that could be he didn¡¯t know. Chapter 9: Unexpected Quests Chapter 9: Unexpected Quests ¡°A cultivator saved me and gave me the pill,¡± William admitted truthfully. ¡°Really?¡± Huang Jingyi¡¯s wizened face formed a smile, ¡°What¡¯s your name, boy?¡± ¡°¡­ It¡¯s Wei Liang.¡± ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Huang Jingyi repeated slowly, ¡°Same as the Wei n from Qingyun City?¡± William shook his head warily, worried his new surname might cause problems. ¡°That¡¯s a surprise,¡± Huang Jingyi muttered, ¡°The Wei n is full of wastrels, so it wouldn¡¯t surprise me that they used immortal pills in this manner.¡± ¡°I never heard of the Wei n before,¡± William insisted again, this time verbally. ¡°I believe you,¡± Huang Jingyi started to stroke his beard again, ¡°That makes what you im even more curious. Tell me, what did this cultivator look like? What did he save you from?¡± William hesitated, wondering if this could be considered as betraying Daoist Chen¡¯s confidence. But that thought didn¡¯tst long. With Daoist Chen¡¯s level of cultivation, William doubted that there was anything he could do that would get his disapproval. Unless it was wasting the potential of his master¡¯s cultivation method. William was sure Daoist Chen would erase him from existence in anger after how long it had taken to find a sessor. William started to tell the story of Daoist Chen swooping in and saving the day while leaving out some critical information. He wasn¡¯t stupid enough to utter a word about the system he now possessed and certainly didn¡¯t say anything about being a transmigrator. Who knew if saying those things could lead to disaster. However, William made sure to emphasize the kindness Daoist Chen showed him and the time he spent personally making sure William was left in a safe spot¡­ if being put in the path of Wang Xiaoling¡¯s wagon was considered safe. Huang Jingyi''s heart rate had increased, but he remainedposed as he hummed thoughtfully. From what was described, he could immediately tell that the mysterious cultivator was a senior. Not once did Huang Jingyi think William was fabricating the story since he would never believe a mortal would dare to lie to someone like him. Besides, it also made sense why William was able to stare directly at his disciple. With the aura that one with Li Xinyue¡¯s constitution exuded, only three types of people could look at her. Cultivators, mortals with extraordinary potential on the path to immortality, and mortals with exceptional potential to be lustful wretches. With William not falling into the former two categories, Huang Jingyi couldn¡¯t be med when he assumed that William was a lustful wretch. However, it seemed that Huang Jingyi had wronged him with that assumption. Not only that, but there was something in him that a wandering senior saw that made it worthwhile to part with a Vitality Restoration Pill. Still, there was one thing that he didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Wei Liang, was it? Did that senior say anything when he gave you the pill?¡± William knew this was the chance to show off Daoist Chen¡¯s apparent wealth and, in turn, make himself seem more important. ¡°I¡¯m not too sure.¡± Huang Jingyi sighed, disappointed at the answer but not at all surprised considering the near-death experience the mortal went through. It was already surprising that the boy remembered what he did. That was until William continued speaking. ¡°I think I heard him say that he didn¡¯t have a lower-grade pill to give me. Maybe he was disappointed he had to give me something that valuable?¡± Huang Jingyi thought the opposite. If the lowest grade Vitality Restoration Pill the senior possessed was of the third grade, it hinted at his high cultivation. A Core Formation Elder like Huang Jingyi himself would have pills of the first and second grades purely for convenience and cost-effectiveness, but once a cultivator ascended into the Nascent Soul stage, those pills would be useless. Whoever this senior was, Huang Jingyi couldfortably assume that he was in the Nascent Soul stage at the least. ¡°You¡¯ve made my day a little more interesting, Wei Liang,¡± Huang Jingyi said loftily, ¡°I feel that you deserve something in return.¡± William blinked, not expecting any benefits from his storytelling. The most he hoped for was to be allowed to leave without harm. ¡°That¡¯s not necessary,¡± William said politely, ¡°Getting my injuries healed is more than I deserve.¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± Huang Jingyi frowned, ¡°If I say one deserves a reward, who would dare decline?¡± Huang Jingyi reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a jade token that William recognized. It was simr to what the guard, Li Jie, had handed him before entering the clinic. However, there was a fundamental difference. The token Li Jie handed him was made of dull green jade. Huang Jingyi was offering William one that wasvender in color. ¡°The token you had previously only allows for a one-time visit, but this will allow you to visit the clinic whenever you wish.¡± William stared at the valuable jade token nkly, wondering what was happening. Didn¡¯t the old man threaten to y him alive a few minutes ago, or was that his overactive imagination? Side Quests (2): Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation No, that side quest confirmed that William was still supposed toe back and humiliate Huang Jingyi in the far future. As if he had heard William¡¯s doubts, Huang Jingyi sighed regretfully. ¡°You must be thinking about Yue¡¯er. Her actions were too aggressive.¡± ¡°Not at all!¡± William said in a rush, not wanting the girl¡¯s overprotective master to get any strange thoughts, ¡°I appreciate the gift, elder. Thank you.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Huang Jingyi smiled, ¡°You can give Yue¡¯er somepany. Not many people in the city are qualified to visit my clinic.¡± William kept his mouth shut, swallowing the protest of being that monstrous girl¡¯s ymate. He didn¡¯t want to deny the equally monstrous master. ¡°¡­ Thank you, elder,¡± William said with a strained smile, ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to visit as much as I can.¡± ¡°Two or three times a week should be fine,¡± Huang Jingyi said casually with a wave of his hand. ¡°Off you go. I spent too long chatting with you.¡± [Side Quest added: Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable)] The smile on Huang Jingyi¡¯s face stayed until he saw the boy leave the clinic. After that, it dropped off to be reced with a pondering expression. ¡°Master? Why did you give that boy another token?! You saw that he looked at me!¡± ¡°Hush, Yue¡¯er,¡± Huang Jingyi turned to pat his disciple¡¯s head, ¡°The boy isn¡¯t a lecher. Wei Liang had an encounter that could be the start of his destiny. That was the only reason he was able to look at you. It will do no harm to give him a small visiting token.¡± Li Xinyue pouted and huffed at having to see the mortal again. ¡°But why did you say that he could give mepany? I rather read pill recipes than talk to the stupid boy!¡± Huang Jingyi sighed at his disciple¡¯s protest. Nothing was wrong with what she said, and most masters would love to have a disciple so dedicated to cultivation. Still, he wasing to recognize that Li Xinyue was socially deficient. No matter how talented she was at cultivation, what was the point if she didn¡¯t have anyone to share it with? Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t think he was ready to see his beloved disciple with a daopanion. However, a beloved friend would be perfect. That was where Wei Liang came in. If Wei Liang was favored by destiny like Huang Jingyi suspected with the interest the senior had in him, the boy would serve as a good, long-term friend for his disciple. If that wasn¡¯t the case, Wei Liang would be a mortal who would teach Yue¡¯er how to form a friendship before she moved on to people with real worth. Either of those options would be eptable for Huang Jingyi. ¡°Yue¡¯er,¡± Huang Jingyi said sternly, ¡°Take this as an order. When Wei Liang returns, I expect you to do your best to talk to him. Understand?¡± He had to fight the urge to backtrack when his beloved disciple looked at him with teary eyes. Yue¡¯er might be socially deficient, but she had perfected the art of manipting her master. However, Huang Jingyi wouldn¡¯t fall for it this time. ¡°Fine!¡± Li Xinyue agreed through clenched teeth before turning around to ignore her master. Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t mind her antics and smiled, ncing at Wei Liang¡¯s figure walking out of sight in the distance. He couldn¡¯t deny that he was eager to see if his suspicions were true. Chapter 10: Lost and Found Chapter 10: Lost and Found William still wasn¡¯t sure what had just happened. The trip to Jade Healing Clinic was far more eventful than needed, and while it somehow ended in William¡¯s favor, the whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth. He understood that he was a weakling even among mortals, but why was it necessary to get curb stomped by people who were far more powerful. It would be a nice change of pace if some child would insult him so William could proceed to do some ssic face-pping to get experience points. That fact hadn¡¯t escaped his notice. The only experience points he had earned was because of some nonsensical reason of ¡®epting his ce in the world.¡¯ William doubted that could be repeated. The status screen or HUD, whatever it was, didn¡¯t show him what to do to get more experience. [SAFE MODE has disabled the discovery of side quests] William let out an exasperated sigh. With all the restrictions with this safe mode, it had made the point of having the HUD almost negligible. It made him wonder why having a damaged soul was so limiting to this strange power. The most obvious answer was that it was somehow powered by his soul. Though if that was true, he couldn¡¯t understand how. William put his hand in his pocket for the umpteenth time to rub the smooth surface of the jade token Huang Jingyi gave him. This was another unneeded thing he received from his visit to Jade Healing Clinic. He wasn¡¯t keen on returning to where two temperamental cultivators worked, especially since they made it tantly aware that they didn¡¯t like the sight of him. Well, at least at the start. The story William told Huang Jingyi lessened the old man¡¯s anger considerably. Or, if not that, made him interested enough in William to give him a token and practically order him to visit the clinic. That was both a good and bad thing. William would have to watch his actions carefully in order to keep himself alive and well during those visits. Still, on the other hand, it gave him what was possibly the easiest source of experience points. Side Quests (3): Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) The HUD refused to show the rewards William could get bypleting it, but it surely had to be twenty-five points at minimum. He got that for the highly arduous task of epting his ce in this world, so it wasn¡¯t a stretch to use it as a base. William grunted when he was shoved to the side. ¡°Watch where you¡¯re going!¡± William rubbed his shoulder and scowled at the man who walked into him. All he saw was the back of the man¡¯s head since he was already hurrying somewhere in a rush. It wasn¡¯t the first time William was bumped into, and it certainly wouldn¡¯t be thest. The market was packed to the brim, even more than what William saw at the city entrance. There were temporary stalls set up between permanent storefronts, making the choices for prospective buyers practically unlimited. It was a sight to see at the start, but it was quickly getting old. William had been searching for Wang Xiaoling for over an hour without luck. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he was penniless and felt indebted to Li Jie for the jade token, no matter how terrible the experience in the clinic was, William would have given up looking. It made him scold himself for being stupid enough to walk away from Wang Xiaoling without getting more details on where she would be. He wondered if her unreliableness had already infected him. At the least, William should have nced at the goods she would sell so he would have an idea of what to look for. Instead, he was wandering around like a suspicious person, drawing looks from the stall owners when he passed by multiple times. William groaned loudly in frustration, getting the people around him to warily move away. He didn¡¯t pay them any mind and pouted like a true thirteen-year-old. ¡°You! Are you Wei Liang?¡± William winced when a meaty hand mped down on his shoulder. He looked up to see what might be thergest man he had ever seen in either of his lives, and it wasn¡¯t even close. It was a miracle that the mountain of meat could even walk around. ¡°I am. Who are you?¡± William shook off the hand and moved a few steps away. He learned his lesson of being in striking distance of strangers, especially one that could trip and kill him by falling on him. ¡°I¡¯m Fatty Xu! Sister Wang told us to keep a lookout for a kid. I didn¡¯t think it could be you since Sister Wang is noble and elegant in temperament, and you are the opposite! Follow me, kid!¡± William never understood the nickname Fatty that some characters in cultivation novels had, but maybe it was because he didn¡¯t imagine them right. He always thought of those characters as jolly, pleasant-looking people who were slightly on the heavier side. This Fatty Xu destroyed that image. William winced when the lumbering man¡¯s body made far too many noises as he slowly turned around and waddled off. William might be wary of this Fatty Xu, but the mention of Wang Xiaoling was enough of a lure to discard that hesitance. However, there was one thing that still seemed highly suspicious. Fatty Xu described Wang Xiaoling as noble and elegant. Unless those words mean something different in this world, Fatty Xu was talking about someone else, or he was as hopeless for the crazy woman as Li Jie. William frowned when Fatty Xu shoved his way toward the most crowded stall in the whole market. He had painstakingly navigated through this crowd on his second trip around the market. It had obviously been a failure since he continued searching for Wang Xiaoling. William followed Fatty Xufortably with a shrug since the man¡¯s bulk created enough space for him in the crowd. Even if the guy was unscrupulous, too many people were around for anything serious to happen. ¡°Sister Wang! Sister Wang!¡± Fatty Xu¡¯s yells were like fog horns with the sheer volume he was able to produce. ¡°Annoying Xu? What do you want now? I¡¯m too busy to talk to you!¡± William perked up at the familiar voice and moved around Fatty Xu¡¯s bulk to peer around him. He expected to see Wang Xiaoling squeezed in the crowd, more frazzled than usual with an angry look on her face. William was mostly right. Wang Xiaoling was there with an angry look on her face, but that was the only thing he was right about. She wasn¡¯t squeezed in the crowd and definitely wasn¡¯t frazzled. In fact, Wang Xiaoling was nearly unrecognizable. ¡°Sister Wang, I found Wei Liang!¡± ¡°Really?¡± Wang Xiaoling narrowed her eyes to see the small figure overshadowed by Fatty Xu¡¯srge body, ¡°Finally! Wei Liang, Get up here!¡± The crowd leading up to the stall parted to let William through. Not that he noticed. He was too busy staring at Wang Xiaoling. ¡°What happened to you?¡± William stared at thepletely transformed woman in shock. William¡¯s question was ignored as Wang Xiaoling studied him closely. ¡°You¡¯re healed! Good, you can start working immediately. Help me take the orders. We only have a few more hours before my stall permit expires.¡± [Side Quest Added | Help Wang Xiaoling sell her goods] William immediately put aside his shock at how attractive Wang Xiaoling looked when she tried to look her best. There was no time to care about such frivolities. Experience points were within reach, and he sorely needed them. William pulled up the full HUD for the first time in a while. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 1 Experience: 25/100 Cultivation: N/A Health: 10/10 Strength: 1 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 1 Points: 0 Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Side Quests (4): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation 3. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) 4. Help Wang Xiaoling sell her goods Of all the quests avable, helping Wang Xiaoling was the only one that could be worked on immediately. ¡°Tell me what you need me to do,¡± William¡¯s eyes gleamed with desire, surprising Wang Xiaoling at the intensity. ¡°Good! That¡¯s exactly what I want to hear from my best employee!¡± Chapter 11: Minimum Wage Worker in the New World Chapter 11: Minimum Wage Worker in the New World ¡°Five Dragonfruits!¡± ¡°Two Sunberries!¡± ¡°Kid, give me twenty Spirit Fruits!¡± William was like a well-oiled machine. After learning the price of the goods Wang Xiaoling had for sale, he didn¡¯t misspleting an order. He never thought that the fast food job at Burger Emperor woulde in handy, but here he was. However, one thing made this different from one of the lowest-paying jobs in his old world. The food he was selling. Working in the fast food industry made William swear off that garbage for life after seeing how it was made, but right now, all he wanted to do was take a bite out of every fruit he touched. They looked mouthwatering, and the scent they gave off was enough for William to start drooling. In fact, the only reason he hadn¡¯t started salivating like a hungry animal was his single-minded concentration. No matter how much William wanted to gobble up the fruits he was selling, the experience points were more important. ¡­ And William was sure that Wang Xiaoling might snap his hand in anger at the lost coin if he sampled a fruit. He wasn¡¯t sure how much he would be paid for his help, but with her hesitance to pay for a room for the night, he knew it wouldn¡¯t be much. Wang Xiaoling had the penny, or Copper in this world, pinching mindset that had made most businesspeople sessful. With William¡¯s expected low pay and the price of the fruits, he didn¡¯t think his wages would pay for more than a couple. ¡°Five copper!¡± William shoved five Dragonfruits into the offered basket. ¡°One Silver!¡± Two Sunberries were ced into waiting hands. ¡°Two Gold!¡± This order was more than usual, and Wang Xiaoling had specially made baskets for these. William swiped the payments off the counter and dumped the coins into the bag beside him. He was already moving on to the next batch of customers yelling their orders. Wang Xiaoling wasn¡¯t moving any slower than William. She had been serious about the permit expiring, so she wanted to sell as much of the goods she brought with her as possible. An extra benefit came in handy with this type of work for William. He was able to quickly understand the way currency worked in the Tianxia Empire. William had been more than a little worried that it would be something ridiculous, like some odd-numbered denomination equaling one of another, but it was all surprisingly ordered. Ten Copper equaled one Silver, and ten Silver equaled one Gold. As for anything higher, William obviously hadn¡¯t encountered them, if they existed at all. From the short time he had been selling the in-demand fruits, one Gold was greatly desired with the way most people stared at said coin in greed. Incidentally, it also let William know that Wang Xiaoling was quite the money-maker. If he wasn¡¯t doing this work for the experience points, he might make more of a fuss for better pay. ¡°Get me forty Spirit Fruits!¡± William¡¯s eyes twitched as he grabbed two baskets and yelled, ¡°Four Gold!¡± He wondered what the profit margins were on these things. It was bing increasingly apparent that Daoist Chen likely meant for him to meet Wang Xiaoling. How lucky would it be if he met someone like her by coincidence? The next hour was a blur as the fruits avable for sale slowly emptied. When only a couple of damaged Dragonfruits were left, Wang Xiaoling closed the stall. ¡°Wei Liang, you have a gift,¡± Wang Xiaoling praised with a gleam in her eyes, ¡°Stick with me, and I promise you¡¯ll go ces.¡± William stared at the miser suspiciously. It was likely she was thinking of making him some sort of permanent indentured servant. More worryingly, he hadn¡¯t received his experience points despitepleting the quest. Perhaps there needed to be some sort of finishing action. ¡°So you¡¯re saying I did a good job?¡± William asked leadingly. ¡°Of course!¡± Wang Xiaoling seemed too thrilled to notice anything, ¡°The fruits I sell are always in demand, but I rarely sell everything because I don¡¯t have decent help. You were great!¡± ¡°So I guess you¡¯ll pay me well then. How much am I getting?¡± William asked with his hand out. Wang Xiaoling froze, and her smile slowly became strained. ¡°Well, you see, Wei Liang, it costs a lot to buy these. I didn¡¯t make much this time. All I can pay you is two, uh, one Silver.¡± She dropped a silver coin in William¡¯s outstretched hands and looked away, looking for something to use as an excuse to get away. It was then that she remembered the bags filled with coins from her sales. There was no way to take them with her. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right!¡± Wang Xiaoling pretended to remember, ¡°Wei Liang, I wanted to give the remaining Dragonfruits to you. They¡¯re delicious and really good for your health!¡± She offered the unsold fruits to William and became even more nervous when he didn¡¯t look at them. ¡°And I got you a room for the night! Aren¡¯t I generous?¡± William didn¡¯t ignore Wang Xiaoling on purpose, and he wasn¡¯t even aware that thepensation for the work he had done was slowly bing greater the more he ignored her. [COMPLETED | Help Wang Xiaoling sell her goods: +50 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Sell 20 Gold worth of goods: +50 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat points added] William¡¯s breath hitched in excitement. He hadn¡¯t expected to get enough points to get to the next level, and the hidden bonus motivated him to be a try-hard in future quests with how generous it rewarded him. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 2 Experience: 25/250 Cultivation: N/A Health: 15/15 Strength: 1 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 1 Points: 5 Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Side Quests (3): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation 3. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) William didn¡¯t like that he now needed two hundred and fifty experience points to reach the next level. That didn¡¯t bode well for the points required for higher levels. Still, as long as the visits to Jade Healing Clinic rewarded him sufficiently, level ten was well within reach. More importantly, it was looking highly likely that William would have no risk whatsoever in the process. That would do wonders for his precious stat points. The devastating side effect of having soul damage would never be an issue as long as William patiently grinded experience points in the city. Speaking of stat points, he did wonder why he had received five points when there were only four attributes to spend it on. He wasn¡¯tining about it, though. With how vital stat points generally were, the more, the better. ¡°Fine! You can have two Silver! If you want more, you can forget about working for me!¡± William looked at his suddenly full palm in shock. He never expected Wang Xiaoling to be so generous. ¡°Thank you, Wang Xiaoling. You didn¡¯t try to cheat me like I expected.¡± William expected her hand to fly toward his head and jumped back in time to get out of reach. His promise to himself to stay uninjured wouldn¡¯t be broken so soon. ¡°I never cheat anyone!¡± Wang Xiaoling dered righteously before turning around with a red face. She grunted while picking up the heavy coin-filled bags and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll drop you off at the hotel before heading to the bank.¡± William followed behind her and pocketed the Silver before licking his lips while staring at the Dragonfruits. They were slightly damaged, which only made the delicious scent more apparent. The Dragonfruits were simr in looks to the ones in his old world, but they were far different from how he had seen people eating them. William moved one of the fruits into his other hand and ran his finger over the spikes before biting into it like an apple. An embarrassingly loud moan left his lips as he devoured the delicious fruit like a man who hadn¡¯t eaten for days. It was gone in less than a minute. [+1 Strength] William¡¯s jaw dropped in shock at the alert. He stared at the remaining two fruits like they were the key to immortality. Disregarding his full stomach, he tore into another Dragonfruit greedily, eagerly anticipating the extra attribute point. After William finished it, he was disappointed when he didn¡¯t see the alert he expected. He figured it would have been too good to be true for such an easy way to gain points. Still, gaining a Strength point for eating the fruit was already good enough. [Soul Damage Trait activated | All base stats reset to 1] ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you, brat?¡± Wang Xiaoling asked with concern, ¡°You look like you¡¯re about to hurt yourself.¡± William sighed and tried to look more excited. A hard thing to do when it felt like his emotions were yed with. At least he hadn¡¯t done anything foolish like spending his stat points and getting that wiped out too. Chapter 12: The Golden Lotus Chapter 12: The Golden Lotus ¡°Let Wu Chang know my name and tell him I¡¯ll pay for your room. He¡¯ll get you settled.¡± ¡°Wait, who¡¯s Wu Cha-¡° William cut himself off when Wang Xiaoling rode away quickly. Suspiciously quickly. He narrowed his eyes before eventually facing the building he was dropped off at. The Golden Lotus. That was what the sign said in gold lettering. The building was a strange mix of traditional Chinese design and something familiar, it was at the edge of William¡¯s mind, but he couldn¡¯t quite grasp it. Still, with the attractive, bright yellow facade and the hotel¡¯s location in the heart of Xuanjing City, William wondered if he had misread Wang Xiaoling. This did not look cheap. Maybe she was stingy in all aspects except where she slept? William had known people like that before. A small bell rang when William entered the hotel, announcing that the door had opened. The lobby was small but weing, with walls decorated in colorful tapestries and a fewfortable chairs near the reception. ¡°Wee to the Golden Lotus,¡± A middle-aged man with a kind face greeted William with a warm smile. ¡°¡­ Hi,¡± William replied awkwardly, not ready for someone to speak to him normally for the first time since he got here. Well, unless Li Jie counted, which he didn¡¯t. The guard was more focused on Wang Xiaoling than anything else. ¡°Hello,¡± The man chuckled, ¡°Are you looking for a room?¡± ¡°Yes, Wang Xiaoling said she¡¯ll pay for my room.¡± ¡°¡­ Wang Xiaoling?¡± William shifted in his spot, sensing that something wasn¡¯t right. ¡°Are you talking about the self-proimed number-one trader? That Wang Xiaoling?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the one,¡± William tried to be optimistic, but the way the man looked at him didn¡¯t help, ¡°She told me someone called Wu Chang would help me.¡± ¡°I am Wu Chang.¡± William stared at the man for a second before sighing. ¡°Let me guess, you think I¡¯m lying about her paying for me.¡± ¡°Wang Xiaoling is¡­ careful with money. I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to make a deposit for the room. I¡¯ll return it to you if she settles your bill.¡± ¡°Right,¡± William rubbed his brow in frustration and asked, ¡°How much is it for one night?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be five Copper.¡± William winced at the price and reluctantly pulled out a Silver before handing it to Wu Chang. The rate for one night was twenty-five percent of his current worth. That told more about how poor he was rather than the cost of the room, but still. ¡°Thank you,¡± Wu Chang smiled as he handed the change to William, ¡°Let me lead you to the room. And may I know your name?¡± ¡°Wei Liang.¡± That was said in a low grumble as William pocketed the change. He was mentally berating himself for being foolish enough to believe Wang Xiaoling about spending money after what he knew about her. ¡°Again, wee to The Golden Lotus, Wei Liang. There aren¡¯t many guests for the night, so if you need a quietrger area, there is amunal area where guests can rx. As for food, there are plenty of restaurants within a short distance. You can find me in the lobby if you want any rmendations.¡± William came to a stop as Wu Chang fiddled with the door to a room. It was opened to reveal a sparsely furnished room, but one that was good enough for a night¡¯s rest. ¡°I hope the room is to your liking.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± William returned Wu Chang¡¯s smile and walked past the open door. The bed lookedfortable enough, and there was even a small table with an unlit candle. ¡°Do you have any questions for me?¡± Wu Chang asked from the doorway. When William shook his head, he said, ¡°Then I¡¯ll be in the lobby if you need me.¡± William waited for the door to close before sitting roughly on the bed. He sighed in relief at having something soft to sit on and stared at the remaining Dragonfruit. If this was the type of food Wang Xiaoling had ess to, it made sense why she seemed to be so freakishly strong. It made William wonder what the effects of the other fruits were. William could understand why eating the second Dragonfruit did nothing for him. It would have been ridiculous if all he had to do was gorge himself on them to increase the strength attribute. However, he really, really hoped that eating the Dragonfruit wouldn¡¯t disqualify him from gaining the benefit of the other fruits, if they had any. If only his soul-damaged state hadn¡¯t ruined the surprise discovery of the Dragonfruit. What William hated more than having that trait itself was the vagueness of its effect. Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly William frowned at the word ¡®randomly.¡¯ Who exactly was deciding the randomness? And was it really random, or would he eventually find that the system had some sort of vendetta against him. Thetter was a thought that appeared in his mind frequently on the ride to the hotel. It was highly convenient that the trait randomly activated the moment he received an attribute point. The easiest way to test it was to spend one of the stat points he received and use it on an attribute, but William wasn¡¯t desperate enough to risk that. Still, it would be nice if he could get more details on how it worked. [Visible RNG for Soul Damage (Major) effect enabled] [Current chance of Soul Damage (Major) effect activating: 5%] [Activation Numbers: 1-50 | Total Numbers: 1000] [Previous result: 43] William stared at the info dump in surprise. He expected the HUD to show something, but he certainly didn¡¯t expect it to be what he wished. With howmon the urrence had been, he was sure he would have gotten an alert about safe mode blocking it for his own good. It was a littleforting that a random number generator controlled this, but that was as long as the RNG was genuinely random as the name implied. William couldn¡¯t exactly confirm if it was true. However, something was better than nothing. William grunted as he pushed off the bed and put the Dragonfruit on the table. He didn¡¯t think it would be edible for much longer with how damaged it was, but even if he ate it now, it would be useless. It obviously wouldn¡¯t help with increasing his strength attribute, nor would it ease his hunger since he had a full stomach from the past two Dragonfruits he had eaten. William stretched his hands above his head and groaned at the pops in his back. He gave the room another nce, and if he didn¡¯t know better, it would have fooled him into thinking that he was in his old world. There were differently sized, folded towels on the counter near the bathroom, along with small bottles of what must be some sort of body wash or something simr. Honestly, everything was eerily simr to what a hotel room looked like in his old world. With Daoist Chen¡¯s master likely to be a transmigrator or at least have some memory of his old world, it wasn¡¯t that big of a surprise that some simrities could be seen. Not that William expected to see it in a hotel room, of all ces. However, the simrity gave him a sense of calm that William didn¡¯t even know he needed. He locked the door, purely out of habit, not expecting it to do anything for safety, and climbed back into bed. It would be nice to shut his eyes and let his mind reset from the insane hell he had been through today. Chapter 13: Dreaming of Death Chapter 13: Dreaming of Death William wearily rubbed his face in an attempt to wipe the tiredness off it. The faster he could get to the coffee, the better. William forced his eyes open and saw that he was already halfway to the lobby. He frowned and wondered if he had dozed off for half a minute to miss the elevator going down over thirty floors. He had never been exhausted to quite that extent before. Perhaps that was just a problem with him not being in his teens anymore. This was his body telling him to stop being an idiot and stop the unnecessary all-nighters. The elevator suddenly made a loud grinding noisebined with a piercing metal screech before it halted. All signs of sleep disappeared from William¡¯s eyes as they grew wide in fear. This was what he had nightmares of as a kid. Getting trapped in an elevator for hours on end while helplessly waiting for rescue. William didn¡¯t dare press any of the buttons assigned to a floor due to fear, but he mashed the one for emergencies and held it down. ¡°This is maintenance. Was this an idental press?¡± The woman answering sounded as if she wanted to be doing anything else. It was strangely soothing to William, who could barely hold off the panic building within him. ¡°No, something¡¯s wrong with the elevator. I¡¯m stuck inside.¡± William was proud of how his voice didn¡¯t shake. ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll send a couple people over.¡± William pressed his lips together when the call disconnected. It would have been nice if she had stayed on the line. No matter. He just had to rx and wait for them to get him out. Plenty of redundant features in modern elevators made them extremely safe. In fact, William hadn¡¯t heard of anyone that had died due to this issue in the country. As if to prove his self-reassurances wrong, the elevator lurched and dropped a few meters before stopping harshly. William hissed in pain as his legs took the full brunt of the unexpected movement, and it felt like his bones were screaming in protest. He gripped the railing tightly and stayed as still as possible. As far as he knew, what just happened shouldn¡¯t have been possible. A safety feature must have failed. William held his breath as if that would help stabilize the elevator and listened nervously to the metallic groans around him. His heart sank. He knew that he was in trouble, and it was unlikely there would be a good ending to this. A sickening jolt made William¡¯s hand turn white as he tried to crush the railing with his grip. He prepared himself for the worst. ¡°Fuck!¡± William yelled as his feet left the elevator¡¯s floor and his head banged into the ceiling. That was immediately followed by him crashing to the floor head first. William could barely think straight with the repeated hits to the head, but he could feel a throbbing pain in his legs simr to when he had broken a bone as a kid. If, by some miracle, he survived this, he would need a lengthy hospital stay to recover. It felt like William had been in the free-falling elevator for far longer than the few seconds it had been. Just as the thought of lifting his body off the elevator floor entered his mind, there was a loud, deafening noise. It was a strange feeling. Being able to think clearly after knowing he had been in a horrible ident. William had nothing he could call a body, nor could he exin how he could think and see. Not that there was anything worth seeing at the moment. It was all just darkness. Just dark, darky, darkness. William wondered how long he had been here to lose his mind and think that sentence. He imagined his real body was in aa since he could still think. If that was true, his parents might have stopped arguing about everything and anything to visit their middle child in the hospital. It would be an excellent bonding experience for them¡­ probably. William would have snorted at the thought if he had a face. Still, he was bored out of his mind. He hoped he wouldn¡¯t be stuck in this ce for much longer. A faint light appeared in the distance as if the darkness was listening to his thoughts. It reminded William of those movies and how it generally meant it was a way out. The only difference was that he couldn¡¯t move toward the light even if he wanted to. It was like he was tied in ce. William shrugged and assumed that he would be free when it was time to go. What was the point of fighting against it? He stared at the light getting brighter and brighter before he could finally feel himself moving. Either that or the light itself was getting closer. William supposed it was the same either way. At the very least, there was something to look at other than the darkness. William was soon surrounded by unending light that should have blinded him if he had eyes. Thankfully, that didn¡¯tst too long. Unfortunately, it was reced by something even worse. He was forced to observe the nauseating burst of colors that blurred and merged around him. It would have been awe-inspiring if the sudden feeling of a terrifying suction didn¡¯t pull at his entire being. William assumed it was simr to the feeling of being pulled in twenty different directions at once, only somehow exponentially worse. He caught glimpses of fantastical beings in ces where the mess of colors didn¡¯t exist, making William think he was in a strange dream. Why else would he see dragons, strange humanoid cat people, and even a man who seemed to have the power of a god? Suddenly, the nauseating surroundings disappeared in a snap, revealing him to be hurtling forward recklessly in a dark cave. Even if this should have been terrifying, it was almost afortpared to what he was seeing before. Thest thing William saw was the dead-looking eyes of a young boy before the world went ck. William sat up in the bed with a loud gasp, sweat dripping down his face. He grimaced and threw the sweat-soaked nket off him. He got off the bed and grabbed a towel to wipe his face before looking out the window. At least it looked like he slept through the night since the sun was peeking over the horizon. That wasn¡¯t a dream. It was the memory of how he had gotten to this world. And of his death. William wasn¡¯t sure what disturbed him more. The memory of how he died, or the image of the dead eyes of the body that was now his. He looked at the small mirror hung on the wall and shuddered before quickly avoiding it. Seeing those eyes was not something he wanted to deal with right now. William forced himself to put aside the memory and thought about what to do for the day. If Wang Xiaoling didn¡¯t have any work for him, which was likely since everything was sold yesterday, he intended to visit Jade Healing Clinic. Since he was already resolved to do it, there was no point in dying. But first, he needed to wash himself¡­ and get a change of clothes. William was about to head to the bathroom, or washroom, whatever it was called when his stomach announced its presence with a loud growl. Luckily, he still had a Dragonfruit to sate his hunger until he could get some real food. William quickly finished the fruit and licked his fingers clean. [+1 Strength] [RNG activated] William blinked in surprise at the unexpected attribute increase before his excitement was crushed by the second alert. He knew the chance of having the soul damage affect him was only five percent, but it had already happened once before. [Result: 746] William let out a puff of air in relief. He giggled, sounding hysterical, as he pulled up his base stats. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 2 Experience: 25/250 Cultivation: N/A Health: 15/15 Strength: 2 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 1 Points: 5 William would worryter about how and why the RNG was activated. He would do the same with why the Dragonfruit could bless him with an attribute point when it failed yesterday. Right now, he would revel in the sess. And wash the sweat off his body. Chapter 14: Dragonfruit and Hidden Bigshots Chapter 14: Dragonfruit and Hidden Bigshots ¡°I wonder who works for who. How did I be your personal shopper?¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t,¡± William said dryly, ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he did.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Wang Xiaoling pped the back of William¡¯s head, ¡°Don¡¯t be rude! Call him Brother Li, brat!¡± William rubbed the back of his head and nced at the amused Li Jie. ¡°Sorry, Brother Li. I didn¡¯t mean to have you buy me clothes.¡± ¡°It was no problem,¡± Li Jie smiled, ¡°Besides, I needed to buy some things myself.¡± William looked at Li Jie¡¯s empty hands and raised an eyebrow at him, getting an embarrassed smile in return. He shrugged and let the white lie go. William wasn¡¯t one to be a cockblock without an extremely good reason. At the very least, he understood why Li Jie liked the crazy woman. While Wang Xiaoling didn¡¯t match the beauty of the monstrous girl in the Jade Healing Clinic, she came surprisingly close. ¡°I¡¯m going to take the cost of the clothes out of your next payment,¡± Wang Xiaoling helpfully added, ¡°No need to thank me.¡± William narrowed his eyes, wondering if she was trying to fleece him. ¡°How much did they cost?¡± ¡°Li Jie found it for a bargain. Only 6 Copper! Silk of this quality is usually priced in Silver. I wish I had the luck Li Jie has with finding the good stuff.¡± William gave another knowing look to the blushing guard and wondered what his background was. It surely wasn¡¯t simple. Even if he hadn¡¯t known that Li Jie would buy expensive gifts for Wang Xiaoling and im he had got them for a bargain, having a token to get treated in the Jade Healing Clinic needed a good background. At least, that¡¯s what William assumed from the exclusivity Huang Jingyi mentioned. William wondered if Li Jie was a hidden boss experiencing life as a mortal but immediately threw that out of his mind. If that was true, there was no reason to go to this length to get Wang Xiaoling¡¯s affection. ¡°That does sound like a good deal,¡± William agreed, adding, ¡°Maybe you should go with Brother Li and see if you get lucky.¡± Wang Xiaoling stared intently at Li Jie before smiling widely. ¡°Good idea, Wei Liang! Let¡¯s go!¡± ¡°Ah, wait! Wang Xiaoling, does eating a Dragonfruit do something to you? I feel a little stronger than before.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Wang Xiaoling muttered before pping her forehead, ¡°I forgot you were a country bumpkin. The fruits I sell are the rejected harvest for a minor sect. Even if it¡¯s trash for them, it¡¯s good for people like us!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William wondered how she had got into business with a sect. And didn¡¯t she tell him that an honest merchant like her would never meet experts? ¡°So, is that how you got so strong?¡± ¡°What was that?¡± Wang Xiaoling growled, ¡°Did you say I¡¯m manly?¡± William shook his head rapidly as she threatened him with a closed fist. He forgot he had to watch his words with her short temper. Wang Xiaoling sniffed and said, ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. Besides, eating a Dragonfruit only works a few times. After that, it¡¯s just something delicious.¡± ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s go, Li Jie! You too, Wei Liang. You can help with holding the things I¡¯ll buy.¡± ¡°Right,¡± William stepped back, ¡°As much as I would love to go with you, I have to go back to the Jade Healing Clinic.¡± ¡°You do?¡± Li Jie interjected with a furrowed brow, ¡°Did they not heal you yesterday?¡± ¡°They did, but Elder Huang wanted me toe again. I¡¯m not sure why.¡± Li Jie gained a sharp look in his eyes that William might have missed if it didn¡¯t feel like cold water had been dumped on his head. He shivered involuntarily and tried to seem unaffected, though when Li Jie looked at him sheepishly, it probably didn¡¯t work. ¡°You¡¯re being given a rare opportunity,¡± Li Jie said earnestly, ¡°Be sure to grasp it with both hands. And always be sure to be respectful in the clinic. It is something that could decide your life.¡± ¡°Li Jie, stop scaring the brat! Let¡¯s get Annoying Xu! We can take him along instead of Wei Liang to be my pack mule!¡± William watched the annoyance wash over Li Jie¡¯s face before aforting smile reced it. The image of Fatty Xu would be something that could upy William¡¯s mind if not for how casual Wang Xiaoling seemed to be with what was being discussed. Perhaps he was the naive one to believe that she was nothing more than what she had revealed so far. She was somehow a merchant that sold the rejected harvest from a sect, she knew someone like Li Jie, who had secrets of his own, and she didn¡¯t blink an eye at what Li Jie said about the Jade Healing Clinic. Those were all the traits of a hidden bigshot, right? It might be a stretch, but there was a chance. William knew there must be a reason Daoist Chen dropped him in front of Xiaoling¡¯s wagon. Her skill in making money might not be the most significant factor. He resolved to stick to her like glue to get all the benefits he could. Of course, if necessary, William would sometimes separate from the suspected hidden bigshot Wang Xiaoling. He needed to visit the Jade Healing Clinic, where tantly visible bigshots worked. William observed Li Jie suck up to Wang Xiaoling in his own particr way and decided it wouldn¡¯t hurt to do the same. He figured the easiest way to do that was to change how he addressed her. He could call her Sister Wang, but that would lump him together with Fatty Xu, so that was thrown out. That left only one other option. ¡°Sister Xiaoling, could you drop me off at the clinic?¡± William tried to make himself look as innocent as possible when Wang Xiaoling stared at him suspiciously. He had to stop his instinctual reaction to step back when she moved closer to him. ¡°Did soaking in the tub get you sick?¡± Wang Xiaoling asked as she pressed a hand to William¡¯s forehead. ¡°I¡¯m not sick, but thank you for caring about my well-being, Sister Xiaoling,¡± William continued with his new way of addressing her. ¡°Li Jie, Let¡¯s drop the brat off at the clinic. He¡¯s talking weirdly all of a sudden. Maybe they can fix him.¡± William didn¡¯t even know he was tense until Wang Xiaoling stormed away. He guessed the trauma of her kick still lingered for longer than he expected. Li Jie chuckled as he pped William¡¯s back lightly, ¡°Little Brother Wei Liang, you¡¯re smarter than I guessed, but don¡¯t go too far.¡± William wondered if that was a threat since it certainly sounded like it was. However, he would give Li Jie a pass and assume it was a misunderstanding due to how friendly he had been so far. Because if it wasn¡¯t, William¡¯s liking of the man would drop tremendously for threatening a thirteen-year-old. That would reek of insecurity. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± Wang Xiaoling yelled from the wagon, ¡°Hurry up! I don¡¯t want to waste any time! ¡°Let go, Brother Li. You don¡¯t want to waste the chance I gave you with Sister Xiaoling, do you?¡± The short ride to the Jade Healing Clinic let William see some interesting shops he wanted to look at. But given his current weakness, he was prime material for another abduction. ¡°Sister Xiaoling, is it safe for me to walk back to the hotel?¡± Wang Xiaoling gave William another confused look, still not used to the familiar way he addressed her. ¡°You should be fine as long as it¡¯s notte.¡± ¡°Then I¡¯lle back on my own. You don¡¯t need to pick me up. Thanks for dropping me off, Sister Xiaoling.¡± William hopped down from the wagon and waved at her. ¡°Wei Liang, I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s wrong with you, but you better go back to normal when I see youter.¡± Wang Xiaoling huffed and made the horses tap their hooves to kick up some dirt before leaving William behind. He coughed as he waved his hand ineffectively to try and clear the air. He wasn¡¯t sure if Wang Xiaoling really was a bigshot or not, but even if it was thetter, his near future depended on her grace. William wanted Wang Xiaoling... no. He wanted Sister Xiaoling to see him as something more than cheap help, even if it was only upgraded to extremely precious cheap help that couldn¡¯t be reced. He patted his new silk clothes to get the dust off them before taking a deep breath and prepared himself to greet Li Xinyue. Three keywords were repeating in his mind. Respect, Sincerity, and Agreeability. If he showed all three, the temperamental cultivator wouldn¡¯t threaten to kill him¡­ probably. Chapter 15: Getting on Monstrous Girl鈥檚 Good Side Chapter 15: Getting on Monstrous Girl¡¯s Good Side ¡°Wee to Jade Healing-Oh, it¡¯s you.¡± William had hoped that since Li Xinyue¡¯s master sent him off with a smile yesterday, she would lessen her hostility toward him. In a way, that was correct. It didn¡¯t look like she wanted to kill him, but he wouldn¡¯t say she was pleased to see him. ¡°Why are you here already? Are you that eager to make me waste my time?¡± William wasn¡¯t sure what Li Xinyue was talking about. Still, since he would be spending considerable time with the girl in the future, his first and only priority was getting her to like him, or if that wasn¡¯t possible, tolerating him at the least. Daoist Chen said that he apologized too quickly, but he didn¡¯t see another way to defuse that irritation in Li Xinyue. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± William tried to look like a kicked puppy. He didn¡¯t think it worked since Li Xinyue was unmoved, ¡°Elder Huang was kind enough to give me something called an immortal pill. That must have been really valuable, so I wanted to repay him.¡± William was happy to see that Li Xinyue softened just a little bit. Huang Jingyi might be a way to get into her good graces, but it would take more than that. ¡°Well, at least you aren¡¯t ungrateful,¡± Li Xinyue muttered before sighing in resignation, ¡°Alright, Wei Liang. Master told me to talk to you, so let¡¯s get it over with. How much time do you think it will take?¡± William stared nkly at Li Xinyue¡¯s earnest face, wondering if this was some sort of joke. It was already a strange question, but even more so when a girl closer to twenty asked a thirteen-year-old. ¡°I never really set a time limit when I talk to people,¡± William said with a confused look, ¡°Why did Elder Huang want you to do this?¡± William shuddered at the sudden re shot his way. ¡°It¡¯s not for you to guess why my master does anything.¡± He nodded rapidly, wondering how he had already stepped into andmine. ¡°Maybe we can start by introducing ourselves?¡± ¡°I already know your name. It¡¯s Wei Liang.¡± William had to stop the urge to show his frustration at the oblivious girl. Talking with her was like trying to draw blood from a stone. It was no wonder Huang Jingyi wanted her to speak to him. He had thought he interested the old man with his story, but it looked like he was just a convenient body for his disciple to practice on. Still, that didn¡¯t matter in the grand scheme of things. No matter why William came to the Jade Healing Clinic, it would still count toward his mandatory visits for his side quest. ¡°But I don¡¯t know your name,¡± William replied. Li Xinyue blinked, looking like she hadn¡¯t realized reciprocating was necessary. She looked reluctant as she said, ¡°You can call me Sister Li.¡± ¡°Sister Li, what did you mean by wasting your time?¡± William was using the age-old form to make friends. The first step was to figure out their likes and talk about them. Li Xinyue¡¯s eyes grew bright. ¡°I¡¯m on the cusp of bing an Apprentice Alchemist. Master already says that I can pass the test given by the Imperial Alchemist Association, but I need to reach the Foundation Establishment realm before I am allowed to even try.¡± Li Xinyue paused when she saw the wide-eyed look on his face. She had forgotten that she wasn¡¯t talking to a fellow cultivator in her excitement. ¡°That sounds really impressive, Sister Li,¡± William said with an amazed tone. He didn¡¯t even have to fake it since Alchemists were the rarest type of cultivators due to the amount of dedication it required. At least, that was true in most novels. ¡°Are you about to reach this Foundation Establishment realm soon?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Li Xinyue nodded. Her excitement cooled off considerably since, in her mind, he didn¡¯t truly understand what she was saying, ¡°I should breakthrough in a few months at most. Sooner if I spend all my time cultivating.¡± [Name: Li Xinyue | Level: 94] William nced at the blue text above her and didn¡¯t doubt what she said. She had been at level ny-three yesterday and had already leveled up. She was most likely at the edge for some time, so he wasn¡¯t expecting her to increase to a higher level tomorrow. Still, with what she had said and what he could see, it could be assumed that level one hundred was the limit for whatever realm she was in. ¡°I don¡¯t want to dy you from something so important, Sister Li. Why don¡¯t I tell Elder Huang that we talked for a long time and you can do what you must?¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Li Xinyue¡¯s stance toward him softened even further. Her cheeks turned slightly red as she admitted, ¡°Well, it won¡¯t make much difference right now. I have to stay here in case someonees to the clinic. I usually read alchemy recipes to pass the time.¡± That caught William¡¯s attention, and he decided to try his luck. ¡°Then you can do that, Sister Li. If you think Elder Huang might not be satisfied, maybe I can read with you?¡± ¡°Impossible,¡± Li Xinyue shot it down immediately, ¡°You should never study higher-level alchemic material if you don¡¯t have a foundation. That is often the cause of disasters.¡± William sighed, already having expected that it wouldn¡¯t be so easy. Until Li Xinyue added something surprising. ¡°Wait here. I have something a beginner like you can study.¡± William blinked when Li Xinyue turned into a blur and disappeared for a second before she was in front of him again. This time, there was a small stack of papers in her hands. ¡°This is the Introduction to Alchemy. Master first gave this to me when I broke into the Qi Gathering realm.¡± William was taken aback by her generosity and hesitated in taking the offered papers. His main concern was if Huang Jingyi would fly into a rage if he took something meant for his disciple. It should have been something he thought about when asking Li Xinyue if he could read with her, but he never actually thought she would allow it. ¡°Do you not want them?¡± Li Xinyue frowned in displeasure. ¡°No, it¡¯s not that, Sister Li. Will Elder Huang be alright with this?¡± Li Xinyue gained a look of realization. ¡°You¡¯re surprisingly thoughtful, Wei Liang. There¡¯s nothing to worry about. These are given to everyone that wishes to learn alchemy. You can even buy them with Gold in the mortal world.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William brightened, ¡°Then thank you, Sister Li!¡± ¡°Good,¡± Li Xinyue nodded, her view of him rising even more when he immediately started to read with interest. If this was the result of visiting the clinic, then William was more than willing toe every day. He could already picture the future. Bing an alchemist¡¯s disciple and being invited by sects to make pills. That would be the life. He eagerly read through each page, and the more he flipped through, the worse his mood got. Li Xinyue was right when she said that the book covered the very basic foundations of alchemy. It included mentions of somemon herbs and the properties they had. How they would react when mixing with others, the rate you should inject your spirit energy, and which elements to use for the best efficiency. It was all very helpful, as Li Xinyue said. However, there was an issue that couldn¡¯t be solved. The alchemy in this world reminded William of studying chemistry, except exponentially worse since it might take your life with a mistake. It needed knowledge of all sorts of herbs and superb control of spirit energy to have a chance of bing a mediocre alchemist. As for one that was well-renowned, he didn¡¯t even want to think of the grueling hours needed for that. William already had a job in his old world that required him to sit on his ass all day. He would not willingly pick a path requiring him to do the same here. Of course, he didn¡¯t speak out loud his dissatisfaction in front of Li Xinyue. He finally sensed that she was getting a favorable view of him, and doing that was a surefire way to reverse that hard work. William decided to memorize the section detailing the herbs since it could be helpful in the future. Well, that was the n. ¡°Yue¡¯er, you can take the rest of the day off. Take Wei Liang around the city and show him your favorite spots.¡± William stiffened in surprise and looked up to see Huang Jingyi staring at Li Xinyue. He couldn¡¯t see his expression, but with how she looked at her master, he could safely assume that it wasn¡¯t as cid as the tone of his sentence. ¡°M-Master! We are fine here. Look, Wei Liang doesn¡¯t want to leave either!¡± William cursed in his head and looked like a stunned deer when Huang Jingyi nced at him. He wanted no part in what Li Xinyue was doing. If she wanted to convince her master, she could do it herself and leave the innocent bystander in peace. ¡°You need to take a break, Yue¡¯er,¡± Huang Jingyi dered, ¡°Don¡¯t try to change my mind.¡± Li Xinyue deted and muttered, ¡°Yes, master.¡± ¡°Good! Wei Liang, apany Yue¡¯er. She¡¯ll show you some ces that aren¡¯t avable to mortals.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Huang!¡± William wondered if he showed too much excitement when Li Xinyue gave him an annoyed look. However, ording to the first of his three keywords, respecting the Elder took precedence over the disciple. Chapter 16: Dining at the Phoenix鈥檚 Nest Chapter 16: Dining at the Phoenix¡¯s Nest William stared at the luxurious building with trepidation. Even though his stomach growled hungrily from the smell of the delicious food being served inside, the looks he was getting were enough to make him hesitate to enter. It was amon urrence for passersby to take multiple nces at them while they wandered the streets, but he was aware that it was mainly because of Li Xinyue. That changed when they were outside the Phoenix¡¯s Nest, a restaurant that apparently catered to cultivators and the wealthiest of patrons. The looks were now focused on William, and he didn¡¯t like that at all, especially since some here had their level in the double digits. ¡°Sister Li, why are people looking at me like that?¡± ¡°Most mortals never have a chance to eat here,¡± Li Xinyue replied as she gged down an attendant, ¡°And I¡¯ve nevere here with anyone other than Master.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William muttered as he stepped closer to her. He was almost starting to believe he was thirteen. The number of times he stuck close to the ¡®adults¡¯ was frankly embarrassing. But survival was the name of the game, and he was currently an ant that could be stepped on if he didn¡¯t have protection close by. ¡°Sister Li, maybe it would be better if I didn¡¯t eat here. I can¡¯t afford to pay for it anyway.¡± ¡°Nonsense,¡± Li Xinyue waved him off, ¡°I¡¯m sick of hearing your stomach cry for a meal, and I refuse to eat mortal food. There are far too many toxins in them. As for the cost, since I brought you here, I will pay for you.¡± William gave her an admiring smile and waited patiently for the attendant to arrive. Of course, he didn¡¯t want to miss the chance to eat a real meal, but he had to ensure that Li Xinyue knew he wouldn¡¯t be paying for his portion of the food. It was unlikely she would have made him pay, but if she did, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to sell himself for how much it would probably cost. ¡°Wee back, Senior Li! Would you like your usual room?¡± [Name: Mei Lin | Level: 23] ¡°Yes, but let Chef Zhang know that it won¡¯t be necessary to make my master¡¯s dish.¡± ¡°Yes, Senior Li. If you could follow me?¡± Mei Lin didn¡¯t spare a nce for William and turned to lead them inside. William could safely assume that this Mei Lin was a cultivator, but he wasn¡¯t sure why someone like her would be an attendant of a restaurant. She didn¡¯t look much older than him, so he doubted it was because of ack of potential. Perhaps the Phoenix¡¯s Nest was more impressive than he had already assumed. As they walked inside, he looked briefly at the first floor, where every patron had levels in the low single digits, before Mei Lin directed them up the stairs. The interior more than fit the ornate exterior, with red and gold decor sshed around the restaurant and phoenix motifs everywhere. Large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and painted vases adorned every table to emphasize to a patron to take pride in where they were eating. ¡°Here we are, Senior Li. I¡¯ll let Chef Zhang know your instructions.¡± Mei Lin slid the doors closed and left Li Xinyue and William alone. ¡°Next time, try not to stare at her with such intensity. If I weren¡¯t with you, she would have thrown you out, Wei Liang.¡± ¡°What?¡± William asked in shock, ¡°I wasn¡¯t staring at her.¡± ¡°You were,¡± Li Xinyue insisted, ¡°In fact, you do that to almost everyone you see for the first time. You must break that habit unless you want someone to misunderstand.¡± ¡°¡­ Yes, Sister Li,¡± William sighed in eptance. She was right. He might be innocently staring at the blue text above the people he first met, but they wouldn¡¯t know that. ¡°Good,¡± Li Xinyue nodded, ¡°You¡¯re still young, so most won¡¯t give you much hardship, but there are unreasonable people that will trouble you.¡± William wanted to ask if she included herself in that group since she did threaten to kill him for looking at her. But instead, he said, ¡°Thank you for warning me, Sister Li.¡± The sliding doors opened to reveal a smiling Mei Lin before she stepped aside to reveal multiple people in red uniforms holdingrge dishes in their hands. ¡°These are your regr orders, Senior Li,¡± Mei Lin said cheerily before directing the waiters, ¡°ce the dishes on the table.¡± William looked on with surprise as the dishes slowly filled every part of therge table. It didn¡¯t look like it was made for two people. Rather, it could probably feed half the people on the first floor. ¡°Sister Li, are there other people joining us?¡± ¡°Of course not. There isn¡¯t enough here for more than the two of us. Other than the dish in the center, you can have your pick, Wei Liang.¡± William wondered what was special about the forbidden dish and quickly received an answer from a surprising source. ¡°That dish is called the Celestial Qi Soup. It¡¯s made specially for cultivators in Senior Li¡¯s realm. It would not be suitable for you, dear patron.¡± William looked at Mei Lin in surprise. She pretended he didn¡¯t exist until now, so her talking to him waspletely unexpected. ¡°Mei Lin is right,¡± Li Xinyue agreed, ¡°While it will be nourishing for me, it would be fatal for a mortal like you.¡± ¡°Might I rmend a dish for you?¡± Mei Lin asked helpfully. When William nodded, she directed the idle waiters to make space where he had taken a seat before cing arge bowl in front of him. ¡°This is Celestial Ascension Soup. A popr dish among mortals that visit this restaurant. Its main ingredients are Jade Rabbit and Golden Cicada broth, with various herbs to boost their properties.¡± William, someone who had never thought of eating insects in his previous life, had to fight the urge to retch violently when the image of a cicada popped up in his mind. There was no way he would let this near his lips. ¡°It is known to increase the good fortune of those who consume it while also helping with vitality.¡± William stared nkly at the soup as that sentence registered in his mind. Didn¡¯t that mean this soup would have the same benefits as the Dragonfruit? ¡°Senior Li, let me know if you need anything else. We won¡¯t disturb you any longer.¡± William was vaguely aware of them leaving the room as he stared at the soup and tried to bring himself to drink it. ¡°What are you waiting for, Wei Liang?¡± William nced at Li Xinyue. Seeing her starting to get displeased, he sucked it up and picked up the wooden spoon before taking his first sip. He was disappointed that he didn¡¯t get any attribute points like he had hoped, but he couldn¡¯t deny it might be the most delicious thing he had tasted. With a muffled moan of satisfaction, he forgot himself and started to shovel spoonfuls of soup into his mouth. [+1 Strength] [RNG activated | Result: 421] [+1 Luck] [Current chance of Soul Damage (Major) effect activating: 4.9%] [Activation Numbers: 1-49 | Total Numbers: 1000] [RNG activated | Result: 179] William froze momentarily at the multiple alerts before staring at the soup with greed. ¡°Slow down, Wei Liang,¡± Li Xinyueughed, ¡°Nobody is taking the soup away from you.¡± He looked up to see that she hadn¡¯t started eating herself and was likely enjoying the show he had put on. However, he didn¡¯t feel any shame. ¡°Sorry, Sister Li. I¡¯ve embarrassed myself. I never tasted anything so good before.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t tell anyone,¡± Li Xinyue reassured with a smile, ¡°However, savor the dish slowly. It won¡¯t be good for your body if you eat too fast.¡± William nodded as he took another sip of the soup. He had almost emptied the bowl after a few minutes, and while it was still delicious, there were no more alerts for attribute points. He supposed he had reached the limit of what could be gained from the soup. With a shrug, he chewed on thest piece of rabbit meat. At least he wasn¡¯t hungry anymore. [+1 Strength] [RNG activated | Result: 176] [+1 Luck] [Current chance of Soul Damage (Major) effect activating: 4.8%] [Activation Numbers: 1-48 | Total Numbers: 1000] [RNG activated | Result: 857] ¡°Thank you for the meal, Sister Li!¡± William said from the bottom of his heart. She had helped him greatly, even if she wasn¡¯t aware of it. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 2 Experience: 25/250 Cultivation: N/A Health: 15/15 Strength: 4 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 3 Points: 5 He had gained four attribute points and discovered the Luck attribute helped lower the chance of activating the effect of his soul damage. It might not seem like much, but when two numbers out of fifty were no longer disastrous, that seemed like a significant win to him. Also, now that his Strength attribute was at four, he wouldn¡¯t bepletely helpless. At the very least, Wang Xiaoling would no longer be able to put him in dire straits by ident. ¡­ Unless there was no limit to how high the attribute can get regardless of the level. If that were the case, Wang Xiaoling would be ridiculously strong even with her being level three. The food she had ess to would ensure that. William wanted to give it a test. ¡°Sister Li, can I eat something else?¡± ¡°No,¡± Li Xinyue shot him down after finishing her chewing, ¡°It might be harmful to you. I¡¯ll bring you here next month if you wish. That should be more than enough time for your body to be ready for another dish.¡± William thought she might say no, but didn¡¯t expect her to offer to treat him to another meal. While the month gap was disappointing, it was better than nothing. This monstrous girl wasn¡¯t too bad once she didn¡¯t hate you. Chapter 17: William Is Asked Some Questions Chapter 17: William Is Asked Some Questions This was William¡¯s third visit to the Jade Healing Clinic, and he had settled into what he hoped would be the norm. The past two visits, this one included, weren¡¯t as exciting as the first when Li Xinyue treated him to a meal. Still, it was just as helpful, in his opinion. William religiously followed the three keywords, and that was paying off handsomely. Since Li Xinyue enjoyed reading, he had decided that it was now his favorite activity too. While he couldn¡¯t bear to pretend to read books on alchemy, he was greatly interested in information about known herbs and fruits that had properties simr to a Dragonfruit. Li Xinyue was more than happy to give him books on those subjects and was even more pleased when he devoured them gleefully. In William¡¯s mind, reading an encyclopedia of spirit nts was far too simr to reading a novel. And that was something he considered himself a master of. William looked outside and frowned when he saw that the sun was about to set. While he wanted to stay longer, Wang Xiaoling told him to meet her before dark. ¡°Sister Li, it¡¯s time for me to leave. Thank you for letting me borrow the book.¡± Li Xinyue looked up from the loose papers scattered across the counter and smiled kindly. ¡°I only let you because I saw your interest in reading them, Wei Liang. Stay on the main streets while you¡¯re walking back.¡± ¡°Yes, Sister Li,¡± William waved at her before exiting the clinic. He paused for a moment outside the clinic when he realized what Li Xinyue had added in the end. It looked like she was starting to go from tolerating him to worrying about his safety. Good. William wouldn¡¯t hesitate to admit that the first impression Li Xinyue made on him had been wiped from his mind, and he was starting to like her quite a bit. As he restarted his walk back to the hotel with a smile and an extra hop in his step, a deluge of alerts appeared in his vision. [COMPLETED |Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (3 visits): +150 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Change your impression on Li Xinyue: +200 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Investigate the path of an alchemist: + 150 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat points added] William¡¯s smile grew wider, making the few people in the street stare weirdly at him. He had hoped thatpleting the side quest would get him to the next level, but since he was pretty much in the dark about how many experience points he would get as a reward, it wasn¡¯t a sure thing. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 3 Experience: 275/375 Cultivation: N/A Health: 25/25 Strength: 4 Stamina: 1 Agility: 1 Luck: 3 Points: 10 His eyes gleamed at how close he was to the next level. Even if he hadn¡¯t discovered any other side quests, it was a sure thing for him to level up in a week. Besides, with how well the hidden bonuses rewarded him with experience points, it would make more sense if he spent the time figuring out how to trigger the next one. Other than his excitement at how easy it was turning out to be to increase his level, the increased health helped to massively decrease his worries. It was ridiculous, but he quantified the worth of his upgrade in health by how many kicks he could take from Wang Xiaoling without passing from this world. With twenty-five hit points avable, he could take four unprotected kicks and still hang on by a thread. ¡°This is awesome,¡± William said to himself as he wiped the alerts from his vision. ¡°I wonder what the kid thinks is awesome. Do you have an idea, brother?¡± William felt the hairs on his arm stand up as two people stepped out from an alley to block his path. [Name: Zhang Biao | Level: 5] [Name: Zhou Chao | Level: 3] If this scenario didn¡¯t make William tremble in fear, he wouldugh at what was happening. Was this not the fodder that futilely threw themselves at the main character before getting stomped to the ground? ¡°I don¡¯t have any coin!¡± William blurted out. He even emptied his pockets to show he wasn¡¯t lying. ¡°Brother, this kid thinks we¡¯re robbers.¡± ¡°Shame,¡± Zhang Biao shook his head theatrically, ¡°And we were going to give him such a big opportunity.¡± William tried to discreetly nce behind him while taking a small step back. If he made a run for it, he might be able to get to an area with more people around. ¡°Now, let¡¯s not do anything stupid,¡± Zhou Chao mped his hand on William¡¯s shoulder to keep him in ce, ¡°We¡¯re not going to hurt you, kid. We just want to know more about your pretty merchant friend.¡± William was shocked, not because of what the bandit said but because of how weak the grip on his shoulder was. It looked like his Strength attribute was already showing it¡¯s benefit. ¡°Hey!¡± Zhou Chao squeezed hard on William¡¯s shoulder for looking distracted, ¡°All you need to do is talk to us.¡± William wasn¡¯t an idiot to believe they would let him go if he talked. If they genuinely meant it, he might seriously consider doing so since Wang Xiaoling had Li Jie behind her as protection. ¡°What do you want to know?¡± William asked as he paid close attention to Zhang Biao. That one was who he was most concerned about. The man being at level five should mean that his stats outssed William in every way. ¡°Good!¡± Zhang Biao pped his hands, ¡°We aren¡¯t asking anything much. Just when she¡¯s going to leave the city. And does she have an escort? You see, I¡¯m the leader of a group of men that protects merchants on travels. I don¡¯t want to embarrass myself by asking thedy only to get rejected.¡± William wondered if this was the skill needed in acting to trick the children in this world. Or maybe he was being too harsh and had forgotten how stupid children were everywhere. Still, he pretended like he was thinking of an answer. After a few seconds, he said, ¡°I think she said we¡¯ll leave tomorrow morning.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Zhang Biao moved closer, ¡°And does she have an escort?¡± William noticed that Zhou Chao increased the pressure on his shoulder, not that it did much of anything, and Zhang Biao had moved his hand into his pocket. It was likely they would be making a move depending on how he answered the question. William didn¡¯t want to do this, especially when the ones forcing him to take this step amounted to worthless fodder. But ns never worked out exactly as hoped, which definitely applied here. He pulled the status screen to the corner of his vision and prepared to use the valuable points he had saved. If these idiots caused the effect of his soul damage to activate, he wouldn¡¯t rest until they paid dearly for it. ¡°Why are you quiet all of a sudden? Do you not know?¡± William saw a glint of metal inside Zhang Biao¡¯s pocket, crushing all the hesitation left in him. It was useless to save up his points if he wasn¡¯t alive to enjoy them. Still, William wanted to ensure he didn¡¯t risk more than he had to. With Zhang Biao at level five, he would put two points into Strength and two in Agility. Hopefully, that would make him stronger than the strongest bandit while being fast enough tond a hit. And if needed, another point could be put into Stamina if the fightsted too long. ¡°I¡¯m thinking,¡± William said to buy some time, ¡°She was meeting with someone yesterday¡­.¡± [+1 Strength] [RNG activated | Result: 178] [+1 Strength] [RNG activated | Result: 59] [+1 Agility] [RNG activated | Result: 656] [+1 Agility] [RNG activated | Result: 455] William had assigned the points without looking at the result of the RNG due to the need for quickness. It was after it was over that he saw the second result, and his heart skipped a beat in fear. What he was terrified of almost happened. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 3 Experience: 275/375 Cultivation: N/A Health: 25/25 Strength: 6 Stamina: 1 Agility: 3 Luck: 3 Points: 6 William nced at his status in satisfaction before erasing it from his vision. He would get away from this rtively unscathed if he caught them by surprise. The one holding onto his shoulder had to be taken care of first. Chapter 18: This Isn鈥檛 His Old World Chapter 18: This Isn¡¯t His Old World ¡°Brother, I think we might need to give him some motivation,¡± Zhou Chaomented as he tried to bruise William¡¯s shoulder. Once again, it did nothing to hurt him. However, it did give him an opening. Zhou Chao wasn¡¯t paying much attention to William at the moment. ¡°Looks like you¡¯re right. Maybe we- ZHOU CHAO!¡° William interrupted Zhang Biao¡¯s speech with a sudden punch into Zhou Chao¡¯s ribs. Zhou Chao wheezed in pain as his grip on William¡¯s shoulder slipped off when he fell to his knees and curled into himself. The rush of being in a fight for the first time in his life made William almost light-headed, but that didn¡¯t stop him from making sure Zhou Chao wouldn¡¯t be able to return to help in theing fight. Well aware that Zhang Biao had pulled a knife out and looked like he was about to charge at him, William swung his elbow as hard as he could at the back of Zhou Chao¡¯s head. [+180 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat points added] Getting such a quick level-up would have made William ecstatic if not for the threat of getting skewered by a knife if he wasn¡¯t careful. ¡°YOU¡¯RE DEAD!¡± Zhang Biao roared when he saw Zhou Chou copse to the ground awkwardly. William¡¯s eyes widened in shock when the muscr man moved deceptively quickly. He had assigned his stat points based on the assumption that others would also have the same number of attribute point increases between levels. The only difference was that he could pick which attribute to increase due to the system. ¡°DIE!¡± Zhang Biao stabbed into William¡¯s chest. He had never been so thankful that he didn¡¯t try to act smart and try to save his stat points. He wouldn¡¯t have even been able to regret it since he would be deader than dead. [-2 HP] William grunted in pain when the knife pierced his body, even though he had tried to move as fast as he could to avoid it. It wasn¡¯t anything serious since the de didn¡¯t get deep enough to cause real damage. He had to get that knife out of Zhang Biao¡¯s hands if he wanted a decent chance to win this without taking the risk of assigning more stat points. If his soul damage trait activated at this point, it was a surefire way of losing his life. William lunged to the right to dodge another attack and sprinted to Zhou Chou¡¯s body before stepping on his head. ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± William warned, ¡°Drop the knife, and I won¡¯t stomp on his head!¡± He expected some sort of hesitation with how close they seemed to each other, but that was a mistake. ¡°You dare to mock me!¡± Zhang Biao hissed as his fist tightened around the knife. William yelped as he tripped over Zhou Chou¡¯s body and fell to the ground when Zhang Biao shed at his neck. That probably saved his life, but there was no time to appreciate his luck when Zhang Biao choked him by stepping on his neck and ring down at him. [-5 HP] William tried to struggle free and used all his strength to punch Zhang Biao¡¯s leg multiple times, but to his shock and fear, it was like hitting a rock. It seemed like he had dangerously underestimated how strong Zhang Biao was. ¡°I¡¯m going to enjoy making you scream, brat,¡± Zhang Biao¡¯s chest heaved from his anger, ¡°Death won¡¯te quickly for you.¡± ¡°Sister Xiaoling won¡¯t let you go!¡± He choked past the foot on his neck, ¡°And I¡¯m friends with the immortals from the Jade Healing Clinic! If you don¡¯t let me go, they¡¯ll kill you!¡± William was ready to dump his points into Strength if necessary at a moment¡¯s notice. Before that, he would try anything and everything to avoid doing it. ¡°So what? Zhou Chou is the reason I¡¯m alive today! So be it if I must trade my life to avenge him!¡± [-5 HP] William¡¯s eyes bulged as he flopped like a fish when the foot on his neck became heavier. Just as he resigned himself to using his stat points, he noticed a bulge in the copsed Zhou Chou¡¯s pocket. ¡°All you had to do was tell us what that bitch was going to do, you little-ARGH!¡± William wheezed in air with his freshly unblocked airway but didn¡¯t let up on his attack. He pulled the knife he had found in Zhou Chou¡¯s pocket out of Zhang Biao¡¯s calf before stabbing it back into the other, hopefully disabling the higher leveled man. William scrambled back on the ground to escape Zhang Biao and struggled to his feet while rubbing his bruised neck. ¡°I¡¯M GOING TO KILL YOU!¡± William would have been terrified of that deration if Zhang Biao wasn¡¯t on the ground and trying to murder him with his eyes. Still, he wanted nothing more than to get away from this situation and into safety. Still, before that, he wanted to vent his anger a little bit. ¡°You can¡¯t even walk,¡± William taunted hoarsely, ¡°What are you going to do? Crawl after me? And thanks for the fight. Zhou Chou helped me more than you know.¡± He ignored the roar of helpless rage Zhang Biao let out as he backed away slowly while keeping an eye on the man on the ground. Even if it seemed like Zhang Biao was helpless, William heard plenty of stories where humans did incredible things out of desperation, and that was in his old world. Who knew how it would be here. Still, William wasfortable enough to check the alerts he had gotten during the fight. [Kill Zhou Chou: +180 XP] It felt to William that the world consisted of the blue text that coldly informed him of how a hundred and eighty experience points quantified a life. It suddenly made sense why Zhang Biao flew into such a rage and somehow grew even angrier when William threatened to crush Zhou Chou¡¯s head. Zhang Biao didn¡¯t get angry because of his pride. He was angry that his dead friend¡¯s body would be desecrated. William felt like he was going to be sick. He understood that in the cultivation world, the main character generally grew in power over mountains of dead bodies. Still, it never really hit what that meant until now. William dry heaved when he took a closer look at Zhou Chou¡¯s head. He must not have seen it due to his life being in danger, but there was a significant dent on the skull where William¡¯s elbownded. It left no doubt on what had taken Zhou Chou¡¯s life. [-25 HP] [Trait Added | Stab Wound (-1 HP per 5 minutes)] William stumbled in shock and looked down to see a knife buried in his stomach. He would have thought that it would hurt much more than a particrly hard punch with how deep the de reached. He looked up to see Zhang Biao baring his teeth at him with his hand empty. The man had thrown his knife at him. ¡°Even if you live past today, I won¡¯t rest until I find you and put you down like you deserve.¡± Zhang Biao¡¯s voice had lost the hot rage it previously possessed. However, William could still feel Zhang Biao¡¯s determination to take his life, no matter what it cost him. William stared at him numbly as he eventually came to a realization. Zhang Biao had to die. If he was left alive, the next time William was attacked, the result likely wouldn¡¯t be the same. There would be no possibility of catching them by surprise when the goal was to kill him instead of asking questions. [-1 HP] William gritted his teeth and pulled up his status screen to see how much damage he had taken. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 4 Experience: 80/500 Cultivation: N/A Health: 7/45 Strength: 6 Stamina: 1 Agility: 3 Luck: 3 Points: 11 Traits (2): Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Stab Wound (-1 HP per 5 minutes) William would be dead in thirty-five minutes at the current bleed rate. More than enough time to get to the clinic, even at the slowest walking pace. Which might be what he had to do since he would feel the exhaustion taking over. It was already a miracle he couldst this long with his low Stamina. William stepped toward Zhang Biao and winced at the dull ache before realizing something. His movements weren¡¯t hindered or affected in any way as long as he put the fact that there was a knife buried in his gut out of his mind. That definitely didn¡¯t seem normal and was something to be investigatedter. ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Zhang Biao snarled, ¡°Come closer so I can get my hands on you!¡± William ignored his bluster and clenched his jaw as he gripped the knife. ¡°Just wait! Do you think you are the only one with people protecting you? My family will overturn the city to find my killer! Do it! I dare-URKH¡± William could taste bile as he stared at Zhang Biao¡¯s dimming eyes. He could hear the wet gurgle as the man tried to breathe around the knife piercing his throat but was drowned by his own blood instead. He couldn¡¯t watch the futile struggle continue. William was mindful of not getting too close to the dying man, wary of desperatest attempts. Like a fool, he gripped the handle of the knife buried in his stomach, pulled it out, and threw it as hard as he could at Zhang Biao¡¯s forehead. [Trait Modified | Stab Wound (-2 HP per 5 minutes)] [+310 XP] William cursed loudly, forgetting that pulling a knife out would cause even more damage. The thirty-five minutes of life he had left suddenly became less than twenty. There was still plenty of time to get to the clinic, but no time could be wasted. He shoved the fact that he had just killed two people to the depths of his mind and turned to walk back to the Jade Healing Clinic as quickly as his exhaustion would allow. Chapter 19: Guardian... Watcher? Chapter 19: Guardian... Watcher? [-2 HP] This was the second time that alert had popped up since William started to make his way to the clinic. It meant he only had three hit points left and just over five minutes before he would drop dead. Luckily, the Jade Healing Clinic was in William¡¯s sight. He estimated it would take him around a minute to get to the door, even though it would have usually taken him thirty seconds if he was in a normal state. And by normal, William meant his Stamina and only that. The stab wound in his stomach decreased his health and was starting to get intensely painful as more time passed, but other than that, it didn¡¯t truly affect his overall movement in a meaningful way. William was no doctor, but with how deep the knife stabbed into him, there was no doubt that it caused significant damage to his organs and should have done the same to his muscles. It might have been idiotic of him, no, it was idiotic of him to try, but he had carefully moved his upper body to test how limited his movements were, and he found that it wasn¡¯t at all. The pain in his abdomen didn¡¯t spike, nor did the blood dripping from the wound increase in quantity. It was obvious that the system he possessed was responsible for it, though it hadn¡¯t shown an alert with an exnation when he questioned it. That left William to make his own guess. And he only had one. His body took injuries like an actual game character in an RPG. That would mean as long as William could ignore the pain and he didn¡¯t gain any negative traits, he would be able to fight at his peak with injuries that would cripple most others. Of course, that could all bepletely wrong, but William certainly hoped not. Even if that meant it made him into some type of masochist. ¡°Don¡¯t go near him!¡± William nced at the middle-ageddy holding a child close to her while giving him fearful nces. It had be such amon sight that he could pay it no mind. He had hoped a good samaritan would rush to help a heavily injured teen, but either he had been extremely unlucky and found none, or this was how it worked in this city. It was simr to how people in his old world reacted to seeing something horrible. Most would just point and whisper while doing nothing to help. ¡°You have determination.¡± William blinked and saw Li Xinyue walking right next to him. He would ask her why she was here if he wasn¡¯t close to death. ¡°Sister Li, I need help,¡± William said weakly as he pointed at his bleeding wound, ¡°I got stabbed.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Li Xinyue replied with pursed lips, ¡°I saw what happened. I hoped you could get to the clinic, but this is good enough.¡± ¡°¡­ What?¡± William¡¯s thoughts nked at what he heard. ¡°Master hasn¡¯t allowed me to use immortal pills on customers, but I can apply a salve to heal the wound. It should stop the deathly aura from increasing any further.¡± William stood like a statue when Li Xinyue practically ripped apart his ruined silk clothes to reveal the gruesome wound. She brought out a small bottle filled with a dull red paste and removed the lid before applying it liberally on the stab wound. It was odd, being able to feel the torn skin actively stitch itself back together. [Trait Removed | Stab Wound (-2 HP per 5 minutes)] William had always believed the phrase ¡¯a dark cloud settling on one¡¯s mind¡¯ was an exaggeration, but as the weight lifted off his thoughts, he realized that was exactly how it had felt. ¡°Thank you, Sister Li,¡± William said gratefully. Li Xinyue hummed as she stared at him thoughtfully. ¡°You¡¯ve be strongerpared to when you first came to the clinic. Surprisingly so.¡± William smiled nervously and said, ¡°It must be the meal you treated me to, Sister Li. Your care helped me win that fight.¡± ¡°My care?¡± Li Xinyue smiled ambiguously, ¡°I assume that¡¯s why you so confidently dered that the immortals in the Jade Healing Clinic would avenge your death?¡± William¡¯s smile froze, both from nervousness at thinking he blustered too much and the angered shock at hearing that Li Xinyue had seen the whole fight. Thetter won as he imagined her watching emotionlessly while he was inches away from death. Still, William didn¡¯t forget that Li Xinyue was the girl that threatened to kill him for looking at her for too long. He wrestled the anger down until he sounded more confused than anything else. ¡°You saw all of that, Sister Li? Are you not allowed to help mortals when they¡¯re fighting?¡± ¡°Nothing like that,¡± Li Xinyue said as she pushed William to walk to the clinic, ¡°What¡¯s the point of living under protection? That¡¯s no way to grow to your potential.¡± William¡¯s mind once again went nk. Li Xinyue said that so casually that it was hard for him to say anything about it. Perhaps it was the stark difference in views that baffled him. He was still thinking in terms of his previous life. However, there was still one thing that made no sense. ¡°Then why did you follow me, Sister Li?¡± ¡°Master returned after you left and asked me to bring you back.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William said dumbly before entering the clinic. [Name: Lan Yin | Level: ?] [Name: Lan Yang | Level: ?] The first thing he noticed was the two neers in robes that were a soft shade of green, with two gold circles adorning their sleeves. The next thing that caught his eyes was the identical looks of disdain they shot at him. William couldn¡¯t even me them since he looked like a wreck with a bloodied body and ripped clothes. However, he noticed the unmistakable deference they showed Huang Jingyi, so he ignored them and gave the Elder a deep bow. ¡°Thank you for sending Sister Li, Elder Huang. She saved my life.¡± ¡°Come here, Wei Liang,¡± Huang Jingyi ordered with a frown. When William was in arms reach, he gave him a closer look and sighed. ¡°You will need another immortal pill to return to perfect health.¡± William nced at the two neers when they made a sound in protest. ¡°The token I gave you only lets you enter the clinic without getting blocked. It does not include free service, Wei Liang.¡± William wondered if that was true since it didn¡¯t make much sense to even have a token like that. But since the Elder of the clinic said so, it was now the truth. ¡°It¡¯s alright, Elder Huang. Sister Li stopped the bleeding. I can heal the slow way.¡± ¡°No,¡± Huang Jingyi shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous to leave you in this state. But it¡¯s against the sect''s rules to heal you for free¡­ Lan Yin! Lan Yang!¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Huang?¡± The neers asked in unison. ¡°Do you still need mortal helpers in the Garden?¡± ¡°Yes, Elder,¡± The girl, Lan Yin, answered, ¡°There were two that retired recently.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Huang Jingyi nodded and looked at William, ¡°I¡¯ll give you another Vitality Restoration Pill if you agree to work diligently in my Spirit nt Garden for a month.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. This wasn¡¯t a fair trade at all, in his view. It was like two rewards were handed to him. ¡°I¡¯ll do it!¡± ¡°Yue¡¯er told me of your interest in reading about them.¡± Huang Jingyi chuckled and tossed a pill into William¡¯s open mouth. [+42 HP] ¡°Good! Come back to the clinic tomorrow, and they¡¯ll take you to the Garden.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Huang,¡± William bowed deeply again. ¡°Yue¡¯er, see to it that Wei Liang reaches safely. I wouldn¡¯t want to use another pill.¡± ¡°Yes, Master,¡± Li Xinyue nodded as she nudged William to the door. He didn¡¯t resist and left after giving Huang Jingyi another deep bow in gratitude. After they were far from the clinic, he asked Li Xinyue something he was confused about. ¡°Sister Li? Didn¡¯t you say Elder Huang asked you to bring me back? What was it for? He didn¡¯t say anything.¡± Li Xinyue chuckled and said, ¡°Master wanted to offer you work in the Garden. He didn¡¯t expect you to be so hurt, so he turned it into payment for giving you the pill.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William tilted his head and mentally thanked Huang Jingyi again. He was far kinder than William ever expected. Maybe it was because Li Xinyue was bing more sociallypetent, at least with him. ¡°Elder Huang is kind,¡± Williammented out loud, much to Li Xinyue¡¯s delight. They got closer to where the fight urred, and William found himself strangely nervous, even though he was in no danger with Li Xinyue beside him. ¡°Looks like they¡¯re cleaning it up,¡± Li Xinyue observed as she saw city guards loading the bodies of the two dead bandits onto a cart. William nodded before his eyes brightened up when he saw a familiar face. ¡°Brother Li!¡± Li Jie was directing his subordinates when he heard his name being called by a familiar voice. He looked up, surprised to see William¡¯s blood-covered form beside the girl who never leaves the Jade Healing Clinic. ¡°Little Brother Wei Liang? What happened to you?¡± William pointed at the dead bodies while doing his best to not look at them. ¡°They happened. They tried to kill me after I refused to tell them about Sister Xiaoling.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Li Jie looked shocked before his eyes sharpened. He barked at his men, ¡°Find out if other people are working with them!¡± William nodded, satisfied that Li Jie did as he assumed he would. If there was a slight chance that Zhang Biao was telling the truth about being part of a group, he hoped this would be enough to eliminate that problem. ¡°Now,¡± Li Jie turned back to them, ¡°What brings you out of the clinic, Cousin Xinyue?¡± Chapter 20: Coincidences and Connections Chapter 20: Coincidences and Connections ¡°I¡¯m making sure Wei Liang gets back safely. He was barely able to defeat those two weaklings. Look at the state he¡¯s in.¡± Li Jie stared at William with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Is that true? You were able to kill them?¡± William was looking between the two in shock. They had the same family names, but he didn¡¯t pay that much attention since he thought it was simply a coincidence. That was especially true when Li Xinyue referenced Li Jie as ¡®the guard.¡¯ ¡°Sister Li, you¡¯re rted to him!¡± ¡°Yes, she is,¡± Li Jie answered in her ce, ¡°Answer my question before we talk about that, Wei Liang.¡± William didn¡¯t miss how Li Jie changed the way he addressed him, nor did William miss the suddenly cold tone that he was using. ¡°¡­ Yes, I was. But I almost died in the process.¡± William tried to step back when Li Jie moved into his personal space but was stopped by a tight grip on his arm. ¡°Interesting, your muscles are more defined than anyone without training has a right to possess.¡± Li Jie let William go and asked Li Xinyue, ¡°What did you do to him, Cousin Xinyue?¡± ¡°I treated Wei Liang to a meal at the Phoenix¡¯s Nest, but that wouldn¡¯t exin everything.¡± William fidgeted when two sets of curious eyes locked onto him. When they didn¡¯t let up, he blurted out, ¡°I don¡¯t know either.¡± ¡°I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Li Jie said reluctantly, ¡°Wang Xiaoling can still easily beat you if needed.¡± William blinked owlishly at that im and wondered if that was a joke. If that was true, wouldn¡¯t that mean that Wang Xiaoling could deal with Zhang Biao like he was an unruly child? Just thinking of that man¡¯s name brought up unpleasant memories. He shuddered as he remembered the wet gurgle as Zhang Biao¡¯s blood drowned him. ¡°You can talk to Wei Liangter,¡± Li Xinyue interjected, ¡°I have to get back to the clinic soon.¡± ¡°Hold on for a minute, Cousin Xinyue,¡± Li Jie stopped her from leaving and returned to his men. William could see Li Jie gesturing orders while often pointing at the dead bodies of Zhang Biao and Zhou Chou. He averted his eyes and cleared his throat. ¡°Sister Li, why didn¡¯t you tell me about-¡± ¡°Stop,¡± Li Xinyue interrupted, ¡°You can ask him about that. It¡¯s his story to tell.¡± William¡¯s mind went wild thinking about Li Jie being a protagonist-like character bullied into his menial role as a guard captain by someone in his n. Just as he shifted his gaze to stare at Li Jie, he wished he didn¡¯t. Li Jie pulled a wless sword that William had never seen him use out of the scabbard and smoothly cut off the dead bandits¡¯ heads. Two of his men each picked up a detached head before walking off in the direction Li Jie pointed. William knew he should get used to this but wasn¡¯t ready to watch casual dismemberments yet. ¡°I¡¯m finished. Let¡¯s go,¡± Li Jie said with a smile. William acted like a barrier between the two until they reached the Golden Lotus Inn. Honestly, the painful silence let too many thoughts appear in his head. He distracted himself by looking at his stat screen. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 4 Experience: 390/500 Cultivation: N/A Health: 45/45 Strength: 6 Stamina: 1 Agility: 3 Luck: 3 Points: 11 Traits: Soul Damage (Major) - Will reduce all base stats to 1 randomly Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) Side Quests (3): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation 3. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) It was nice to see the whole thing, but seeing the first two side quests wasn¡¯t necessary since finishing them anytime soon was a near impossibility. In fact, making Huang Jingyi kneel wasn¡¯t something he was keen on doing after how kind the Elder was toward him. [Remove Side Quest #2 | Y/N] William stared at the alert briefly before thinking, ¡®No.¡¯ He was going to keep it as a precaution, nothing more. Who knew if Huang Jingyi would be his enemy in the future. That was amon plot line, right? Side Quests (3): Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) William erased the alert and wished the system responded more to his other requests. Then again, if it was that smart, it would probably be like having a second voice in his head. It sounded helpful but could also drive him to insanity, so it was likely a good thing his system was ¡®dumb.¡¯ ¡°Brat! What took you-¡± Wang Xiaoling goggled at William and shrieked, ¡°What happened to you!¡± ¡°I was attacked,¡± William stated obviously, before trying his attempt at humor with an ugly smile, ¡°But you should see the other guys.¡± Wang Xiaoling stared at him before looking at Li Jie in question. ¡°Little Brother Wei Liang is right. You should see the other guys,¡± Li Jie agreed with a smirk, ¡°They¡¯re currently headless.¡± ¡°Wei Liang, I¡¯ll be heading back,¡± Li Xinyue interjected, ¡°Remember to arrive early tomorrow.¡± ¡°Yes, Sister Li,¡± William nodded his head. She disappeared in a blur as if to let him know how patient she had been to walk that slowly with him. ¡°Tsk, she¡¯s still a bitch,¡± Wang Xiaoling muttered. It surprised William, who was barely able to catch what she said. Li Xinyue had pretended that she had no idea who Wang Xiaoling was and called her the merchant girl. The part of him that loved office gossip yearned to ask questions about it, but the fierce look in Wang Xiaoling¡¯s eyes discouraged him. ¡°Li Jie, fill me in on what happened,¡± Wang Xiaoling ordered. As Li Jie did just that. William wondered why she had such power over the odd guard. He might not have researched the major ns in the city, a mistake he needed to rectify soon, but having a rtive of Li Xinyue likely meant that the n wasn¡¯t in too bad of a standing. However, Wang Xiaoling had admitted to William when they met that she was an independent merchant with no backing and was kicked out of her n. None of which he truly believed at this point. He didn¡¯t even me her for lying since she didn¡¯t really know him at that point. ¡°I knew you were a worthy hire, brat!¡± Wang Xiaoling eximed, ¡°Instead of being a helper, you can also be a guard! And just in time. I was going to leave the city tomorrow to pick up more goods.¡± William found it funny that what he told Zhang Biao about Wang Xiaoling¡¯s departure had been right. However, he had to give her some bad news. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Sister Xiaoling, I won¡¯t be able toe with you. Elder Huang used an immortal pill to heal me and wants me to work for him for a month to repay it.¡± Wang Xiaoling puffed up in rage before deting when she heard William mention Elder Huang. ¡°Great, now I have to get an escort because some idiots want to rob me.¡± William wanted to ask her how that would change if he had been able toe with her but figured it was better not to ask. ¡°Fine,¡± Wang Xiaoling sighed before narrowing her eyes, ¡°But don¡¯t expect me to keep paying for a room. If Elder Huang wants you to work for him, he can deal with it.¡± William epted that without argument. It was perfectly reasonable for her to make that decision. Besides, he thought she already went above and beyond by letting him stay in the Golden Lotus on her coin. Especially with how it looked like someone was stabbing her every time she had to pay for another night. ¡°This might work out perfectly. It¡¯ll take over a month for me to return, and you¡¯ll be here to help me sell what I bring back. Plus, I¡¯ll save a fortune on food!¡± ¡°Understood,¡± William saluted. ¡°Go to your room and get cleaned up, brat.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see you off tomorrow, Sister Xiaoling,¡± William waved as he slightly nodded to Li Jie, who was predictably too engrossed to notice his existence. He wasn¡¯t fazed by the snub and eagerly rushed to his room, wanting nothing more than to get out of the ruined clothes and wash the blood off his body. Chapter 21: Leaving Xuanjing City Chapter 21: Leaving Xuanjing City William stared after the disappearing wagon. He should have assumed that Wang Xiaoling wasn¡¯t much for goodbyes, and he should have also assumed that Li Jie wouldn¡¯t let her out of his sight. The man had confidently imed a few minutes ago that Zhang Biao and Zhou Chou were acting alone, and what happened was ast act of desperation for them. If that was the case, why did Li Jie arrive with ten subordinates and set off on the journey with Wang Xiaoling to act as her escort? Whatever Wang Xiaoling had done to get this level of loyalty from Li Jie, William saluted her for it. Perhaps Li Xinyue didn¡¯t acknowledge Li Jie because of this simpering behavior. ¡°Here you are. Five Copper.¡± William turned to see Wu Chang, who looked confused. The man was offering the deposit he had paid at the start for the room. He pocketed the offered coins before saying, ¡°Looks like Sister Xiaoling isn¡¯tpletely heartless. She must have been embarrassed to tell me she paid for my first night before leaving.¡± ¡°Ah, that¡¯s not it,¡± Wu Chang denied awkwardly, ¡°She paid the very night she arrived, but I always believed she would ask for it back, so I didn¡¯t return the deposit until she left.¡± William blinked at the innkeeper and nodded slowly. ¡°Thank you for being honest, Innkeeper Chang. This must be why Sister Xiaoling stays here.¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s because she beat me down on price till I agreed.¡± William gracefully ignored the aggrieved muttering and left for the clinic after a quick goodbye. He could barely hold himself from sprinting but was aware his Stamina wasn¡¯t high enough to unnecessarily use his energy. He noticed the wary looks most people gave him as he walked by and thought back to what Li Jie had revealed. His assumption that most people were heartless for not helping him yesterday was too harsh. Apparently, word of mouth spread faster than he could walk in his weak state. Someone had seen him kill the two bandits, and that had quickly spread. However, with how unreliable information was when spreading by word-of-mouth, most were under the impression that William was a murder-crazed psychotic teen that had no limits to depravity. With that description stuck to him, he considered it lucky that a mob hadn¡¯t formed and hunted him down to put an end to his apparent terror. And even though the rumors were ridiculous, William couldn¡¯t help but think there was the slightest hint of truth in them. Not because he suddenly felt the urge to go on a killing spree but because of his reaction to killing the two bandits, or rather, theck thereof. Wasn¡¯t it normal to have some sort of traumatic response after killing someone, even in self-defense? All William had felt was anger and shock in the immediate aftermath and a sense of relief that he was the one that left that encounter with his life. He had expectedst night¡¯s sleep to be full of disturbance, but it had been one of the most restful he had experienced in either of his lives. He didn¡¯t think he could be so callous, but he was happy about it. If a deserved death caused William to react in a way he thought was sensible, he would have a terrible time in this world. Instead of cultivation, he would have to spend most of his time searching for nonexistent therapists. William entered the clinic and smiled at Li Xinyue. ¡°Morning, Sister Li!¡± ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Li Xinyue greeted, ¡°Master is waiting, but before you meet him, make sure to greet my Senior Brother and Sister from the Sect. They were displeased when you ignored them yesterday.¡± William had forgotten about Lan Yin and Lan Yang. He shouldn¡¯t have, but they were thest thing on his mind after everything that had happened at that point. But something stuck out to him from what Li Xinyue said. ¡°Sect?¡± Li Xinyue blinked, realizing that she had never mentioned this before. ¡°Master and I are part of the Jade Healing Sect.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William murmured as he followed Li Xinyue to the back of the clinic. He supposed it made sense for the Jade Healing Clinic to have support behind it. As they walked through a surprisingly in hallway, Li Xinyue continued, ¡°I¡¯m sure my Seniors will be happy to tell you more about the Sect. And make sure you are respectful to them. From what I remember, they are ones to follow formality.¡± William nodded, filing that away in his mind as they entered a room. He was confronted with a disordered space where broken cauldrons were positioned along the walls, and half-finished ingredients were strewn about the tables. In the center of the room, a cauldron was boiling over the mes, releasing a concerning amount of smoke. William had to fight the urge to vomit all over the floor when the noxious fumes entered his nose. ¡°Master, Seniors,¡± Li Xinyue respectfully announced, ¡°I¡¯ve brought Wei Liang.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Huang Jingyi said after peering closely at William, ¡°And you¡¯re handling the fumes well. Very good!¡± William wasn¡¯t sure if this could be called handling it well. He tried to stop the smell from assaulting his nose by breathing with his mouth, and that was a massive mistake. Somehow, he could taste the foul-smelling odor, which now lined his throat. Lan Yang chuckled, ¡°It¡¯s satisfactory. The mortal will be able to care for all the nts in your Garden if he can withstand this, Elder Huang.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± Lan Yin said coldly, ¡°Get rid of the stench, brother. He passed.¡± Lan Yang smiled as he threw a fistful of a colored powder into the bubbling cauldron before dousing the me. A thick, white plume of smoke billowed out and quickly dissipated throughout the room, ridding the previous fumes that caused the stench. As William greedily took in the clean air, he recollected Li Xinyue¡¯s advice. He bowed deeply to Lan Yin and Lan Yang and said, ¡°Thank you, Seniors. And I apologize for not greeting you yesterday. It was far too eventful for me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no matter. We understand,¡± Lan Yin answered for both of them, though she made it sound like she didn¡¯t care much about it. William didn¡¯t mind that. It wasn¡¯t like he expected every cultivator to be as kind as Huang Jingyi, and eventually, Li Xinyue had been. ¡°Good!¡± Huang Jingyi repeated with a smile, ¡°Lan Yang, make sure Lan Yin doesn¡¯t work Wei Liang too much. I expect him to be returned in good condition.¡± It felt odd for William to hear Huang Jingyi talking about him like he was something to be loaned out. ¡°Yes, Elder Huang,¡± Lan Yang bowed his head slightly while Lan Yin pressed her lips t. Huang Jingyi chuckled at Lan Yin¡¯s expression, making her turn slightly red and hide behind a curtain of silky ck hair. William blinked as he stared at the suddenly appealing Lan Yin before he was brought back to the present by a nudge Li Xinyue gave him. He quickly looked away and was thankful nobody else noticed. He wasn¡¯t sure why he hadn¡¯t realized it before, but Lan Yang and Lan Yin were the ssic examples of how cultivators were described. Perhaps William had be too ustomed to Li Xinyue¡¯s striking beauty. Still, the Lan siblings were by no meanscking in looks. Lan Yang possessed a chiseled jawline and sharp, defined features as though he had been crafted from pure marble. In contrast, Lan Yin disyed a more gentle, rounded beauty, with delicate features that still shared simrities with her brother. What caught William off guard the most were their eyes, a dark shade of green that appeared almost ck. ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Huang Jingyi interrupted his internal admiration, ¡°You won¡¯t be able to visit the clinic for the next month, but I expect you to continue after returning to Xuanjing City.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Huang,¡± William agreed firmly. He had only been able toplete the side quest once, and there was no way he would willingly give up such an easy way to gain experience. Huang Jingyi nodded and said, ¡°Lan Yang, Lan Yin, start as soon as possible. The Qi stones needed will rise the longer you dy.¡± William was confused about what that meant until he stood in the middle of aplicated drawing that was asionally adorned with glowing stones at the edges. The Lan siblings were standing in the circle with him, looking unperturbed by how the stones increasingly released wisps of silvery aura. ¡°Goodbye, Seniors! I¡¯ll see you in a month, Wei Liang!¡± William could only answer Li Xinyue with a nod before a bright sh of light filled his vision. Chapter 22: The Garden of the Jade Healing Sect Chapter 22: The Garden of the Jade Healing Sect He had grown used to Li Xinyue''s willingness to answer questions, to the point where he had, for some reason, expected that would be the same with the Lan siblings. Instead, William hadn¡¯t seen them since they had dropped him off at this ¡®Garden.¡¯ Which was a description that definitely should never apply to something this vast. A garden should be something that could fit on a small patch ofnd, not this ridiculous farm that he couldn¡¯t see the end of whichever way he looked. One of the few things that the Lan siblings did tell William was the shocking number of workers needed for the daily upkeep. With over ten thousand mortals and low-level cultivators toiling away daily, it was obvious that Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t intend for William to make any true contributions. He was here purely for the experience of working with spirit nts. ¡­ And maybe it might have had to do with making sure he felt indebted to Huang Jingyi so he kept visiting the clinic. Both reasons were even more likely with the pass he had received when the Lan siblings left him. It let him wander around most parts of the Garden without restrictions. In fact, that had been precisely what he had been doing the past week. That, and trying to do his damned best to activate another quest. This ce might be a perfect way for William to make practical use of the books he had been reading continuously since he arrived, but he was also in an apparent dead zone for experience points. No matter what he did or who he talked to, a side quest wasn¡¯t activated. William contemted giving up and epting that this month may only be helpful for the future. It was a better mindset than thinking of it as stagnation. In the time he spent on the farm masquerading as a garden, he would havepleted the side quest to visit Jade Healing Clinic,ting him a crucial hundred and fifty experience points. Enough to get him to the next level without considering any bonuses. Even worse was that he would miss out on three more weeks, which made his heart burn in regret. ¡°Master Wei, where would you like to go today?¡± Another downside to the ce was the people working there. [Name: Shao Jun | Level: 99] ¡°Just go wherever you need to, Shao Jun. I¡¯ll follow behind like usual.¡± William did his best to keep any sign of pity off his expression as he answered Shao Jun. Still, from the slight stiffening of the old man¡¯s lips, he probably hadn¡¯t seeded. Shao Jun was a typical cultivator that called the Garden home. One that had exhausted all their potential. ¡°Then shall we head for the Fire Plums today?¡± Shao Jun sped his arms behind his back while waiting for William¡¯s answer. ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± William nodded in agreement. He couldn¡¯t help but frown when Shao Jun summoned the workers assigned to him for the stay. Over a dozen well-built men carried a pnquin over and set it down. He wished it wasn¡¯t necessary, but his Stamina was still pathetic since he wasn¡¯t allowed to eat any spirit nts. When William said that the people who worked here were a negative about the ce, he didn¡¯t mean that the people themselves were terrible. Instead, it was the situation around their ¡®employment.¡¯ While he wouldn¡¯t go as far as to call it very, it came damn close to that definition. The only reason it didn¡¯t reach that level was that the workers did receive pay and were allowed to leave whenever they chose to. It sounded great in theory, except that every one of these workers had exhausted their families¡¯ savings to reach the Garden. And brought their families along with them, making it that much harder to leave. The Jade Healing Sect enticed cheapbor by promises of shelter and pay, along with the chance to be recruited into the Sect if lucky enough. Though, as far as William knew, there were no examples of that happening, not that it stopped the hope from continuing. The most appalling part of this was the future of the members of these families. With how remote this Garden was from any mortal settlement, there was absolutely no way to leave without paying a ridiculous sum for transportation to the Sect itself. That meant the families that moved here would all eventually be workers of the Garden generationally. It baffled William that the workers were all aware of it and still happily worked themselves to death. And that was meant literally. The two workers that ¡®retired¡¯ only did so because they were too old to work and were on their deathbeds. If Li Xinyue didn¡¯t seem to have the willingness to speak to him, William would be worried that he had been lured here to be one of these workers since the architect of this abominable system was Huang Jingyi. The man that seemed so kind might be the scariest of them all. Instead of affecting a single person, he changed the fates of multiple generations while making them believe they got the better end of it. ¡°Master Wei, the sedan is ready.¡± William gave an uneasy smile to the servants kneeling to allow him to climb on easily. The idiots all looked happy to serve him, as if he had any power to help them in the future. ¡°To the Fire Plum patch,¡± Shao Jun ordered, bringing the curtain down to block the sun. The pnquin jostled a bit before the men carrying it settled into a steady jog. It surprised William the first time he experienced this, but he learned that they were fed low-quality spirit nts until they were robust enough to work the entire day tirelessly if needed. ¡°Shao Jun, are you sure there¡¯s nothing I can do to help?¡± William asked for what felt like the umpteenth time, ¡°I think I¡¯d learn more if I can help to nt something. Or if not that, let me water the Dragonfruits!¡± ¡°I apologize, Master Wei,¡± Shao Jun said in a monotone voice, ¡°Until Overseer Lan decides otherwise, you are forbidden to do so.¡± William sighed in frustration and prepared himself for another day of observing how others maintained a spirit nt. He understood why he wasn¡¯t allowed to touch anything, but that didn¡¯t mean he had to like it. ¡°Shao Jun!¡± William felt the sedan suddenly halt, and Shao Jun¡¯s nk expression gained some life as he immediately pulled up the curtain. ¡°Overseer Lan! What are your orders?¡± ¡°Tell Wei Liang toe out.¡± William was already stepping out when he heard Lan Yin¡¯s cold voice, curious about how it came from above. He shaded his eyes with his hand to block the bright sun to see a strangely decorated¡­ boat? At the least, it was in the shape of a boat, but it was flying. It took William a good second before remembering that there was something called a spirit boat in the cultivation world, though it was rarely mentioned. ¡°Senior Lan?¡± William asked with barely hidden hope. Maybe she would be the one that would let him activate a quest, and if not, he could try to convince her to let him do something more to get a better use out of this trip. ¡°You¡¯reing with me,¡± Lan Yinmanded as she flicked her hand to pick William up without getting out of her spirit boat. Daoist Chen and Huang Jingyi had done something simr, except when Lan Yin decided to follow in their steps, William felt like he was surrounded by a pocket of dense air. He assumed that it was because of Lan Yin¡¯s presumably lower cultivation. ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± Lan Yin said before the spirit boat moved forward with rming speed. William couldn¡¯t actually feel the movement, but he could see the blur of the surroundings since the boat had no cover to block his vision. It wasn¡¯t a fun experience with the confusion to his senses. ¡°Elder Huang instructed that you are allowed to enter the forbidden areas as long as you diligently self-study for the first week.¡± William forced himself to ignore the blurred surroundings and, luckily, had a helpful target. Lan Yin¡¯s exceptionally beautiful face was a convenient distraction, and he had the excuse of listening to her talk to do so. ¡°Where are we going, Senior Lan?¡± As soon as William finished his sentence, the spirit boat abruptly halted, and he found himself in a vastly different areapared to where he had just been. Instead of endless, well-kept farnd, the surroundings appeared to be overgrown and untamed, resembling a wilnd. ¡°Unlike where you were, the Sect doesn¡¯t depend on this part of the Garden for its harvest. Shao Jun told me you asked for more, so here is your chance.¡± William yelped when he was unceremoniously pulled off the spirit boat and dropped onto the ground. ¡°You¡¯re wee to feast on whatever catches your fancy,¡± Lin Yi added when William looked up at her, ¡°I¡¯lle back in three weeks. Make sure to live until then.¡± The spirit boat began to move and swiftly vanished into the distance before William could say anything. Frowning, William carefully surveyed his surroundings, pondering why Lan Yin had hinted at potential danger to his life. He believed there was nothing within the Garden that could pose a threat to him, considering therge number of mortals living here. Despite a possible risk to his life, William''s greed began to stir within him. After a week of being unproductive regarding his stats, a golden opportunity had presented itself. William tried his best to dismiss the strange expressions on Shao Jun''s face and the workers carrying the pnquin just before he was taken away. He didn¡¯t know why they seemed so concerned, but he couldn¡¯t do much about it anyway. All he could focus on was taking advantage of this chance to buff his stats. Chapter 23: The Perks and Perils of Spirit Plants Chapter 23: The Perks and Perils of Spirit nts [+1 Stamina] [RNG Activated | Result: 350] [+1 Agility] [RNG Activated | Result: 104] William twitched as he kept chewing on the Lightning Berry, the first thing he had found that could be eaten raw to increase Stamina. The Agility increase was a convenient bonus, but it was one that he wasn¡¯t sure he really wanted. It was only a matter of time before he got unlucky, and every stat was reset to one. [+1 Stamina] [RNG Activated | Result: 117] [+1 Agility] [RNG Activated | Result: 326] William winced as another shock ran through his body when he swallowed the remaining part of the berry. The Lightning Berry, thankfully, didn¡¯t live up to its name and only caused a minor difort instead of being fatal, unlike a few other things that seemed to be edible. It had been a few days since Lan Yin had abruptly left William in the wilderness. In the short time he had been exploring his surroundings and gathering some spirit nts, William had not found anything that seemed particrly dangerous to him. Lan Yin had told him to stay alive, so he assumed that animals were in the area. However, William had not seen any tracks or heard any sounds suggesting something else had been moving beside himself. That significantly decreased William¡¯s wariness, but it didn¡¯t mean he started to stroll through the overgrowth like the ce belonged to him. Some spirit nts still enjoyed having an asional human snack, and he didn¡¯t intend to be food to a damned nt. Of course, all of this meant his progress in exploring this area was painfully slow. Not only because he double and triple-checked if his surroundings were safe but also because of his terrible Stamina. If he didn¡¯t have three weeks to explore, he might have resorted to using his stat points to increase it. William looked up at the top of the tree and counted that four more Lightning Berries were ripe and safe to eat. He dropped his makeshift pouch made out of ripped silk fabric and rubbed his hands together for another climb up a tree. It had be somon the past few days that it had be almost effortless, even to someone like William, who had never done any strenuous work in his life. It took around a minute for him to reach the top and pluck the berries he wanted before quickly climbing back down. He added the Lightning Berries to his collection in the pouch and smiled in satisfaction. While it might have taken days before seeing the first increase in his stat points, it was by design. William didn¡¯t see a point in increasing attributes other than Stamina since he was satisfied with the level they were at. That didn¡¯t mean he ignored the fruits that would increase his Strength. Whatever he could carry, he currently had in his makeshift pouch. Unfortunately, there was no other option but to riprge pieces of his clothes to make it. Although it was a regrettable decision, it was a choice he knew he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to make again. William counted what he had in the pouch before wondering if he should try his luck. If everything went his way, he could potentially increase his stats by ten Strength, eight Stamina, and eight Agility. Thetter two obviously woulde from the four Lightning Berries he had just plucked, and the Strength would be from the Blood Oranges he had gathered the past few days. After a few seconds of hesitation, William decided it wouldn¡¯t hurt to try it. Even if he got unlucky and his stats reset to one, he had more than enough collected to quickly get back to his current level, and if that wasn¡¯t enough, there was plenty that he could find over the next few weeks. William took out a Blood Orange and hung the pouch over his shoulder before walking to where he had seen the Spirit Grass yesterday. That was another spirit nt that was known to increase strength. This ce was like heaven to him. All the spirit nts that could be picked were for Qi Gathering cultivators. When eaten by a mortal, it would never lose its efficiency, no matter how much was consumed. [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 944] [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 591] William threw the remaining skin of the Blood Orange to the ground and thought about how nice it would be if side quests could be activated too. That would make this perfect. He rubbed his growling stomach and pulled out another Blood Orange. William was still perplexed by the situation. Given that all the side quests were currently user-generated, he couldn¡¯t understand why none had been triggered yet. He felt that what he had been doing since the beginning, searching for a spirit nt to increase his Stamina, should have qualified as a quest. Despite William¡¯s efforts to get a response, he had not received any alerts from the system on why it didn¡¯t qualify. It left him feeling lost and frustrated, wondering if he was missing something crucial. [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 848] [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 293] ¡°Are you sure they won¡¯t find us?¡± William froze, looking like a surprised statue, when he heard someone¡¯s voice for the first time in days. ¡°You know they ignore this ce. The Manager told me it¡¯s restricted until the Overseer starts to develop it.¡± William was tempted to say hello for some human socialization. Still, while he acknowledged he wasn¡¯t the smartest, he at least had the sense to not do something so foolish. ¡°You¡¯re a genius, Brother Cao! This way, we can eat what they send to the Sect instead of the trash left to us.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go get our brothers ande back. We can find the spirit nts quick-Wait!¡± William frowned when he heard the man sniff loudly like a dog. ¡°I smell something close by! Brother Liu, it¡¯s this way!¡± William cursed loudly in his mind when they started toe his way. He darted in the opposite direction without waiting to see if they were friendly and tried to find a hiding ce. While this area was untamed, it didn¡¯t include many thick trees that would provide any cover. Most were like the Lightning Berry tree, thin and utterly useless for the purpose of trying to hide. ¡°Brother Liu! It¡¯s moving! It might have gained sentience!¡± William wanted to punt that man into orbit. How in the world did a human gain a dog-like sense of smell? He knew there was an easy way to escape them. All he had to do was to throw down his makeshift pouch and abandon it, but the chance of finding ripe Lightning Berries wasn¡¯t high. In ast shot to distract them, he reluctantly threw two of his three remaining Blood Oranges to the right, hoping it was enough to distract the dog man. William pumped his legs faster, running at the fastest speed he could and hoping that the dog man didn¡¯t have ears like a dog. He didn¡¯t dare to slow down until twenty minutester when he was panting for breath, and the muscles in his legs were burning from the strain. It might seem excessive to keep running for that long, but he had seen the mortals that worked in the Garden. While their levels averaged around five, they were all ridiculously strong due to what they were fed. If they were unfriendly, William knew he would have a tough time trying to escape. He slumped against a nearby tree and considered what his future days could be like. With those men intending to return with more of their friends, he would either have to risk it by revealing himself or be fast enough to reliably escape them every time. William took out a Lightning Berry and rolled it between his fingers before popping it into his mouth. He quickly crushed it between his teeth, flinching at the shock running through his body, before swallowing every bit of the berry. [+1 Stamina] [RNG Activated | Result: 11] [Soul Damage Trait Activated | All Base Stats Reset to 1] [Current Chance of Soul Damage (Major) Effect Activating: 5%] [+1 Agility] [RNG Activated | Result: 433] [+1 Stamina] [RNG Activated | Result: 601] [+1 Agility] [RNG Activated | Result: 423] William stared at the blue text nkly. He knew that the chance of the dreaded reset activating was one in twenty, but he believed it wouldn¡¯t happen at this moment simply because he couldn¡¯t bear the thought of being so unlucky. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 4 Experience: 390/500 Cultivation: N/A Health: 45/45 Strength: 1 Stamina: 2 Agility: 3 Luck: 1 Points: 11 ¡°Fuck me,¡± William dropped his face into his hands, ¡°¡­Why did it happen now.¡± All that hard work was gone, and he didn¡¯t forget that some of the points he had just lost were from his stat points. Points that wouldn¡¯te back. Sure, they could be reced with spirit nts, but the more he used when he was a mortal, the worse the side effects were when cultivating. At least, that was what the books that Li Xinyue had given him indicated. William spent a few minutes gathering his emotions before standing up. The remaining Lightning Berries couldn¡¯t be safely eaten until a day had passed, so he had to focus on his Strength. The patch of spirit grass was the easiest way of getting his Strength attribute back to its previous level. And he had to go there immediately so those men wouldn¡¯t have the chance to take it for themselves. Chapter 24: The Confrontation Chapter 24: The Confrontation William shuddered as he swallowed thest Lightning Berry in his pouch. [+1 Stamina] [RNG Activated | Result: 684] [+1 Agility] [RNG Activated | Result: 370] It had been three days since he had first seen the two men that made him try to increase his stats in an effort to keep himself safe. An effort that turned into a disaster by a stat reset. William nced at the pouch and turned green at the sight of the spirit grass. That had been his breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the past few days. If William had to eat them for much longer, he was sure he would turn into some sort of human-cow hybrid. Thankfully for his sanity, there was still one Blood Orange that he had saved just for this purpose. As he pulled the skin off the Orange, he thought about what he would do to the men that ruined the leisurely time he was experiencing. With how there no longer seemed to be any new quests, his mind naturally went to the only other way he had gained experience points. Killing. William wasn¡¯t proud of it, but that was what he hoped would happen. He had to get rid of the soul damage, and he was desperate enough to go to previously unthinkable lengths. If they attacked him, he would be more than willing to fight. Thest William saw the group from a distance, at least five men regrly foraged around for spirit nts. That meant before he dared to confront them, he had to be ready for the worst scenario and be confident about taking on all of them at once. [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 246] [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 606] With Strength being the easiest attribute to increase with the ridiculous amount of Spirit Grass he had gathered, William decided that to be his focus. That way, even if the dreaded reset urred, replenishing the lost points wouldn¡¯t be a problem. He still had enough Spirit Grass for thirty additional Strength points if needed. [+1 Strength] [RNG Activated | Result: 676] [Max Strength Reached] William¡¯s eyes brightened at thest alert. A question he had been wondering about for a while had been answered. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 4 Experience: 390/500 Cultivation: N/A Health: 45/45 Strength: 20 Stamina: 3 Agility: 4 Luck: 1 Points: 11 Heughed, sounding a bit manic, thinking about how much of a surprise his punch would give his enemies. Surely it wasn¡¯t typical for a thirteen-year-old boy to have such ridiculous strength. William eyed a moderately-sized tree as he walked up to it. He clenched his hand into a fist and hesitated before warily giving it a half-hearted punch, showing surprise when the tree moved ever so slightly. A slow smile formed on his lips as he stared between the light outline on the trunk and his unmarked fist. Without hesitation, William balled up his fist and pulled it back, readying himself to throw as powerful of a punch as he could. He grunted and put his body behind his fist as it mmed into the tree with a thunderous impact. [-1 HP] William ignored the sting on his fist as he pulled back to admire the small indent he had made. While it didn¡¯t shatter the tree into splinters, he didn¡¯t expect that to happen when he was still a mortal. But this would be enough to finish most mortals with a well-ced punch. He shook his hand to get some feeling back in it as he made his way toward the camp the men had made. It would be nice to have higher Stamina and Agility, but he could make do with what he currently had. While the workers in the Garden had great Strength and Stamina, their Agility was suspect. Not too surprising, considering they were fed low-quality spirit nts that helped with the former two. Thankfully those spirit nts weren¡¯t of the same quality as what William had been eating in this area. Otherwise, he would have no choice but to avoid them since they would have equal strength as he did. It took William around an hour to reach the camp, and he wasn¡¯t surprised to see that only two men were watching the site. [Name: Liu Ming | Level: 5] [Name: Cao Rui | Level: 6] ¡°Brother Liu, it got stronger. There¡¯s a spirit nt nearby, and I think there might be more than one!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s go, Brother Cao! Hopefully, we will find more Blood Oranges. They tasted so much better than what we get at the Garden.¡± And luckily for William, both were the same people that stole his Blood Oranges. He swept his eyes over the camp to ensure there weren¡¯t any others and stepped into the clearing, surprising the two men. ¡°A kid?¡± The one called Brother Liu eximed in shock. ¡°Brother Liu, the smell ising from him.¡± ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re talking about these?¡± William casually showed the pouch filled with Spirit Grass while carefully eyeing their reaction. ¡°Where did you find that? I¡¯ve been looking for that type of spirit nt for days, but I only found this!¡± William¡¯s jaw almost dropped in shock at the endless amount of Divine Resilience Fruits and Wind Cherries haphazardly thrown into a bag. He realized this was likely why he had no luck finding spirit nts that helped with his Stamina and Agility. ¡°Look, kid, I¡¯m not going to ask how you got here,¡± The man with a dog-like nose said with a smile, ¡°If you do something for me.¡± William could already see those fruits belonging to him. All he wanted was a reason to start throwing punches. ¡°Agree to a trade! Half of your stuff for half of mine.¡± That threw William off because he couldn¡¯t have heard correctly. In terms of value, Spirit Grass was nothingpared to what they offered. If this was a genuine offer, either they didn¡¯t know what they had, or they were under the impression that there was a limit to how much they could consume. Honestly, either of those guesses seemed unlikely, so William assumed it was a trap. Considering how slow they were when chasing him a few days ago, William put the two at a speed that was on par with his, or slightly higher, with them having ess to the fruits. Neither the Divine Resilience Fruit nor the Wind Cherries could be eaten casually. They needed strict spacing, or the energy within them could negatively affect mortals. Since both men were healthy and fully limbed, they should have eaten one at most. ¡°Leave your half on the ground, and I¡¯ll do the same,¡± William kept an eye on them as he took out the Spirit Grass and ced it down. He was still suspicious when they didn¡¯t waver to do the same, but confusion was now added to the mix. The two men did whatever William asked without hesitation. Before he knew it, his makeshift pouch was bulging with his new gains from the trade. Confusion became the dominant feeling as he quickly left the campsite without any of the problems he had expected. ¡°If you want to eat with us, you cane by anytime, kid!¡± William ignored the invite and kept pace to avoid being in the area when their friends would return. He had a strange feeling that they felt pity for him. He looked down at himself and tried to put himself in their shoes. They would have seen dirt staining his hands, clothes torn and frayed from his clumsy attempts to fashion a carrying pouch, and his thin frame suggesting he hadn¡¯t had much to eat. Thest point wasn¡¯t far from the truth since he had eaten grass for sustenance. Still, William knew that if they weren¡¯t kind at heart, that appearance wouldn¡¯t move them when there was a seemingly easy opportunity to get spirit nts. Instead of trying to take the Spirit Grass by force, they offered something more valuable in return. William held the bulging silk pouch protectively as he made his way as far from that camp as possible. Even if they were kind, he wouldn¡¯t return until he felt his stats were high enough. Chapter 25: Spirit Beasts Chapter 25: Spirit Beasts [Max Strength Reached] William finished his second Blood Orange of the day as he debated on what to do. After he hadpleted the unbelievably favorable trade, he spent the next couple of days wandering around to try and find more Spirit Grass. He had wanted to start munching on a Wind Cherry as soon as it was safe. However, having to wait a day for it to be safe since he had already consumed so much Spirit Grass might have saved him from doing something beyond stupid. With half of his Spirit Grass traded away, the amount he had left was enough for approximately fifteen Strength points. Before he risked eating anything that added points to his attributes, he needed to find more. The sheer abundance that could be found together was the only thing that would make William feel less anxious about the idea of losing his twenty Strength points. On a side note, he discovered that eating spirit nts that helped with Strength no longer activated the RNG. Being a mortal and all, he still needed to eat, and he finally had a safe way of filling his stomach without gambling his attribute points. With Blood Oranges reasonably easy to find if a few hours were spent searching, that had been his diet in recent days. However, that also meant he had searched almost every bit of the area surrounding the little grove he had made as his temporary base. His only choice now was to either go to the camp the men had set up or leave hisfortable grove and head deeper for unexplored areas. The choice was obvious. William secured his handy, overfilled silk pouch over his shoulder and looked around the picturesque grove. He gave the tree that had provided him shade for the past few days a couple pats before leaving the ce. It wasn¡¯t the first time he thought of going deeper to explore, but he had always decided not to do so in the past. With Lan Yin¡¯s warning about being careful with his life, William was reluctant to leave an area confirmed to be safe. Still, if he wanted to make full use of this ce, he needed to find more opportunities. Besides, it was beyond typical for the rewards to be greater the deeper you ventured in a cultivation world. While greater rewards would generally be useless for a mortal like William since taking a bite out of spirit nts at a higher level would mean death, perhaps he would discover a way to gain experience points. With this mindset, William set out, and that mindset was challenged within hours when he didn¡¯t see any difference whatsoever. It was the same foliage, the same asional spirit nts, and the same sense of safety. However, no Spirit Grass, probably due to his shitty luck. William was apanied by his soft steps on the grass with asional crunches when a dead leaf was crushed under his feet. It had be somon for those sounds to be hispanions that it was almost blocked out by his mind. That was why William¡¯s ears perked up when he heard something different and froze on the spot. He almost believed that it was a hallucination born out of the hope of something happening. That was until he heard it again. William heard the faint flutter of wings, the first sign of something else being alive in this ce that wasn¡¯t a human. He waited to hear it another time and snapped in the direction of the sound. [Species: Fire Sparrow | Level: 6] ¡°¡­ What the fuck,¡± William muttered as he stared at it. It was hard to believe something so small could be at that high of a level. Its size was no different from an average sparrow, only with bright red feathers that seemed to be giving off a hazy heat. It was adorable, but William¡¯s first thought was how many experience points he could get if he killed it. He was well aware that it was the sort of thinking he sneered at when reading characters kill their way to the top, but that sounded so reasonable at the moment. Of course, William wasn¡¯t eager to get attacked by something that was, without a doubt, faster than him. His max Strength would mean nothing if he couldn¡¯tnd a hit in the first ce. He kept an eye on the Fire Sparrow and backed away slowly, intending to use a nearby tree as cover. That turned out not to be necessary. It became apparent the bird didn¡¯t think of him as important when it flew away. William let out a breath that he didn¡¯t know he was holding. With the bird gone, he quickly scanned his surroundings to see what was different. What made this ce different to have a bird flying around? And more importantly, what else was here? He actively lightened his footsteps as he continued forward, hoping to find something that couldn¡¯t fly and preferably closer to his own level. An hour with no sightings should have annoyed William, but he noticed that the grass had started to thin out. The ground had be rockier, while the trees were bing more and more massive, with the tops almost blocking all the sunlight. Even the bushes were more massive than where he had been staying for over a week. As William walked closer, he heard rustling in the bushes, making him jump back cautiously until he saw a fluffy white thing hop out. [Species: Sky Hare | Level: 6] This one was even more adorable than the Fire Sparrow, looking like a cross between a cat and a rabbit, and shockingly still at level six. It turned its beady little eyes at him and twitched its nose before bending down to eat some stalks of grass. Like the Fire Sparrow, the Sky Hare seemed utterly unconcerned by William¡¯s presence. After it was finished chewing, itzily licked its paw before lying down on the ground. William didn¡¯t even question if he was willing to kill it. There was no question that was exactly what he would try to do. Hell, it would be nice if there was a whole group of them so he could really put a boost to his experience points. He inched closer to the fluffy rabbit, a grin unable to stay off his face with the next level within his grasp. He froze when the Sky Hare¡¯s ears twitched when he was almost at arm¡¯s length. William was once again holding his breath to avoid giving the Sky Hare any reason to be startled. If he lunged from here, it was likely that he would be able tond a punch and end the poor thing¡¯s life, but it wasn¡¯t a hundred percent certain. At a minimum, he had to assume that a rabbit-like creature at level six must have an Agility stat of seven. With William¡¯s only half of that, he had to be doubly sure he could kill it. When the Sky Hare returned to being still, William inched closer again before his eyes gleamed when he was in a perfect spot. With no hesitation, William balled his hand into a fist and used all his power tounch it on the Sky Hare¡¯s head. [+430 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] ¡°Fuck!¡± William spat as his face was hit with some of the stters, and his fist was covered in the blood and guts of the formerly cute Sky Hare. ¡°And my clothes too?¡± William groaned when he saw the formerly dirty silk clothes now have a bloody decoration added to them. That annoyance quickly gave way to disgust when he looked at the smashed remains of the Sky Hare. He quickly moved away from the dead body and roughly shook his hand to get the animal guts off. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 5 Experience: 320/625 Cultivation: N/A Health: 84/85 Strength: 20 Stamina: 3 Agility: 4 Luck: 1 Points: 16 If it ever existed, any regret for killing the Sky Hare disappeared when he saw the HUD. All he needed to do was ambush more of these stupid things, and he basically found himself a hack to get to level ten. It seemed the good times would continue when William heard the bush start to rustle again. He chuckled and took a few steps toward the noise, unafraid of these experience point factories. Until he saw a mass amount of blue text fill his vision. Sky Hares. So many Sky Hares that he could barely see them over the jumbled-up blue text trying to tell him their levels. William stared at the army of Sky Hares, and he could swear that they were eyeing the fist that had just crushed one of their brethren. He quickly hid the gore-covered fist and started to back away slowly. When they made a tiny hop in unison toward him, William darted away as fast as he could, his heart beating in his throat. Chapter 26: William Hates Fluffy Rabbits Chapter 26: William Hates Fluffy Rabbits William held his hand to his chest as he sprinted back to the area devoid of animals. The damned rabbits went into a frenzy whenever they caught sight of it. He nced quickly behind him and still saw the sea of Sky Hares hopping leisurely after him, just fast enough to keep pace. As for how he knew this wasn¡¯t as fast as they could hop, it was his hand. They were easily able to close the gap with it in their sight. [-5 HP] ¡°Fuck!¡± William yelled as he grabbed the Sky Hare that had somehow sunk its teeth into his hand with his free hand and ruthlessly crushed its skull. [+410 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William didn¡¯t blink at the added gore to his person and threw the mangled body of the dead Sky Hare back into the mob chasing him. As expected, the additional death of one of their brethren enraged them. He could hear the increased activity behind him. He quickly resigned himself to the fact that this may as well be another situation where he was forced to use his points. Since it was already unlikely that his current Stamina wouldst long enough for him to get back to the theorized safe zone, William decided to go down with a fight. Besides, he might get lucky and take out enough of these Sky Hares to get to level ten before they bit him to that level of desperation. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 6 Experience: 105/750 Cultivation: N/A Health: 139/145 Strength: 20 Stamina: 3 Agility: 4 Luck: 1 Points: 21 William was a little more confident of getting out of this situation by being able to take twenty bites from these little shits before dying. Of course, he was not too confident, but more than it had been before he saw his upgraded health. ¡°Alright then! Let¡¯s fight!¡± William roared as he turned around and stood his ground, almost immediately regretting his decision at seeing the fluffy horde hopping toward him. He knew the road to immortality was filled with death, but he wished the threats to his life weren¡¯t mostly embarrassing. Excluding the demonic cultivator at the start, William had almost died by a speeding wagon, and now a damned hoard of bunnies was trying to kill him. [-5 HP] x 2 ¡°What the-¡± William was more startled than pained when seeing two Sky Hares on his hands, hanging onto him by their teeth. The rest of the mob was still a reasonable distance away from him. He shivered when the thought of them being too fast to be able to see entered his mind. William grabbed each Sky Hare by the head with his opposing hands to rip them off him and figured this might work as a distraction. He didn¡¯t crush them in his hands this time. Instead, he pulled his arm back like he would throw a ball andunched it as hard as possible at the hopping mob. [+375 XP] ¡°¡­ What the fuck,¡± William¡¯s jaw dropped as the Sky Hares swarmed around their newly sttered brethren before they quickly went back to hopping toward him. The exploded Sky Hare had disappeared. Even the blood was gone. These things ate their own dead. William moved the remaining Sky Hare struggling to take another bite of his gore-covered skin to his throwing hand beforeunching it to a tree, decorating the trunk with its body parts. [+375 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William pulled up his status screen as he watched the horde rush to devour the flesh of its dead. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 7 Experience: 105/875 Cultivation: N/A Health: 219/235 Strength: 20 Stamina: 3 Agility: 4 Luck: 1 Points: 26 He kept the HUD at the corner of his vision, ready to dump his points into Agility and Stamina at a moment¡¯s notice. With how much experience he was getting with each kill, even though it was reduced as he leveled up, William figured he would reach level ten in no time. After that, he could use his stat points to his heart''s content and escape the situation. William noticed one Sky Hare had lost interest in following the mob and was twitching its nose at him. It made a hop toward him before the same thing happened as before. [-4 HP] [+300 XP] William stared at the blood-covered grass as he rubbed his hand. It looked like the Sky Hare quite literally teleported from its spot to attach itself to his hand. If they actually had a teleportation-like skill, it would be terrifying. However, he suspected the skill needed specific requirements to activate. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the wave of attacks that would soon follow. He preferred not to be a teething object for these little shits, and observing how the Sky Hares never climbed the tree to eat their dead brethren gave him an idea. He could use his surroundings to his advantage. [-4 HP] [+300 XP] William used the horde¡¯s distraction with the newly dead Sky Hare to rush to a nearby tree and mber to the thickest branch before taking a seat on it. The practice of tree climbing to pluck Lightning Berries already had practical use. While the mob climbed on top of each other to reach the higher spots on the tree to eat their dead brethren, he hoped that they would continue their odd behavior of attacking him in small numbers. William chuckled when the mob hopped in ce uselessly underneath him. They were strange creatures. It almost seemed like they didn¡¯t have many thoughts other than following him and eating the Sky Hares he killed. After seeing them hop in ce for a minute, William held out his hand to motivate them. [-4 HP] x 3 ¡°Shit!¡± William cursed when three of the little fucks attached themselves to his hand. He quickly ignored the pain and grabbed one of the Sky Hares, wondering how to kill it. Crushing it might cause the mob to go into a frenzy and start climbing over each other, not something he was keen on causing. With a grunt, heunched it as hard as he could against a nearby tree, making the Sky Hare explode on its trunk safely away from him. [+300 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William ignored the swarm heading to that tree and repeated the same action to the Sky Hares still biting into his hand. [+225 XP] x 2 He frowned at the reduced experience points and looked at his stats. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 8 Experience: 580/1000 Cultivation: N/A Health: 334/370 Strength: 20 Stamina: 3 Agility: 4 Luck: 1 Points: 31 William''s eyes gleamed at the points remaining to get to the next level. It would need only two more kills. Even with another reduction in the experience points received after a kill, he would guess ten more kills at level nine would be enough toplete his main quest. Main Quest(s): Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul back to itsplete state) With most of the horde busy trying to get morsels of the dead Sky Hares, William stared at the couple dozen still hopping underneath him with a greedy look. With their weak attacks and his massive upgrade in health, there was no need to be as careful. He didn¡¯t dawdle and jumped off the branch to crush a couple under his feet. [-10 HP] [+225 XP] x 2 [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William winced at the sharp pain shooting up his legs from the ill-advisednding before yelping at the multiple bites to his gore-covered legs. [-3 HP] x 19 He stomped on the heads of the Sky Hares like a child throwing a tantrum, creating a horrific, bloody mess under his feet, but didn¡¯t let up until he leveled up to ten. [+150 XP] x 8 [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [COMPLETED | Restore your Soul!: 1000 XP] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction] [Main Quest Added | Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state)] [Main Quest Added | Learn a Cultivation Technique] [+ 1 XP] x 11 William didn¡¯t even care that killing these little shits now only gained him one experience point. And he didn¡¯t care that he still had some sort of soul damage. All that mattered was that using his stat points no longer had a chance to be disastrous. He noticed that the mob of Sky Hares was staring at his feet with drool dripping out their mouths. Heughed mockingly and said, ¡°Thanks for the points, you cannibalistic shits!¡± [+8 Agility] [+3 Stamina] William used his stat points for the first time without concern and started to sprint away, fully confident that he was now safe. With a wide grin as he left the horde behind, he rechecked his stats. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 10 Experience: 1116/1250 Cultivation: N/A Health: 767/870 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 6 (5) Agility: 11 (9) Luck: 1 (1) Points: 30 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction Main Quest (2): 1. Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state 2. Learn a Cultivation Technique Side Quests (3): Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) William cackled when he saw that he was almost at the next level. Things were finally looking up for him. Chapter 27: Almost Out Chapter 27: Almost Out His panting was loud. Far too loud in theplete silence of the surroundings. Almost irritating, to be honest. Surprisingly, he had wandered deep enough for his upgraded Stamina to run out of steam on the return. The Sky Hares had stopped chasing him some time ago. William wasn¡¯t sure what those strange things were thinking, but he had a good guess. With the way they fell into a rather familiar frenzy, he suspected some of them were trampled to death, and the rest were rushing to eat the remains. William couldn¡¯t imagine how a species so strange came to be. As for why they still existed, he had to guess it was because of their weakness. While the Sky Hares made William flee for his life, their low level would make them harmless to any cultivator that came by them. Of course, that now also applied to William. If the Sky Hares gave him more than one experience point per kill, he would have gleefully returned to the fray to start massacring the little shits. Williamughed as he thought about what he had brought on the Sky Hares. Especially the crunch of bones that was repeatedly felt and heard as he killed more and more rabbits. Hisugh turned strained as he looked at himself and saw the blood and pieces of flesh that caked his legs and covered most of his hands. William dry heaved in disgust and made the mistake of covering his mouth with his hand. He pulled it away as fast as he could, but he could already feel the disgusting filth on his lips. He doubled over, gasping for air and tasting what was on his lips before he felt a surge of bile rise up his throat. Before he could think, he leaned forward and retched violently onto the ground. William discovered something even more irritating than the loud panting he had been doing. Vomiting uncontrobly until nothing was left in his stomach. ¡°Fuck me,¡± William groaned and went to wipe his mouth when he remembered that his hands were disgusting. Noticing a nice, clean patch of grass a few steps away, he practically threw himself on it, rubbing his face and hands into it to try and get the mess off him. It wasn¡¯t perfect, but more than enough until he found a way to clean himself. William shuddered and pushed himself to his feet. He should have figured that wasing. In fact, he wasn¡¯t sure why it didn¡¯t happen immediately after crushing a poor bunny¡¯s head the first time. It made him wonder if he had been that crazed to get to level ten. He moved to get under the shade of a tree and grimaced at the sour taste in his mouth. He opened his blood-free pouch and stared at one of the Divine Resilience Fruits. Eating one of those would probably rid him of the horrible taste while fixing his Stamina problem without using his stat points. As he was running away, he thought of how to use the points he had saved up. With the abundant spirit nts around him, the thing that made the most sense was to dump everything into Luck. With this being a cultivation world, Luck would likely y a significant role in the opportunities he would get in the future. William had that idea in the back of his mind from the start, but the RNGnding on a bad number always stopped him. That was no longer an issue. Still, he wanted to get his Stamina and Agility to twenty before assigning points. ¡­ Speaking of which. He tried to add a point to his Strength. [Max Strength Reached] William nodded to himself after confirming that twenty was still the max. He fumbled a little with the pouch and tried to eat a Divine Resilience Fruit without touching it too much. It was challenging, but the rush of sweet juice crashing the foul taste lining his mouth made it worth the hassle. William hummed as he enjoyed the well-deserved treat and quickly finished it. He resisted the urge to lick his lips, not wanting to have any part of a Sky Hare inside him. It would take a good amount of time before he would stop despising the thought of them¡­ or maybe he should be grateful for how much help they were. [+4 Stamina] [Trait Added | Spirit nt Addict - XP Gain Decreased (10%)] William forgot about his distaste for the Sky Hares as he stared at the blue text in disbelief. It was one thing after another. Just when he got rid of that ridiculous RNG effect, another headache was added. At the very least, it wasn¡¯t that bad. He knew that binging on these spirit nts would be bad news, and if this was the extent of it, he could ept it. William sighed as he secured the pouch around his shoulders before jumping up and down, grinning when he no longer felt like two-hundred-pound weights were attached to his feet. However, that smile left when he noticed that the green grass was bing slightly pinkish. He grimaced and muttered, ¡°Next order of business, go to that camp and get a change of clothes¡­ Hm?¡± William thought he noticed something white streaking in the sky, making him narrow his eyes to try and see the blue text over it. However, before he knew it, he found himself flying back with an almost caved-in chest from a brutal kick. [-400 HP] Hey sprawled on the grass, luckily missing the many trees he could have been smashed into, and moaned in pain as he tried to gather his senses. When William heard guttural snarls that seemed inches away from him, even he surprised himself by how quickly he epted the pain and tried to pick himself back up. [Species: Sky Hare | Level: 16] William stumbled back in fear from seeing the massive, demonic-looking rabbit snapping its razor-sharp teeth at him. The most significant difference from the bunny-like mob that chased him, other than the size, was the wings sprouting from its back. It suddenly made sense why it had the word ¡¯Sky¡¯ in its Species name. He knew he should be dead by now, especially with how enraged the Sky Hare seemed to be at him. He assumed the boss found out how many underlings were killed until he noticed the wounds on its body. The Sky Hare seemed bitten, stomped on, and barely escaped a tough fight. Something that William had found familiar with all the lower-level Sky Hares that had been mobbing him. It suddenly made sense why those little shits ate each other. It was a winner-take-all for them, and this was the result. William warily watched the snarling Sky Hare as he scrambled backward on the ground to put more distance between them. He wasn¡¯t sure why it hadn¡¯t ended his life yet, but it definitely wished to do so. [+9 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] William sprinted back to his grove as fast as possible, hoping his attribute reduction wouldn¡¯t screw him over. And that the assumption of the animals not being able to follow him into that area was true. If it wasn¡¯t, he was deader than dead. William kept looking back to see if the Sky Hare followed him. Even though he never saw anything, it didn¡¯t stop him from feeling like his life was on the line, and it basically was. When he finally reached his grove, he slumped against a familiar tree and frantically looked for a white streak of death flying after him. With him no longer focusing on running as fast as he could, more details of the monstrous Sky Hare started to get picked up in his mind. After giving him the kick that wiped out more than half his remaining health points, the Sky Hare seemed rooted to its spot as it raged at him. It could move side-to-side but never came closer to William, even though he was helplessly on the ground for a good few seconds as he tried to get over the pain of getting kicked hard enough to beunched back like a cannonball. William immediately understood that he had discovered the limits of where the animals could travel. If that wasn¡¯t so, he currently wouldn¡¯t be alive to realize it. He slid down the tree¡¯s trunk and sat on the ground, groaning in abination of relief and pain as he let himself feel things other than the panic of his life being in danger. The worst part was that, unlike in RPGs, sleep did not heal him. Even the punch he threw against a tree to test his Strength all those days ago, making him lose one health point, didn¡¯t recover. That meant William would have to live with all the pain he was currently in until Lan Yin picked him up in a few weeks. On the bright side, this could be useful in training himself to be a masochist. If he wanted to be effective in fights in the future, it would be essential to learn to ignore any pain to stop it from being a distraction. ¡­ Even better would be to love the pain, but William didn¡¯t know if he was willing to go that far. Chapter 28: This Wasn鈥檛 as Good as William Expected Chapter 28: This Wasn¡¯t as Good as William Expected William blinked to get the blurriness out of his eyes before staring silently at the gently waving branches of the tree he slept under. His whole body had settled into a general ''everything is hurting'' state, but he was somehow able to get a few hours of sleep. [SAFE MODE has been disabled] William sat up quickly in excitement. He could finally go through the tutorial and figure out how the system works. [Tutorial unavable after Level 5] He should have expected that, but it wasn''t too bad. It would be more fun to learn without any help, or so he told himself to avoid bringing his mood down. Still, there were plenty of other features that aremon in all RPGs. The most obvious would be an inventory, a staple for the genre. [ERROR | Inventory requires insight into Space Dao] William frowned before nodding, finding that requirement reasonable. However, he clearly remembered that the system gave him a message that only user-generated side quests were avable in safe mode. That would imply he could now use the system to discover quests that would otherwise be hard to activate. [ERROR | Discovery of system-generated Side Quests requires insight into Divination Dao] William clenched his teeth and wondered how this was any different from safe mode. Instead of the system limiting him, it was now his ignorance of the various Daos. ¡­ He supposed that was fair. It was bing obvious that other than the strange effect on injuries and the rather convenient feature of saving his stat points, the system couldn''t do much of anything if he didn''t already have the knowledge of it. Since thest two had failed, William knew this would too, but he wanted to see if pulling up a map was possible in the future. [ERROR | Mini-map requires insight into Perception Dao] William chuckled happily and pushed himself to stand up. In a way, this would be excellent motivation to start studying those three Daos. Space, Divination, and Perception Daos would be unbelievably valuable for more than just activating system features. He ignored his screaming body and rubbed his grumbling stomach. Eating more fruit was an option, but he''d rather not risk his newly gained trait upgrading to something worse. That meant it was time to head to the camp that the men from the Garden had set up and take the offer for food. Even in his currently damaged state, William knew there was no possible way they could threaten him. Even if they had somehow gorged themselves sessfully on the spirit nts they had found, their low levels would make their durability equal to the low-level Sky Hares. In other words, those men would be ss cannons at best. William hoisted the pouch over his shoulder and nced at the discarded clothes thrown to the side. He had no intention of putting those back on, and his underwear would have to do until he could borrow some spares at the camp. And if they didn''t have that, wait till Lan Yin returned to pick him up. His stomach grumbled again, telling him to stop wasting time, and William listened. He settled into a steady run that would get him to the camp in a few minutes. Of course, the ''steady run'' was equal to a sprint away from death for an average mortal since his Agility was maxed out. In the meantime, William pulled up his status screen to see if getting out of safe mode changed anything there. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 10 Experience: 1116/1250 Cultivation: Mortal Health: 367/870 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 1 (1) Points: 21 Traits (2): 1. Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction 2. Spirit nt Addict - XP Gain Decreased (10%) Main Quests (2): 1. Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state) 2. Learn a Cultivation Technique Side Quests (3): Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) The Cultivation stat was the only thing that changed at first nce. However, it was almost useless if all it told was that he was a mortal. Cultivation: Mortal Max Level: 10 Max Attribute: 20 Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Learn a Cultivation Technique 2. Reach Level 11 William dodged a few trees as he stared at the new screen in surprise. He didn''t think there would be a submenu for anything. He went through the rest of the stats, aplishing nothing until he got to the second main quest. [ERROR | Revealing unknown rewards requires insight into Divination Dao] William rolled his eyes and put his focus back on the Cultivation stats. He was more than a little surprised to learn that he was already at the max level for a mortal. That also raised a question of what would happen when he acquired enough experience points to get to level eleven. If the requirements for an upgrade needed a cultivation technique, a mortal could only be level ten. What would happen to the extra points? Perhaps this meant he needed to find a technique to learn before bothering to gain more experience points so it wouldn''t go to waste. If that demonic Sky Hare hadn''t almost killed him with one attack, William would be more than willing to go back and test it out. Still, he supposed that waiting until he was back in Xuanjing City would be much safer. For the rest of his time here, he didn''t intend to do anything other than rx and wait for Lan Yin to pick him up. That was already in his ns before he saw the upgrade requirements, but seeing it only made that a no-brainer. William slowed to a walk when he reached the clearing where the camp was set up and casually strolled in to see most men preparing for another day of foraging. A ridiculous amount of spirit nts were neatly separated into piles and ready to be bagged up in the middle. "What happened to you!" William turned away from the pile of fruits to see Cao Rui looking at him in horror. "I knew I forgot to tell you something! Did you eat more than one of those fruits in a day? Brother Liu, get me some clothes for the kid!" William hadn''t even realized that if he was a typical thirteen-year-old boy, the trade Cao Rui had made would have likely killed him due to ignorance. William would have been paranoid about it being done on purpose if he could be bothered to care. A quick nce at the men staring curiously at him let him know their levels were between four and six. Nothing that could pose a threat to him if he wasn''t beingpletely careless. "Thanks," William muttered as he slipped on clothes meant for arger body. Still, it was better than nothing. "Uh, you said toe back if I wanted food." "Right," Cao Rui said with a chuckle, "A couple men brought extra steamed buns this morning. I''ll get you some." William eyed Cao Rui''s back as he ignored the others whispering while trying, and failing, to be discreet. For someone breaking the rules, Cao Rui was quite amenable to a stranger he met randomly in a ce where it''s supposedly hard to reach. Perhaps it had something to do with his age. [Name: Cao Rui | Level: 6] William stared at the blue text above the man and wondered if there was something like an ''Observe'' skill to see the attributes. [ERROR | The skill Observe has a minimum requirement of Level 11] "Here you go," Cao Rui handed William a couple steamed buns, "If you want more, let me know." William gave him a distracted smile as he started to eat food that wasn''t a spirit nt for the first time in weeks. It certainly didn''t taste as good, but that was a necessary sacrifice due to not wanting to worsen the debuff he had received. And more importantly, he was thrilled that Observe would be something he could use soon. While the overall level helped know how much health someone, or something, had, it didn''t say much about the individual attributes other than what the max could be. If Observe allowed William to view that, it would make assessing the threat levels more urate. "Brother Cao, let''s get started. I have a good feeling about today." William returned a wave that Cao Rui gave him and watched most of the men file out, leaving a lone man that settled near the collected fruits and stared at him suspiciously. He munched on the buns and decided that he would be happy to make this camp home for the next few weeks. He''d ask Lan Yin to reduce their punishment to pay them back when they were eventually found out. Chapter 29: Harsh Reminder Chapter 29: Harsh Reminder "We''ll depend on you to look after them, Wei Liang!" William waved Cao Rui off as he sat next to the piles of spirit fruits. He wasn''t sure why they needed this much, but it wasn''t his business. With how kind the man had been toward him the past week, the least William could do was keep his mouth shut. While stealing from the Sect was beyond stupid, there was no need to act like some volunteer guard. He sighed andid back on the grass with his hands under his head, preparing for another day full of nothing. It was nice,zing about and doing nothing productive for a whole week. Well, that was an exaggeration, but in terms of increasing his stats, it was correct. Instead of rushing back into the depths to get demolished by a cannibalistic bunny, William spent it safely, conversing with Cao Rui about the Tianxia Empire and its notable cities. Mainly one called Qingyun City, where Cao Rui''s family originated. From what William gathered, it was the center of trade in the Empire for medicinal herbs, likely due to the Jade Healing Sect being located close by. It was no wonder Elder Huang thought of some n with the surname Wei when he heard Wei Liang. It was curious to William that the Tianxia Empire had two majormercial centers on opposite sides of the Empire, Xuanjing City, and Qingyun City, but they specialized in entirely different areas. That would have made sense if they were close to each other to avoidpetition, but not when mortals apparently took nearly half a year to travel between them. "Wei Liang." William sat up in shock at the unexpected voice and stared dumbfounded at Lan Yin floating down from the sky. "It''s already been four weeks?" William blurted out in confusion. Lan Yin seemed to ignore his question and gave him a curious look. He flinched when she was suddenly in front of him and gripped his chin to tilt his head. "Perhaps Elder Huang was right about you," Lan Yinmented, "And I told you three weeks, not four. I was distracted, so I couldn''t arrive in time." William rubbed his sore chin after Lan Yin let go. He saw her finally look away from him to point at the amassed spirit fruits. "Are you the one that organized this?" William''s instinct was to say no, but he stopped himself when he thought about Cao Rui. He hesitated and asked, "Am I in trouble if I did?" "No," Lan Yin waved her hand as she looked at the empty tents around the camp, "I told you that you could do as you wish. Rather than trouble, I would congratte you for somehow getting other mortals to this area." With Lan Yin''s amused tone, William knew that even if he covered for Cao Rui, she would know it wasn''t really him that organized all this. That reminded him of what Li Xinyue told him about the Lan siblings and their preference for formalities. "I didn''t want my friend to get in trouble, Senior Lan," William said in his best thirteen-year-old tone, "I promise I wasn''t going to lie." Lan Yin hummed as she walked past him, her thin robes fluttering with each step. "Not to worry, Little Wei Liang. I am not an excessive person." William felt a chill run down his back, knowing it generally wasn''t good news when a cultivator said those words. Though, with his experience with Elder Huang and Li Xinyue, he still hoped the sentence could be taken at face value. And it surely had to be promising news that Lan Yin was bing more familiar with him. "The quality is adequate," Lan Yin said as she turned a spirit fruit around in her palms, "Perhaps I should start to develop thisnd." William gave her a weak smile when she carelessly threw the fruit back on the pile and turned to him again. [-1 HP] Lan Yin poked his chest, making the pain he had gotten used to in the past week re up with a vengeance. William hissed as he flinched back to get out of her reach. "Now, what did you meet to grow so much stronger in such a short time? I sense that you are on the cusp of a breakthrough. All youck is a technique to activate your spiritual energy." William rubbed his chest, trying not to show annoyance at being prodded. He failed. "Bold," Lan Yinmented with narrowed eyes, "Little Li told me you were a brave little fool. Watch your pride around me, boy. Now, tell me. What did you do to get this strong?" "¡­ It was the Sky Hares, Senior Lan," William swallowed hisints and told the partial truth, "Those things mobbed me, and I had to kill my way out." He touched his chest and continued, "I was almost killed when a gigantic one attacked me. Luckily it couldn''t follow when I ran away." "Sky Hares?" Lan Yin raised her eyebrows in surprise, "They''re a little inconvenient if you leave bodies behind, but it shouldn''t have caused such a drastic change with you." William shrugged helplessly and added, "Maybe all the fruits I''ve eaten yed a part?" "That is part of the truth, but I suspect you might have a unique constitution meant for fighting. Elder Huang''s n to allow you to take the test to enter my Jade Healing Sect might be a disservice to you." "Test?" William''s eyes widened in shock. He knew that he didn''t have any so-called special constitution. It was just the system allowing him to earn experience points to get through levels faster than usual. "Yes, test," Lan Yin repeated, "Think about it and give me an answer after I finish talking with your new friends." William wanted to ept immediately, not wanting to waste time when such an opportunity had fallen in hisp. But he didn''t dare speak to Lan Yin when she so unsubtly told him to keep quiet. He looked on with pity as the men returned,ughing and in a good mood with plenty of spirit fruits in their arms. He suspected all their spoils would be taken away, leaving all the work done over the weeks benefiting the Sect they were trying to steal from. "Overseer Lan!" Cao Rui dropped the fruits in his arms as he started to tremble. The rest of the men were no better once they saw the otherworldly beautiful woman standing beside William. "So you know of me," Lan Yin smiled, "Then why would you try to steal what is mine? You must know the consequences of such an action." "I-It''s not part of the Garden!" A man in the back blurted out, and Liu Ming, the constantpanion of Cao Rui, continued, "We wouldn''t dare take what the disciples of the Sect need, Overseer Lan. We saw this area unused for so long, so we didn''t think you would mind." William immediately knew that Liu Ming had misspoken. He wasn''t sure what Lan Yin didn''t like, but he sensed the woman''s demeanor change for the worse. "You think?" Lan Yin repeated slowly before turning to William, "Since I gave you free rein over the forbidden area, Wei Liang, your word will have weight. Did they ask for your permission beforehand?" William shifted uneasily, knowing that the one-word answer might worsen the punishment the men would get. "They treated me kindly, Senior Lan. They didn''t ask me, but they were more than willing to share what they found." "I take all the me, Overseer Lan!" Cao Rui stepped forward, trembling even more as Lan Yin focused on him, "I have a skill that lets me detect where the spirit nts are, and I convinced my brothers to apany me. They shouldn''t take any of the me!" William knew Cao Rui would push himself to the front with his personality, though he wished he didn''t. As the men started to insist that they deserved to take the me, he hoped that Cao Rui''s skill would help soften Lan Yin. "Very well," Lan Yin nodded as she held up a hand to stop the moring, "Only you will have to stay behind. The rest will be free to go back to their families." William blinked in surprise when Lan Yin called down her spirit boat, wondering if that was it. He tried to calm Cao Rui with a smile, who had a confused and worried expression for some reason. "Your time here is done, Little Wei Liang. Follow me," Lan Yin ordered as she elegantly jumped into her spirit boat. William followed her and wondered why Cao Rui was left behind. Maybe Lan Yin thought it was underneath her to punish a mortal¡­ until he heard the screams from the men he had be familiar with. "All the Spirit Fruits you have gathered today belong to Wei Liang. I expect you all to confess to your manager of your actions. If I find that you haven''t taken fiftyshes, both you and your families will join that mortal." William didn''t look away from Cao Rui even when the spirit boat started to rise, barely able to believe that the man who happily fed him steamed buns was sliced in two without any warning. His heart chilled when they started flying to whatever their destination was. He should have expected that result but had, for some reason, believed that Lan Yin would show leniency toward Cao Rui. He couldn''t have been more wrong. Chapter 30: Jade Healing Sect Chapter 30: Jade Healing Sect ¡°You seem dissatisfied.¡± William couldn¡¯t deny that, but neither could he admit it. Lan Yin¡¯s cruel decisiveness pped the reality of this world into his face, telling him that he had been lulled intocency with the rtive normalcy of the cultivators around him. He had blocked out how Li Xinyue casually asked her master if she could kill him. ¡°I suppose you thought the mortal didn¡¯t deserve death.¡± Instead of saying anything that might be seen as arguing with Lan Yin, William shrugged weakly. He said, ¡°Senior Lan said they broke the rules¡­.¡± ¡°I had doubts whether you would walk the road of cultivation, but that has been erased. Let me give you some advice, Little Wei Liang. Do not try to form friendships with mortals. It is destined to be fruitless.¡± William shifted as he thought of Wang Xiaoling, knowing he couldn¡¯t suddenly cut ties with her, even if she was a petty miser. ¡°As for the mortal I killed, he fooled you. He was hoping to show off that so-called skill he was so proud of,¡± Lan Yin rolled her eyes, suddenly changing her image from a cruel but wise elder to a teen, ¡°As if my Sectcks such meager talent.¡± ¡°Fooled me?¡± William repeated in shock as he tried to think about any signs of deceit from Cao Rui. Lan Yin hummed in confirmation before saying, ¡°A manager informed me that some workers were sneaking into the forbidden area a few days after I left you there. And the one leading them was a man who always boasted loudly about his ¡®skill¡¯ to everyone who would listen. You were his target, not the spirit fruits.¡± William recalled some strange urrences he had assumed were due to Cao Rui¡¯s kindness. An overly generous trade that bordered on dangerous if one didn¡¯t have sufficient knowledge of spirit nts. Unreasonable indulgence toward him, a boy that had appeared out of nowhere and was quickly allowed to ¡®guard¡¯ their pickings with little care. And the most ring, a kindness that, on second thought, seemed far too simr to bribery to buy his appreciation. Of course, this could be William¡¯s newfound doubts influencing his thoughts. ¡°What did he expect me to do? I have no power here, Senior Lan.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t,¡± Lan Yin agreed bluntly, ¡°But that mortal must have heard you were in contact with me. It wasn¡¯t a secret that I took you away from Shao Jun.¡± William grimaced but stayed silent. All of this sounded like assumptions, but that was enough for Lan Yin to eliminate Cao Rui. ¡°Enough about the mortal. What did you decide about Elder Huang¡¯s offer?¡± Lan Yin¡¯s impatient tone told William that talking about Cao Rui would no longer be tolerated. With a strained smile, William said, ¡°I would be honored to take the test, Senior Lan.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Lan Yin pursed her lips before sighing, ¡°I understand the appeal of joining my Jade Healing Sect, but there will be few that can bring out the potential of your constitution.¡± ¡°I understand, but I can¡¯t reject Elder Huang¡¯s kindness,¡± William insisted, thinking Lan Yin didn¡¯t want him to ept due to her dislike of him, or at least that¡¯s what he thought. He really couldn¡¯t be sure, with her expression mostly being nk. ¡°Gratitude is a worthwhile trait,¡± Lan Yinmented before adding, ¡°If you pass the test and gain a ce in the Sect, I¡¯ll help you search for a suitable master to guide you. Allowing your talent to go to waste would be regrettable.¡± William stared at Lan Yin with more than a little shock. His assumption that she disliked him was proved wrong immediately when she volunteered to help him. ¡°Thank you, Senior Lan,¡± William felt guilty that his displeasure at Cao Rui getting killed was quickly disappearing. He thought of himself as much better than the natives, but a little praise was apparently all that was needed to change his thoughts. He forced himself off that line of thinking and realized they had been traveling for well over ten minutes. The trip to the forbidden area took far less than that. ¡°Are we leaving the Garden?¡± ¡°Hm,¡± Lan Yin nodded, ¡°We¡¯re heading to the Jade Healing Sect, where your testing will take ce. Speaking of which, you¡¯ll need to be in peak condition before the testing.¡± ¡°Will I get to take a Vitality Restoration Pill?¡± William asked with hope, eager for the constant pain to end. ¡°You¡¯ve taken too many of those pills,¡± Lan Yin said while shaking her head, ¡°In addition to that, you have been eating spirit nts for the past few weeks. Unless absolutely necessary, you should wait until your body recovers before taking immortal pills.¡± William¡¯s mood brightened even more, thankful that the experience reduction would only be temporary. ¡°When will that be, Senior Lan?¡± ¡°It depends on the individual,¡± Lan Yin answered impatiently, ¡°I¡¯ve talked with Elder Huang and let him know you are taking the test. As for when you can go back to Xuanjing City? It would depend on your luck.¡± William nodded in acknowledgment as he picked up a couple things from what she said. The first was that all the talk of choosing to join a Sect other than the Jade Healing Sect was false since she had informed Elder Huang he would be taking the test before asking him. The second was luck. The former wasn¡¯t surprising since which Sect would want to strengthen itspetitors? As for thetter, he mentally kicked himself for forgetting about adding points to his Luck attribute. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 10 Experience: 1116/1250 Cultivation: Mortal Health: 366/870 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 1 (1) Points: 21 As much as he wished to dump all of the points into Luck immediately, that would mean he wouldn¡¯t be able to increase his Stamina if needed, especially since he wouldn¡¯t be getting more stat points till level eleven, and eating more spirit fruits wasn¡¯t wise. ¡°Senior Lan, could you tell me more about the test? What will I have to do?¡± ¡°The details are a secret, even to candidates that have Elders in the Sect,¡± Lan Yin replied in a bored tone as she looked off into the distance. That was no help, and as much as he wished to probe Lan Yin, she already sounded fed up answering his questions. William would have to save ten stat points in case of an emergency. [+11 Luck] William was a little disappointed that the increase in Luck didn¡¯t reduce the negative effects of his traits, but he supposed it made sense. The RNG was based on your luck, and his current traits had a consistent, t effect. ¡°Here we are,¡± Lan Yin announced with a smile as she stood up. William felt the spirit boat slowly descend and looked down before his breath hitched at the beautiful sight. It was a drastic change from being surrounded by farnd and cannibal bunnies. Even the wonder of seeing Xuanjing City was nothingpared to this. He thought the Jade Healing Sect was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. It was a sprawling, intricately designed oasis nestled within a lush, mountainousndscape. The majority of the Sect¡¯s buildings were situated at the foot of a tall mountain range, with the towering peaks providing a natural fortress-like defense against intruders. Even from far up in the sky, William could see the main entrance to the Sect, a grand, imposing gatehouse made of jade stones, standing tall and proud at the foot of the mountain. As they descended closer to the ground, he lost sight of the inner structures but could now see a crowd of children apanied by retainers, a majority looking to be in the range of ten to fifteen. ¡°Are they all taking the test too?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± Lan Yin chuckled, ¡°Each day, scores of mortals from Qingyun City travel here. It¡¯s either due to sickness, or they hope to get lucky and enter the Sect if an Elder notices them.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William stared at some children kowtowing near the gates. ¡°I have heard of a genius discovered a few hundred years ago, so it¡¯s not too rare.¡± William¡¯s lips twitched at how Lan Yin called once in a few hundred years as ¡®not rare.¡¯ He was curious about how old Lan Yin was to say something like that, but he didn¡¯t dare to ask. ¡°Follow, Little Wei Liang,¡± Lan Yin ordered when the spirit boatnded, ¡°I¡¯ll lead you to the clinic. The faster you are healed, the faster you can take the test.¡± Chapter 31: The Outer Court Chapter 31: The Outer Court ¡°Respected Immortal, please, save my grandchild!¡± ¡°Great Master, my family¡¯s child is a once-in-a-hundred-year genius in our vige! Please take a look!¡± William was highly ufortable with constant pleading as he followed Lan Yin through the gathered crowd. He didn¡¯t think he could ever have the uncaring expression that Lan Yin currently possessed when a woman old enough to be over a hundred got on her knees to beg. And that was amon sight. ¡°My daughter will make a greatpanion for the Young Master! Great Immortal, please consider her.¡± That was the first time William was mentioned in the pleadings, and it automatically got his attention. When he looked over, he was startled to see that the girl had to be younger than him. He quickly looked away and ignored the cascade that the man had started. Those who brought a girl shouted loudly, proiming how their daughter, granddaughter, or sibling was the best. ¡°Senior Lan, why did wend this far from the gate?¡± William grumbled as he tried to hide how revolted he was to spare these girls hurt feelings. He knew what it was like to get embarrassed as a kid. ¡°These girls aren¡¯t to your liking?¡± Lan Yin asked without looking at him. ¡°No,¡± William emphasized, ¡°They are far too young.¡± Just because he had a thirteen-year-old body didn¡¯t mean his mental stage had changed. Just the thought of such a situation made him shudder in disgust. ¡°So Little Li was right,¡± Lan Yin nced at him with an almost unnoticeable smirk, ¡°She was worried you took too much of a liking toward her.¡± ¡°What?¡± William asked dumbly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Little Wei Liang,¡± Lan Yin assured, ¡°She won¡¯t hear it from me, but Little Li is quite favored in my Sect. It will be challenging if you want to fight for her hand.¡± William tried to protest against such a ludicrous thought. ¡°Sister Li has been kind, but I¡¯m too young for those thoughts, Senior Lan!¡± ¡°Hm,¡± Lan Yin nodded catingly, ¡°I understand.¡± William sighed and didn¡¯t continue with the topic as they reached the gatehouse. [Trait Added | Passive Healing - Gain 1 HP per day] He stared in surprise at the alert for a second before wondering what he had done to deserve something so useless and how he got the trait in the first ce. He looked around to see if there was anything eye-catching, but there was nothing other than the stunning entrance gate made out of what seemed to be a single piece of jade. William vaguely remembered that jade was supposed to have some healing properties. Still, surely the gate couldn¡¯t be the cause of the trait. He stared at the children kowtowing a short distance away and wondered if they weren¡¯t begging but were instead thanking the Sect. ¡°Senior Sister Lin! What are you doing out here?¡± [Name: Qin Yu | Level: ?] ¡°Brother Yu,¡± Lan Yin greeted, ¡°Elder Huang rmended this boy for testing. He had to be recorded as a visitor before entering.¡± ¡°Elder Huang?¡± Qin Yu repeated with surprise and leaned closer to William, ¡°Is he another Li Xinyue?¡± William shuffled backward when Qin Yu¡¯s face got too close. ¡°I think he¡¯ll be theplete opposite of Little Li,¡± Lan Yin corrected with a chuckle. ¡°Really!¡± Qin Yu blinked and narrowed his eyes before smiling brightly, ¡°We haven¡¯t had one of those in a long time! You can head in, Senior Sister Lin!¡± ¡°I will, but record Wei Liang¡¯s name, Brother Yu,¡± Lan Yin reminded with a roll of her eyes, ¡°That¡¯s why I bothered to stop here.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry! I was too excreted that we could possibly have a Sentinel.¡± Qin Yu eximed before running to the gatehouse. William blinked at Qin Yu¡¯s retreating back before giving Lan Yin a questioning look. ¡°Did Senior Yu just say¡­¡± Lan Yin sighed, ¡°Yes. The Elders have tried to correct his mistakes multiple times, but he keeps saying the wrong words. Ignore it.¡± William was under the impression the cultivators had excellent memories, but that might be false with this being the case. He kept his mouth shut when Qin Yu exited the gatehouse. ¡°It¡¯s done, Senior Sister,¡± Qin Yu said with a smile before turning to William, ¡°And good luck, little brother. You can be a man of great statue if you join the Sect.¡± William opened his mouth to thank him but was scared that the weird way this world worked might make Qin Yu¡¯s wordse true. He certainly didn¡¯t want to be a statue. ¡°Wei Liang is stunned by the sights, Brother Yu,¡± Lan Yin interjected when William stayed silent for too long, ¡°Don¡¯t mind his muteness.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Qin Yu nodded with an empathetic look. ¡°Come, Little Wei Liang,¡± Lan Yin gently pushed him to walk, ¡°We need to get going.¡± William did as Lan Yin insisted but still gave Qin Yu a wave. They passed the kowtowing children and, shortly after, passed the gate. A tight passage between two mountains snaked into the depths, which he assumed would reach the courtyard he glimpsed from the spirit boat. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of anticipation build up inside him. He was finally going to see the inner workings of a sect and learn more about cultivation. [Trait Removed | Passive Healing - Gain 1 HP per day] The trait removal almost confirmed that the gate, or something near it, caused the passive healing. ¡°Senior Lan, it felt like I was getting healed back there,¡± William said while pointing back at the gate, ¡°It was barely anything, but it was there.¡± Lan Yin looked at him in surprise. ¡°You did? That¡¯s impressive sensitivity you have there. The effect is only significant for mortal children.¡± William did notice that most of those children were level one, with the highest being level three. With what he remembered his health being at those levels, one point a day would have been significant. ¡°That is a kind thing for the Sect to do, Senior Lan.¡± Lan Yin shrugged. ¡°The Sect upies a territory within the Tianxia Empire. Keeping the tiger happy is the healthy choice.¡± That told William that the Tianxia Empire was more powerful than the sects within its border. Powerful enough for the Jade Healing Sect to be freely generous to the mortals that travel to the gates. They walked the narrow passage until it ended to reveal the beauty he had seen from the sky. A vast courtyard lined with manicured gardens and elegant, pagoda-style buildings made of white jade. The buildings are arranged in a symmetrical pattern, with thergest and most impressive structure situated at the center of theplex. And more surprising than the stunning view of the structures was the multitude of disciples wearing robes simr to Lan Yin. They were all smiling¡­ and generally happy looking. William certainly wasn¡¯t significant enough to put on a big show. He was just some random kid that Huang Jingyi rmended to Lan Yin. Which meant that this was daily life for these disciples. ¡°The building in the center will be where you stay until fully healed. It¡¯s the clinic for the outer disciples.¡± ¡°This is the outer court?¡± William asked in shock, taking in the view with different thinking. What was the inner court like if this was what the outer disciples enjoyed? ¡°It is,¡± Lan Yin confirmed as she nodded to the disciple bowing to her as they passed, ¡°It¡¯s not that impressive, but the only goal for outer disciples is to reach the Foundation Establishment realm and to learn the working of the mortal body.¡± William looked around again and noticed this seemed strangely simr to a college campus. ¡°¡­ Are they carrying around books?¡± ¡°Of course they are,¡± Lan Yin chuckled, ¡°Did you expect a master for each disciple? Those are only reserved for core disciples or special cases like you.¡± William let himself feel the rush of getting praised before crushing it. Getting cocky would turn him into a Young Master instead of a protagonist. And he never intended to be a stepping stone. ¡°Go inside,¡± Lan Yin stopped outside the doors of therge clinic, ¡°Other than the Elder in charge, members of the Sect above the Qi Gathering realm aren¡¯t allowed entry.¡± William looked at Lan Yin in confusion, not understanding the strange rule, before shrugging and walking into the clinic. His goal right now wasn¡¯t to understand the rules but to get fully healed so he could take this test and start cultivating. Chapter 32: Back to His Peak State Chapter 32: Back to His Peak State William yelped when thest needle sank into his chest, making the boy overseeing his treatment giggle like he found the pain funny. ¡°I said be careful, Ren Bo!¡± William said through clenched teeth. He knew the reminder would fall on deaf ears since this had happened continuously for the past three days. It turned out that he was given free treatment partly due to the experimental nature of it. They weren¡¯t trying any new types of therapy, but he was handed over to a novice, and mistakes were plentiful. However, he couldn¡¯t deny that it was effective overall. ¡°Sorry,¡± Ren Bo certainly didn¡¯t seem so with his smile, ¡°I¡¯m still new to this, Brother Wei.¡± ¡°I¡¯d believe you if you hadn¡¯t said that every time something like this happened,¡± William grumbled as he tried to rx on the bed, knowing he would have to stay in the position for hours. Ren Bo shrugged shamelessly before handing William the book he had requested on the very first day of his treatment to pass his time. After gaining the Spirit nt Addict trait, he wanted a clearer idea of what activated it and, more importantly, at what point it could worsen. William expected the request to be declined since he was just a visitor of the Sect, but once they learned that Lan Yin escorted him to the Sect and that Huang Jingyi gave him a rmendation, he was treated exceptionally well. Other than being a test subject for Ren Bo, of course. ¡°I¡¯ll return in a few hours, Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo waved as he walked away. [Name: Ren Bo | Level: 23] William took his eyes off Ren Bo as the kid disappeared through the doorway. Even though Ren Bo looked slightly older than him physically, William suspected he had spent most of his time buried in books. The way Ren Bo acted was years younger than he actually was. He opened the book to the bookmarked page and started where he left off. Trying to learn how to calcte the level of impurity in his body was ridiculouslyplicated. It was supposed to be purely theoretical until one could intimately understand the details of their own body, but for William, the system did that for him. What required decades and sometimes centuries of hard work was basically handed to him on a silver tter. Before he knew it, over an hour had passed, and he was at the end of the book. It wasn¡¯t the first time he had finished it, but unlike before, he truly felt he understood everything he read. William had always been a decent student, especially when motivated to seed like he was right now. With what he understood, it should be easy but tedious to figure out the exact time needed to recover from overeating spirit nts. And even better, he should be able to tell precisely how much a pill and spirit nt he consumed would worsen the trait. [Knowledge Acquired | The responsible consumption of pills and spirit nts] [Cultivation Info Added | Impurity] William gained a broad smile at the alert. He tried to pull up the newly added stat separately instead of the whole Cultivation submenu. Impurity: Stage 2 (20%) 2 Weeks Remaining He didn¡¯t pay much attention to the remaining time since Ren Bo was fixing that for him today. If he wasn¡¯t getting treatment, that countdown told him how long it would take to reduce his impurity to stage one, which would also remove his Spirit nt Addict Trait. Of course, that would only apply if he abstained from eating any more pills or spirit nts. William was a little disappointed that he couldn¡¯t see the number of pills and spirits he could consume without getting to stage three, but that was also understandable. He knew that every pill and spirit nt would contribute to different amounts of impurity increases, so there could be no general stat showing how much could be consumed. ¡°Brother Wei! It¡¯s time for me to remove the needles!¡± William winced and prepared himself for what was toe. It wasn¡¯t painful, but the end result was frankly disgusting. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with,¡± William grumbled and held his breath. Ren Bo might be a novice, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t highly skilled in William¡¯s eyes. Within a few seconds, the hundreds of needles on his torso were removed without him feeling anything, but he wasn¡¯t worried about that. William stared at the tiny beads of ck spots that sprouted where the needles were pierced. They rapidly grewrger under his eyes. He kept holding his breath to avoid taking in any of the rancid smell that apanied the ck gunk. He noticed Ren Bo had retreated to the doorway with his fingers pinching his nose. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you be, Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo said nasally, ¡°There are fresh clothes in there for you after washing yourself.¡± William waved him off, not wanting to waste his precious air by speaking. The tiny ck beads quickly grew enough to cover his entire torso in the disgusting stuff, creating a sticky, glue-likeyer that would be a pain to clean off. [Trait Removed | Spirit nt Addict - XP Gain Decreased (10%)] But that alert made it all worth it. He gingerly picked himself off the bed and walked carefully to the bathroom as if trying to keep the ck gunk from falling to the floor. It wouldn¡¯t have happened with how sticky it was, but he had no desire to smell that gunk after cleaning himself. It would take well over thirty minutes of hard scrubbing until William¡¯s body was clean enough for his own satisfaction. In the meantime, he went over his stats. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 10 Experience: 1116/1250 Cultivation: Mortal Health: 870/870 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 12 (10) Points: 10 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction Main Quests (2): 1. Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state) 2. Learn a Cultivation Technique Side Quests (3): Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) Even though William had been fully healed yesterday, he didn¡¯t get tired of seeing the massive amount of hit points he possessed. It hade a long way from the meager ten he possessed initially. And while it was petty of him to think so, he couldn¡¯t wait until he bullied Wang Xiaoling as payback. Seeing the look on her face when she realized she couldn¡¯t kick him around would be a sweet, sweet pleasure. Other than the recovered health, the second change was almost as good. Cultivation: Mortal Max Level: 10 Max Attribute: 20 Impurity: Stage 1 (80%) 8 Days Remaining Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Learn a Cultivation Technique 2. Reach Level 11 While eighty percent seemed high, it gave William enough room to take a low-quality Vitality Restoration Pill without crossing into stage two of Impurity. As for the massively shrunken time to reduce Impurity naturally, it was due to how the time required increases exponentially with every higher stage. If one recklessly consumed pills or spirit nts without regard to Impurity, even the most skilled doctor wouldn¡¯t be able to help, bringing the path to immortality to a halt. William dried himself off and put on the clothes Ren Bo provided before leaving the room for the first time in days. Ren Bo was waiting for him outside the door while reading some notes to pass the time. The kid followed him as he walked toward the exit. ¡°You look good, Brother Wei!¡± Ren Bo eyed him closely and nodded satisfactorily, ¡°Not too bad for my first patient.¡± William¡¯s lips twitched at the reminder of the pain Ren Bo had put him through. Still, he was fully healed, so he supposed it was worth it. ¡°¡­ Thank you, Ren Bo,¡± William said begrudgingly, ¡°I¡¯ll remember what you did for me.¡± ¡°Can you introduce me to Goddess Lan?¡± Ren Bo blurted out, making William stare at him in shock. He tried to imagine how the cold-blooded Lan Yin would react to Ren Bo. It could go from simplyughing at the kid¡¯s attempt with amusement to slicing him in half like she did Cao Rui. Besides, he was confident Lan Yin was over a hundred years old. ¡°We can talk about thatter,¡± William deflected as he opened the doors to leave the clinic. Thankfully, Ren Bo didn¡¯t say anything stupid since he was struck silent at seeing Lan Yin waiting for them. ¡°Good, you look ready,¡± Lan Yin said with a small smile, making William nce at Ren Bo. The kid was staring at Lan Yin like a lovestruck fool. William stepped in front of Ren Bo and replied, ¡°Yes, Senior Lan. When should I take the test?¡± ¡°Now,¡± Lan Yin stated, ¡°Follow me.¡± William moved to trail after Lan Yin, but before he left, he hissed, ¡°Watch where you¡¯re looking, kid. Don¡¯t you treasure your life?¡± He ran to catch up with Lan Yin and saw Ren Bo staring after her despite his warning. William rolled his eyes and was thankful she didn¡¯t notice. Chapter 33: Elder Yu Has Got It Going On Chapter 33: Elder Yu Has Got It Going On Lan Yin seemed to be in a strange mood. She was leading him to their destination at a walking speed that was just that bit faster than his, putting her in front of him and making conversation almost impossible to start. They passed plenty of buildings that he wanted to know more about. William knew it couldn¡¯t be him that caused her foul mood¡­ probably. There was a chance that Lan Yin had noticed Ren Bo¡¯s staring and was thinking about what to do with him. He didn¡¯t like the idea of that at all. Ren Bo might have lost his mind around Lan Yin, but the dumb kid was too naive to think anything too extreme. If William had to guess, the furthest Ren Bo might have gone in his fantasies might be holding hands with Lan Yin. That didn¡¯t need any sort of punishment. William cleared his throat. ¡°Ren Bo is quite smart, Senior Lan. I¡¯m surprised someone so young has such skill. But I think he¡¯s a little too naive.¡± ¡°Young?¡± Lan Yin nced back at him with an amused look, ¡°He¡¯s older than you, Little Wei Liang. Sometimes I wonder why you sound much older than you should.¡± ¡°Ah, you know, many reasons,¡± William mumbled, regretting saying anything when Lan Yin mentioned he sounded older. Lan Yin hummed as they approached a rather rough building nestled against the steep mountain walls. It wasn¡¯t poorly built, but instead of walls made out of expensive white jade, like the other buildings in the outer court, this one was built using white stone. It was still decorated in a way that reflected the Sect¡¯s dedication to healing, but there was no doubt that it was made to be stronger than others. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t worry about my Junior Brother, Little Wei Liang. Instead, focus on what will happen next,¡± Lan Yin stopped walking, ¡°This is where you will be tested. The Head Elder of the Outer Court will be in charge, so do your best.¡± William stared nkly at Lan Yin before switching his focus to the building. In contrast to all the others he had seen on the walk here, it was utterly devoid of people. He would have thought it was abandoned if not for the well-maintained garden that surrounded the building. It also highlighted how well-lit it was, just like the rest of the Outer Court. Even though there was no way for the sunlight to sufficiently shine into the Outer Court with the mountain walls surrounding it. But that was a mystery to be solved another time. ¡°¡­ Do I just enter?¡± William asked hesitantly. ¡°Yes,¡± Lan Yin nodded and expanded when she noticed his confusion, ¡°The Sect has an annual examination for candidates wanting to join the Sect. This already happened months ago, but there are the rare times when someone like you is eligible with an Elder¡¯s rmendation.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s just going to be the Elder and me?¡± ¡°Correct,¡± Lan Yin stated before rephrasing, ¡°Well, correct this time. Elder Yu is doing Elder Huang a favor by personally testing you.¡± William nodded slowly, wondering if this meant that the test would only be a formality. But if that was true, there was no reason to waste time and wait until he was in peak condition. ¡°Alright, Senior Lan,¡± William said as he looked at therge entrance, ¡°Wish me luck.¡± ¡°I am not some spirit beast to give you luck, Wei Liang,¡± Lan Yin said coldly, ¡°Make your way inside. Don¡¯t keep Elder Yu waiting any longer.¡± William knew that he had made Lan Yin angry with a saying that didn¡¯t exist in this world, but he felt that trying to exin himself would make it worse. After shuffling in ce for a few seconds, he quickly walked through the gardens before reaching the entrance. The scenic path through the beautifully maintained garden did nothing to lessen his growing nerves. Though, he did notice that the path through it was often lined with benches, which he assumed was for when the annual examination took ce. Before William entered the building, he looked back to see if Lan Yin was still there, like he was a kid going to school for the first time. Unfortunately, Lan Yin had disappeared, so there was nofort to be had there. William straightened his back and reminded himself that the Sect was making the effort to test him all alone. There was nothing to be nervous about... he hoped. He opened therge doors with surprising ease. He would have been confused with being presented with an enormous, bare room if not for the woman that was waiting for him right behind the door. William wondered if he would ever get desensitized to the beauty of female cultivators. Li Xinyue, Lan Yin, and that attendant in the Phoenix¡¯s Nest, Mei Lin, were stunning, though at different levels. Even the disciples he had seen walking around the Outer Court and the asional glimpse of an apprentice doctor in the clinic showed they were all beautiful. Perhaps in the future, William would have his standards of beauty recalibrated instead of relying on his experiences from his old world. Of course, even after that predicted recalibration, the woman before him would be beyond stunning, even more than Lan Yin or Li Xinyue. William remembered a few passages in a novel that he got a chuckle out of. Her beauty was beyondpare, with skin as smooth as jade and eyes like sparkling stars. Her lips were cherry-red, and her hair flowed like silk in the wind. She was a vision of ethereal beauty, with a face that couldunch a thousand ships. Her beauty was like a flower blooming in the midst of winter, captivating all who beheld her. It was the general flowery descriptions that William had learned to skip over. Still, it so urately represented the woman before him that it should have stunned him stupid. Well, William was stunned stupid, but not because of her beauty. [Name: ? | Level: ?] From what William understood about the system, a question mark only appeared when the person¡¯s cultivation was too high. Plenty of people he had seen had hidden levels, but only two had hidden names. Daoist Chen, and this woman, who William guessed was the Head Elder for the Outer Court. Unless someone of Daoist Chen¡¯s cultivation wasmonly an Elder of a Sect¡¯s Outer Court, there must be something William misunderstood. Since the old man who saved him clearly mentioned that he was on the cusp of ascension, William could only conclude that this woman was somewhere between Huang Jingyi¡¯s cultivation and Daoist Chen¡¯s. ¡°Are you done staring, boy?¡± William blinked when he realized that he had done it again. He stared at the blue text for far too long, but luckily, she didn¡¯t seem offended. In fact, she didn¡¯t show much emotion at all. If Lan Yin could be called a cold beauty, this woman would be an iceberg beauty¡­ or whatever the equivalent would be. Not that William would say that out loud. ¡°Sorry,¡± William bowed deeply, ¡°Senior Lan told me Elder Yu would be personally testing me.¡± ¡°That would be me,¡± Elder Yu revealed ndly, ¡°Elder Huang has never rmended a mortal. Let¡¯s see what¡¯s special about you.¡± William was rudely forced to stand straight, making him wonder if higher-level cultivators had something against people bowing to them. He wasn¡¯t sure where to look when Elder Yu stood less than an arm¡¯s length away. Especially since displeasing her would be unwise. ¡°Fascinating,¡± Elder Yu murmured with her finger on the pulse of William¡¯s neck, ¡°You have had an eventful few months. From the weakest of mortals to one of the strongest. A surprising resilience to pill and spirit nt consumption, but you haven¡¯t eaten enough to exin your overall condition.¡± William rubbed his neck when Elder Yu stepped back. He noticed that she hadn¡¯t mentioned his soul damage, which implied that she wasn¡¯t on the same level as Daoist Chen. ¡°Little Yin might be right about you having a special constitution,¡± Elder Yu seemed satisfied, ¡°I have to hear it personally. Do you wish to join my Jade Healing Sect?¡± ¡°Uh, yes, Elder Yu,¡± William stumbled over his words, distracted by wondering if he was seeing her smile or not. ¡°Good,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°We¡¯ll get started immediately.¡± As she walked away, William stared at her smooth ck hair, swaying gently with every step. However, before he could trail after her, a random idea popped into his head. Why was it that of the older cultivators, only the females still had the looks of a young woman? Was it someone sort of rule for the men to look like Gandalf or Dumbledore? All William knew was that he definitely wouldn¡¯t choose to look like an old man. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± William snapped out of his thoughts and rushed after Elder Yu. Chapter 34: Explode = Genius? Chapter 34: Explode = Genius? He was still in the cavernous room, but Elder Yu led him to the center instead of standing near the entrance, where a translucent, palm-size stone had floated down from the ceiling. ¡°Before we start, choose the path you want to take. Do you wish your testing to emphasize the Path of Alchemy or the Path of a Sentinel?¡± William wanted to throw out Alchemy instinctively but also wasn¡¯t keen on picking thetter. With the name it possessed, choosing the Path of a Sentinel just sounded like it was focused onbat. He would usually be happy to pick that, but this was a Sect that was clearly focused on alchemy and healing. It would be a shame if he didn¡¯t take advantage of it. ¡°Excellent,¡± Elder Yu stated, to William¡¯s surprise, ¡°Choosing the Path of a Sentinel is the wise decision. Little Yin would be happy to see that you followed her advice.¡± William vaguely remembered that Qin Yu, the guard that let him in, mentioned something about a Sentinel after Lan Yin talked to him, but that couldn¡¯t be considered advice. Either way, he wasn¡¯t happy that Elder Yu pushed him onto something he wouldn¡¯t choose. Correcting an Elder wasn¡¯t the best idea, but this would be the foundation for his future. He couldn¡¯t be passive about it. ¡°Elder Yu,¡± William interjected before she continued speaking, ¡°I was actually going to choose Alchemy.¡± ¡°That would waste your talent,¡± Elder Yu shook her head, ¡°And I¡¯m sure I heard you say you¡¯d prefer the Path of a Sentinel. Are you saying I misheard?¡± William wasn¡¯t saying that at all. He was saying that she was forcing him to dismiss alchemy. But why bother giving him a choice if she didn¡¯t want him to make his preferred pick? However, when Elder Yu emphasized the path he was to take, he felt a bone-chilling sensation run through his body as if he was being warned not to say the wrong thing. With great reluctance, William murmured, ¡°No, Elder Yu. You didn¡¯t mishear. I chose Sentinel.¡± ¡°Good. Let¡¯s start the testing,¡± Elder Yu said ndly, ¡°This will be a formality with your talent, but regtions must be followed. ce your hand on the Meridian Evaluating Gem.¡± [Side Quest Avable | Join the Jade Healing Sect] [Reward: ? | Penalty: Refusal of entry into the Jade Healing Sect] [ept: Y/N] William¡¯s mood was lifted with a side quest finally activating, even if this one had a penalty. He quickly epted the quest and ced his hand over the translucent gem. [Side Quest Added | Join the Jade Healing Sect] When nothing happened after he touched the gem, William nced at Elder Yu to see her showing a frown. It might have been easier to brush off if it had been anyone else. However, even though he had only recently be acquainted with Elder Yu, he had witnessed a range of emotions that never seemed to extend beyond a cold indifference. William guessed that an obvious frown on Elder Yu was the equivalent of Lan Yin yelling angrily or Li Xinyue falling into a furious rage. ¡°Elder Yu?¡± William questioned hesitantly but didn¡¯t get a response. In fact, she didn¡¯t look away from the Meridian Evaluating Gem, even though it was doing nothing. [-5 HP] With a sudden, thunderous explosion, the Meridian Evaluating Gem burst into a shower of glinting shards, scattering across the room chaotically. He instinctively raised his hand to shield his face, feeling a sharp sting as a few razor-edged fragments sliced into his skin. ¡°This¡­¡± Elder Yu muttered with a deeper frown than before. The small cuts from the shattered gem didn¡¯t bother William. His mind was racing with the possibilities of what this meant. Perhaps his potential was so outrageous that it exploded under the weight of measuring such a colossal value. William froze when Elder Yu again pressed her finger to the pulse on his neck. ¡°I can sense that you are near a breakthrough¡­ So why did the gem explode?¡± William stayed quiet at the rhetorical question but started to sense that the explosion wasn¡¯t a good thing. ¡°The regtions of the Sect state that you aren¡¯t eligible to take the test, Wei Liang. Each candidate, whether through rmendation or not, must be able to make the Meridian Evaluating Gem glow red at the minimum. An explosion means your meridians are damaged.¡± William¡¯s heart sank to his stomach, unable to ept that he could fail the test before even trying. That was without mentioning that he would fail the first side quest with a penalty. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this had something to do with his soul damage. ¡°So that¡¯s it?¡± William said unwillingly, ¡°That gem decided my fate?¡± Elder Yu seemed nonplussed at his disappointment. ¡°Most of the time, yes, it does. But there have been candidates in the past that have seeded despite the Meridian Evaluating Gem exploding. However, it is a path few can seed in.¡± ¡°I can do it,¡± William blurted before realizing that sounded too arrogant, ¡°I mean, I want to do everything I can to join the Sect.¡± ¡°I wouldmend you for your confidence, but I suggest you think it over,¡± Elder Yu cautioned, ¡°You will be required to learn a cultivation technique to show that the gem¡¯s evaluation was wrong. Since you are not yet part of the Sect, you will be provided a low-tier, human-level cultivation technique.¡± William¡¯s instinct was to scream his eptance. This was a gift that would upgrade his cultivation and get him to level eleven at the same time. But there had to be a reason that Elder Yu mentioned the level of the technique provided. ¡°That sounds straightforward, Elder Yu. Is there something wrong with taking this option?¡± ¡°Of the few candidates that seeded in learning the technique, over half couldn¡¯t change it to a higher level option. It¡¯s tough for even the most skilled to switch techniques in their lives.¡± That erased most of William¡¯s doubts. Switching cultivation techniques would be absolutely necessary if one desired to reach the higher realms, and that was something he wasn¡¯t worried about at all with the system he possessed. ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± William said firmly. ¡°Very well,¡± Elder Yu epted before cing a hand on his shoulder, shifting him into a location that seemed like a library. As William looked around the room, noticing the numerous disciples browsing through the shelves of books, Elder Yu waved a hand toward him. [+5 HP] ¡°Elder Yu!¡± That one disciple¡¯s exmation started a cascade that caused everyone within earshot to drop what they were doing and crowd Elder Yu and William. ¡°Go about your business,¡± Elder Yu said coldly, making the disciples freeze awkwardly and shuffle back to their previous activities. ¡°Um, thanks for healing me, Elder Yu,¡± William said after they were no longer being mobbed. ¡°You¡¯ll be provided a private room,¡± Elder Yu ignored his thanks and handed him a well-used manual that suddenly appeared in her hands, ¡°With how close you are to a breakthrough, I will give you two days to seed.¡± Before William could respond, he found himself in a sparsely decorated room stocked with food that wouldst a few days. It had everything a mortal needed for a short stay, and more importantly, the time was already ticking down. [Time Remaining: 1d 23h 59m 27s] William didn¡¯t know Elder Yu meant two days quite so literally, but that only meant that there was no time left. He nced at the cover of the manual and blinked. A Beginner¡¯s Guide to Cultivation. The manual sounded more like a joke to trick unsuspecting mortals than an actual cultivation technique. Still, Elder Yu handed it to William, so he took it seriously and flipped to the first page. He sat on the provided mat and quicklypleted the first several pages. Themon adage of not judging a book by the cover undoubtedly applied here. As he delved into the pages, William felt a sense of familiarity wash over him. It was as if he was transported back to his old world, eagerly binging a book while forgetting everything else. Only, this time there would hopefully be a life-changing reward at the end. Chapter 35: A Cultivator! Chapter 35: A Cultivator! William exhaled slowly as he felt the Qi locked in his body stir slightly. Even though he currently had a serene expression, beads of sweat were running down his face due to the effort he was putting into circting the Qi throughout his body. He hadn¡¯t seeded yet, despite multiple tries, but it felt like he was a hairbreadth away from unlocking his Qi. He frowned slightly when he felt his Qi fighting against hismand as it tried to settle back into his Dantian. This would be the limit of what he could do. William took a deep breath and stopped his efforts, feeling the meager amount of Qi he was controlling flee back toward his navel before hiding inside his Dantian. He opened his eyes and let out a puff of air in frustration. [Time Remaining: 1d 4h 59m 13s] He was missing something, but he had no idea what it was. And rereading the manual certainly didn¡¯t help him much since that had been done five times already. Still, it was the only reference William had, so he once again picked up the cultivation manual and prepared to go through it again, and maybe find something that he missed. Luckily, it was a rtively short read. Even if he mouthed each word, it would take a maximum of an hour to finish the entire thing. Which was what he decided to do. Almost an entire day had already passed, and he still hadn¡¯t learned to do something so simple. That line of thinking was stillughable to William, even though it was true. It surprised him how quickly he simply epted that he could easily feel the Qi gathered in his Dantian, which he didn¡¯t know existed a day ago, by following the steps in the cultivation manual. Of course, that surprise onlysted for the first hour, after which he was frustrated when his Qi refused to move through his meridians. William slowly read the words written in the manual out loud, not moving to the next page until he was sure that everything on the previous page was understood and memorized. It was what he should have done initially, but he scoffed at how simple it seemed and rushed through it. ¡­ And he had done it four more times after that in a rush to try and circte his Qi. It was betterte than never. By the time William had reached thest page, he felt that if it was still unsessful on the next try, attempting to find the answers in the manual wouldn¡¯t be of any help. William ced the worn booklet to the side and closed his eyes before trying to focus his attention inward. His breaths slowed as he felt a wisp of Qie into his grasp. A small smile formed on his lips when he felt almost no resistance. He was able to guide it through his meridians throughout his body, steadily lighting them up one by one. After the strand of Qi returned to the Dantian after sessfully circting his body, William sucked in a sharp breath. His body felt like it was floating with how light it suddenly seemed. As dumb as it sounded, the best way he could describe it was how it felt after taking a hit from his first blunt in college. [Time Remaining: 24h 15m 34s] [COMPLETED | Learn a Cultivation Technique: +1000 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Base Attribute Unlocked | Spirit] [Cultivation Upgraded | Qi Gathering Realm (1st Level)] The high William felt about unlocking his Qi was suppressed by the euphoria that rose in him from seeing the alerts. He pulled up his status screen for the first time in a while. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 11 Experience: 866/1375 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 1000/1000 Spirit: 1 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 12 (10) Points: 15 William¡¯s focus was drawn to the new attribute, wondering if he should immediately dump his unused points into it. With him being a cultivator, having only one point in Spirit was an insult. He pulled up the Cultivation submenu to see if anything else had changed. Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Max Level: 19 Max Attribute: 30 Impurity: Stage 1 (80%) 7 Days Remaining Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 20 2. Eligible for Level 20 With a new max of thirty points, William did some quick math to see if he could get every attribute to thirty before the second level of the Qi Gathering realm without external help. He couldn¡¯t. He would be short by over thirty points, ensuring that pills and spirit nts needed to be consumed in a way that wasn¡¯t detrimental. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t the biggest of concerns, especially since William could n for it right from the start. What wasforting was that upgrading to the second level of Qi Gathering would be straightforward. There would be no need to learn techniques or consume a random mystical pill. Just level up and have adequate points in the Spirit attribute. ¡°Very good. Less than a day to learn the technique. And you have reached the Qi Gathering realm.¡± William flinched at the unexpected voice and opened his eyes to see Elder Yu standing above him. He quickly pushed himself off the floor and stood up before bowing deeply. ¡°Thank you, Elder Yu!¡± Elder Yu waved her hand to force William to straighten himself, something he hade to expect by now, ¡°Congrattions are in order, Wei Liang. Wee to the Jade Healing Sect.¡± [COMPLETED | Join the Jade Healing Sect: 500 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Learn ¡®A Beginner¡¯s Guide to Cultivation¡¯ within 24 Hours: 250 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] ¡°Thank you, Elder Yu,¡± William repeated as he ignored the alerts, for now, not wanting to make the Elder in charge of him displeased by his distraction. ¡°New disciples are normally assigned groups to limate to their new surroundings, but you are a unique case. Elder Huang has requested that you be stationed in Xuanjing City. If you agree, I will approve his request.¡± William was confused about why his permission was needed when he was just a lowly Outer Court disciple. Still, he couldn¡¯t deny that he was tempted to decline Elder Huang¡¯s request. Especially since Elder Yu didn¡¯t seem to care one way or another about what he picked, though with her unemotional expression, that might be his optimism talking. ¡°Would I still be able to visit the Outer Court if I¡¯m in Xuanjing City?¡± William asked with concern, not wanting to lose ess to the library or the wealth of knowledge with so many cultivators avable here. ¡°In addition to the monthly allowance of five Qi Stones from the Sect, Elder Huang has agreed to add five Qi Stones to pay for your travel. It will allow you to visit the Sect one time a month. The cost of any extra visits will have to be funded by yourself.¡± William hesitated momentarily before saying, ¡°Could I have more time before making a decision, Elder Yu?¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°The rush of unlocking your Qi will keep you awake. Tell Little Yin what you wish to do.¡± William could barely register what she said when he found himself removed from the private room and in the middle of the gardens outside the building he had entered the day before. ¡°Congrattions, Junior Brother Liang,¡± Lan Yin said from behind. He turned to see something that he thought was impossible. Lan Yin smiling without seeming sarcastic or barely hiding anger underneath. ¡°Uh, thank you?¡± William said unsurely, remembering that Cao Rui was split in half thest time he had seen Lan Yin smile. ¡°You can call me Senior Sister Yin,¡± Lan Yin¡¯s smile grew even brighter, ¡°Elder Yu informed me that you have decided to be a Sentinel. That means you truly are my junior.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a Sentinel too?¡± William blinked in confusion, wondering why she was the Overseer of the Garden if so. ¡°I am,¡± Lan Yin confirmed, before ncing at his ill-fitting clothes, ¡°Let¡¯s get you the Sect robes and make this official.¡± William perked up as he followed her. Though he was ufortably aware that the man who had given him these clothes was killed by Lan Yin. Chapter 36: Using the Skill: Observe Chapter 36: Using the Skill: Observe Whatever had angered Lan Yin when she led him to the testing apparently had been resolved. She had been happy, eager even, to tell William about the various buildings in the Outer Court as they passed them. The first was the Mission Hall, though it was more of an open space than a proper building. There was a singr, bored-looking disciple manning a booth to log what ques were epted by the Outer Court disciples. And a good dozen or two were browsing what missions were avable for the picking. The next one, despite being smaller in size, was more visually striking than the clinic. The Library was constructed using white jade adorned with polished wood, giving it a distinctive appearancepared to the other uniform buildings. Arger group of disciples were gathered around the Library, making it the most frequented location in the Outer Court as far as William could observe. It made him realize that the Outer Court was rtively small. As long as there wasn¡¯t a building blocking his view, he could see every part of the Outer Court with no issue due to the t ground it was built on. It was like a little oasis surrounded by high mountain walls. ¡°This will be where you stay if you choose to reside in the Sect,¡± Lan Yin waved her hand at aplex of buildings that varied in size. It ranged from looking like a hut in a vige to a good-sized t that would fit in a modern city in his old world. ¡°I¡¯m guessing I would be in one of the tiny ones?¡± William asked with a frown, though he supposed it wouldn¡¯t be too bad since he doubted the disciples spent much time in their quarters. ¡°That guess would be correct if you were like other newly admitted disciples, but you are to be a Sentinel. With how few our numbers are, the resources avable to disciples on our Path are significant.¡± William blinked in surprise and pointed at the most extravagant dwelling. ¡°So I could stay there if I wanted?¡± ¡°Not that one in particr, but one that is an equivalent,¡± Lan Yin nodded casually before adding, ¡°I suggest you stop pointing, Junior Brother Liang. The disciple living there is a pain to-¡± ¡°BRAT! HOW DARE YOU!¡± A roar interrupted Lan Yin¡¯s advice, making her sigh in resignation. William turned to see a man whose appearance was almost a relief to see. Instead of themonly seen pretty boys that were everywhere, William could confidently say this man was theplete opposite. He was tall and muscr, with a shaved head that glinted in the sunlight and a scar over one eye that added to his intimidating look. [Name: Zhang Jun | Level: 64] ¡°IF YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE MY HOME-¡± Zhang Jun¡¯s expression froze before it changed, ¡°Senior Lan! Apologies, I was so angry at this brat that I didn¡¯t see you! Is there anything I can do to help?¡± William shuddered at how unsettling it was to see a gangster-like face fawning over Lan Yin. ¡°This brat, as you call him, is my new junior, Wei Liang,¡± Lan Yin said ndly, ¡°There¡¯s no reason for him to fight for your dwelling.¡± William saw a flicker of jealousy sh across Zhang Jun¡¯s face before a smile reced it. ¡°So it¡¯s Brother Liang!¡± Zhang Jun grabbed his hand and almost shook it off, ¡°If you need anything, juste to me, Zhang Jun!¡± William discreetly flexed his hand to rid it of the numbness and said, ¡°Thank you, Brother Jun. I¡¯ll be in your care.¡± When Zhang Jun put his attention back on Lan Yin and started acting like ackey, William began to wonder why the Sect gave a disciple on the Sentinel Path such favor. After all, it was obvious that this was a Sect focused on alchemy, notbat. When Lan Yin mentioned that there weren¡¯t many disciples in their Path, it was either because only the exceptional could qualify or the Sect required great sacrifice from the Sentinels that most weren¡¯t willing to entertain. William suspected it was a little of both, especially since Lan Yin made it a point to show how favored he would be in the Sect. He was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. ¡°Junior Brother Liang has to get settled, Zhang Jun,¡± Lan Yin cut in between the constant motor mouth, ¡°And I appreciate you watching out for him.¡± ¡°Ah, I see,¡± Zhang Jun said with a strained smile, ¡°It¡¯s no problem, Senior Lan.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Lan Yin said, ¡°Come, Junior Brother, you still need to get the Sect robes.¡± William nodded at Zhang Jun before an idea popped up in his mind. He had forgotten that Observe should be avable for him at this point. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Zhang Jun Age: 17 Level: 64 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (6th Level) Health: 1500/1500 Spiritual Energy: 340/340 Spirit: 68 Strength: 59 Stamina: 70 Agility: 55 William followed Lan Yin as he looked through Zhang Jun¡¯s stats in fascination. He would have guessed Strength to be the highest attribute based on his looks, but it was Stamina and Spirit instead. Looks had also deceived William with the ouw, Zhang Biao, and he almost died for it. The other curious things he noticed were Zhang Jun¡¯s low health and something called Spiritual Energy. It cost William five spiritual energy to use Observe, and Zhang Jun had a massive amount of it. Why wasn¡¯t he able to see it on his status? [Stat Added | Spiritual Energy] William blinked when the system responded to hisint and pulled up the HUD. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 12 Experience: 241/1500 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 1000/1000 Spiritual Energy: 0/5 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 1 Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 12 (10) Points: 20 He first noticed that it would take five hours to recover all of his spiritual energy. That sounded ridiculously overpowered if it stayed at the same recovery rate at the higher levels. It would mean he could start sting, try and hide for five hours before resuming said sting. ¡­ Perhaps that was more than a little unrealistic. Hiding for five hours from an enemy that required that much firepower was far-fetched. William guessed that each Spirit point was worth five Spiritual Energy when looking at both his and Zhang Jun¡¯s stats, but he wanted to make sure and assigned a stat point. [+1 Spirit] Spiritual Energy: 5/10 (20% per Hour) That confirmed William¡¯s guess, though this stat wouldn''t be of much use currently other than for Observe. That reminded him that he currently had a shit-tier cultivation technique that needed to be changed as soon as possible. ¡°Senior Sister Yin, when will I pick another cultivation manual?¡± William spoke up as they entered a tasteful, one-story building that was a short walk from the disciples¡¯ dwelling. It was sparsely decorated and empty except for a woman with her head down and scribbling in a book. [Name: Wang Mei | Level: ?] ¡°I¡¯ll bring you to the Library soon. I want to get you an entry token so you can visit without me in the future.¡± William murmured a thank you and went back to studying his stats. He had thought that Zhang Jun¡¯s health was low, but he noticed that his own health hadn¡¯t changed from level eleven. With how quickly his health increased as a mortal, William assumed it would continue in the same manner. However, that was obviously wrong. ¡°Lan Yin!¡± Wang Mei gasped in surprise, making William gape at how Lan Yin readily opened her arms to pull the woman into a hug, ¡°It¡¯s been over a month!¡± ¡°I was busy, Wang Mei,¡± Lan Yin patted her back, ¡°I was looking after my junior.¡± William gave Wang Mei a small wave when the woman looked at him over Lan Yin¡¯s shoulder. He supposed it only made sense for someone like his cold Senior Sister to have a friend like Wang Mei. It was the stereotype, right? A round-faced, cheerful woman with soft features getting along with the cold, ice beauty. ¡°How cute!¡± Wang Mei squealed as William found his cheeks being pinched by the woman. He didn¡¯t know how embarrassed he could get until now, his older mental age dying at being treated like a baby by an attractive woman. ¡°Stop embarrassing him, Wang Mei,¡± Lan Yin pulled her back by the cor, ¡°I came here so Wei Liang could get his Sect robes and entry tokens.¡± ¡°Ah, right,¡± Wang Mei smiled sheepishly, ¡°Give me a minute. I¡¯ll get them ready for you.¡± William rubbed his red cheeks as Wang Mei disappeared past a door behind her desk. He stared at Lan Yin, who shrugged at him as if to say, ¡°This was normal.¡± Chapter 37: William Is Precious Chapter 37: William Is Precious ¡°He¡¯s so precious!¡± Wang Mei had her hands extended to William¡¯s apparently pinchable cheeks, and she would have been doing that if Lan Yin hadn¡¯t been holding her back. ¡°I¡¯m sure you mean handsome,¡± Lan Yin corrected after noticing William¡¯s mortified look, ¡°Right, Wang Mei?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Wang Mei blinked in confusion before seeing what Lan Yin hinted at, ¡°Right! Your Junior Brother is so handsome!¡± William mentally cursed his unmanageable emotions as he tried not to feel emascted. Wang Mei treating him like a plush doll was bad enough, but Lan Yin trying to soothe his embarrassment was even worse. Still, he had to admit neither of them was incorrect. Unsurprisingly, William had avoided looking in the mirror ever since he had dreamt the memory of his death. He would remember the dead eyes of this body before his soul had been shoved into it every time he had nced at a mirror, but that had apparently been fixed. Perhaps it was the two human lives he had taken with his own hands that made him somewhat desensitized, or maybe being the butcher of bunnies and its gory result helped him ept death. Whichever reason it was, William could stare at himself in a mirror without his dead eyes pushed to the forefront of his mind. He observed his appearance carefully for the first time since he arrived in this world and had to admit that Wang Mei was right when she said he was precious. William didn¡¯t know how to feel about having the delicate appearance he hadmonly seen with the male cultivators. At the very least, the baby fat on his face was disappearing to reveal the sharp lines that would be defined when he became an adult. It was obvious that he would grow into a handsome man¡­ or maybe that was his bias talking. However, the one thing that wasn¡¯t biased was that the Sect¡¯s robes looked fantastic on him. He still looked like a child dressed up in formal clothing, but that didn¡¯t mean he looked terrible. It was the same soft green shade as the one Lan Yin and Wang Wei were wearing, but the symbol on his shoulder was different. William had a gold, unfilled circle on his right sleeve, while Lan Yin and Wang Mei had two filled circles. ¡°What does this mean?¡± William asked while pointing at the gold circle. ¡°It shows your cultivation level,¡± Wang Mei answered, ¡°Each gold circle is a major realm, while the gold filling shows which stage you are within the major realm.¡± William took another look at the two circles on the older women¡¯s sleeves and finally knew how strong they were. They were at the peak of Foundation Establishment, making him wonder how long a cultivator¡¯s lifespan was. He had assumed that Lan Yin was hundreds of years old, but wasn¡¯t that kind of lifespan reserved for higher realms? ¡°This is the pass that will let you ess most areas of the Outer Court,¡± Lan Yin handed William a polished, red jade card engraved with a lotus flower with green petals, the symbol of the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°However, remember that only you are allowed to use the pass. It can and has been taken away from past disciples after abuse.¡± ¡°Yes, Senior Sister Yin,¡± William said while pocketing the pass like it was a treasure, which it likely was. ¡°Good,¡± Lan Yin nodded at William before turning to Wang Mei, ¡°I have to finish showing Wei Liang around the Sect, but I¡¯ll visit before leaving for the Garden.¡± After the two shared another hug, and William endured another round of cheek-pinching from Wang Mei, they left the small building for their next destination. ¡°You¡¯ll be picking a cultivation manual next,¡± Lan Yinmented as she led William to the Library, ¡°As future Sentinels, we have no limitations on what we can pick, but there are three manuals that the Core Elders will rmend for you. The Sect will not stop you from choosing others, but be mindful that it will be hard to stay relevant with slow progression.¡± William knew it was time to ask Lan Yin what he had been wondering about. ¡°Senior Sister? How many disciples are on the same path as us? And why do we get so many benefitspared to the alchemy path? Won¡¯t it cause jealousy?¡± Lan Yin stopped and turned to stare at him incredulously, a first for William to see on her. ¡°Did Elder Yu not exin what selecting this path meant for you?¡± William wanted to say that he was forced into it, but with the affection Elder Yu showed towards Lan Yin, it would likely get back to her that he tattled on what happened. Besides, it was already done, so what was the point? ¡°I was too eager, Senior Sister. I made my pick before Elder Yu could say anything.¡± Lan Yin sighed and shook her head. ¡°Luckily, you are best suited for it, or you would have made a grave mistake. We are to be the protectors and enforcers of the Sect, and in return, we are greatly supported. The Sect used to ept many disciples on our path, simr to the alchemists, but it resulted in too many mediocre cultivators. A few centuries ago, the Elders decided to only nurture elite disciples to gain true pirs for the Sect.¡± That made all too much sense to William. It was shockingly simr to how professional basketball teams in his old world worked. To gain an advantage over theirpetitors, they would put all their resources into one person, hoping to result in a superstar that would carry them to victories. ¡°That sounds like it¡¯s almost too good to be true, Senior Sister Yin,¡± William said suspiciously. While something like this might seem generous, he had to look for the catch in a cultivation world. He had already been caught off guard at times when the result should have been obvious. William was mainly talking about Cao Rui, who Lan Yin killed with a smile on her face. He couldn¡¯t be med for being suspicious when Lan Yin was happily telling him the benefits the Sect would give him. ¡°That¡¯s not for you to worry about at the moment, Junior Brother. When you reach the Core Formation realm, the Sect will tell you the duties they expect from you, but that is at least over a century away.¡± William hid his thoughts as Lan Yin mentioned for him to follow her after thinking she had reassured him. While she might be correct in assuming that the disciples the Sect epted in the Sentinel Path would take that long to reach the Core Formation realm, William would be different. Had to be different. Side Quests (3): Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward While that side quest didn¡¯t have any penalty for failure, the reward a cultivator would give right before ascending would be beyond priceless. It would weigh heavily on him if he couldn¡¯t get that aplished. Though, with how difficult Lan Yin made it seem to get to Core Formation, William was starting to wonder how much time he could spend under the safety of the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s shade without it being a detriment. They quickly arrived at the Library, making the eyes on the disciples who were congregating near the entrance locked onto Lan Yin. ¡°Senior Lan!¡± ¡°Senior Lan, who¡¯s the kid?¡± ¡°Goddess Lan! I love you!¡± William¡¯s eye twitched at the familiar voice and turned to the direction where it came from. As expected, the foolish Ren Bo was staring at Lan Yin with a pink face. ¡°As I said, Junior Brother, three manuals are of the most use for you. I¡¯ll bring you to look at them first, and if you prefer something else, I can help you with that too.¡± Lan Yinmented as she ignored the shouts for attention around them. William followed after Lan Yin like a duckling as she easily moved through the small crowd without slowing. If she could ignore this, it made sense why Ren Bo staring at her like a besotted fool at the clinic didn¡¯t phase her. Lan Yin entered the Library and walked to the right instead of going to the main floor. ¡°Hold your entry pass on this.¡± William pulled out the red jade card and pressed it against the outline on the wall, making it rumble momentarily before sliding up to reveal a winding staircase. ¡°This will take us directly to the floor reserved for the Outer Court disciples on the Sentinel Path,¡± Lan Yin said as she started to climb the stairs, ¡°With you being the only disciple under Foundation Establishment, it can also serve as your private study room if you desire.¡± ¡°¡­ Sweet,¡± William muttered as he followed her up. ¡°Sweet? I don¡¯t see how that has anything to do with what I said,¡± Lan Yin stopped to look down at him in confusion. ¡°Ah, it means good, Senior Sister,¡± William exined, wondering when he would stop using words in a way that only made sense in his old world. ¡°Hm,¡± Lan Yin narrowed her eyes before shrugging and pushing the matter aside, ¡°I suppose your asional strangeness will fit in nicely with most of your Senior Brothers and Sisters.¡± William wondered if she included herself in that, but of course, it wasn¡¯t something to be asked out loud. Chapter 38: Picking Another Technique Chapter 38: Picking Another Technique When Lan Yin told William that this was reserved only for disciples on their Path, he imagined a rather cozy but luxurious room filled with manuals that he could browse in leisure. ¡°Take a look at them and decide which is best suited for you. Our Sect is a strong proponent of the disciple choosing their own fate. If you believe in yourself, pick a tablet based on your feelings.¡± William nodded as he stared at the three jade tablets resting innocuously on a table in the center of the room. He should also say that other than the table and the tablets, the room had nothing in it. No chairs, rugs, or decorations. It was as if someone had forgotten to finish the room when decorating it. ¡°Wait, did you say disciples choose their own fate?¡± William asked in surprise, remembering Elder Yu practically forcing him to drop the idea of picking alchemy. With the resources the Sect was giving him, it turned out to be a good thing, but that wasn¡¯t the point. ¡°Of course,¡± Lan Yin confirmed before adding, after a pause, ¡°Well, this doesn¡¯t apply to the Alchemy Path since that would be a disaster. It¡¯s mainly for us. Luck is a strong factor, so try not to overthink your choice. Remember, if nothing feels right, you can opt to choose lesser manuals.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William didn¡¯t know if there could be a more unmistakable sign for him to dump his unused points into Luck. Still, his only hesitation was his extremely low Spirit attribute. But surely that could bepensated for in another way. ¡°Senior Sister, will switching to one of these techniques increase my spiritual energy? I know this might sound weird, but I can feel how much I have, and it¡¯s really tiny.¡± ¡°I envy your sensitivity, Junior Brother,¡± Lan Yin sighed, ¡°I suppose it¡¯s not a surprise since you could feel the entrance gate¡¯s healing effect. But no, raising your spiritual energy can be done with patient cultivation. Pills and spirit nts are also options, but it takes more effort to purify your spiritual energy, so that is something I don¡¯t rmend.¡± William felt like facepalming at his idiocy for forgetting about cultivation in a cultivation world. He didn¡¯t like the idea of locking himself in a room to cultivate, but if it would free his unused points so he could assign them to Luck, then so be it. [+18 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] Reinforced by his newly maxed-out Luck, William did as Lan Yin suggested and picked up the jade tablet in the middle, trusting his Luck to help him. [Horizon¡¯s Seeker | ept: Y/N] William frowned when the basic information of the cultivation manual entered his mind. He wasn¡¯t sure how this would be better than ¡®A Beginner¡¯s Guide to Cultivation.¡¯ Sure, it went more in-depth into breathing exercises and visualization, but was it worth it to make an effort to learn this? ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± William looked away from the jade tablet and saw Lan Yin standing beside him. ¡°I think I picked something terrible.¡± Lan Yin frowned and took the tablet from his hands, raising her brows in surprise at what it was. ¡°This one is new. One of the Elders must have acquired it recently.¡± ¡°Acquired?¡± William repeated in confusion, ¡°So these aren¡¯t inheritances of the Sect?¡± ¡°No, none of them are,¡± Lan Yin chuckled, ¡°This is an Alchemist Sect first and foremost, but that alsoes with great wealth, not to mention the pills that only we can supply to the Empire and the Kingdoms surrounding it. If valuable enough, the Elders asionally take cultivation manuals as payment.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William¡¯s excitement died quite a bit. If that was the case, he could see himself having to switch techniques again in the near future. He couldn¡¯t imagine that anyone would be willing to give up a heaven-defying cultivation manual in a trade, so the chance of any of these being a protagonist-level technique would be nonexistent. ¡°Horizon¡¯s Seeker is a peak-level, Human-tier cultivation manual. An apanying manual is avable in the Earth-tier after you have mastered this one. I can¡¯t tell what it specializes in, so I¡¯ll leave the decision to you.¡± Besides knowing there was an Earth-tier manual after this, William wasn¡¯t helped by Lan Yin¡¯s advice. With nothing stopping him from checking the other two tablets, he picked both of them up at the same time. [Illusionist¡¯s Scripture | ept: Y/N] [Flesh and Steel Technique | ept: Y/N] Now these choices were more obvious to William. The Illusionist¡¯s Scripture made him think of the beach paradise Daoist Chen conjured out of thin air when he was about to break down over the dead children¡¯s bodies. It would be amazing to be capable of something like that in the future, but that was assuming this manual could take him to that degree of skill. As for the Flesh and Steel Technique, out of the three manuals avable, it was the one that was the clearest. It was a body cultivation manual, and it was also one that he was least interested in. However, with the way the system worked, it might be the mostpatible. ¡°What about these, Senior Sister Yin?¡± William held out the two tablets to her. ¡°These seem to focus on the Illusion Dao and the Body Dao,¡± Lan Yin said after touching the tablets, ¡°They also have Earth-tier manuals avable after you master them.¡± That wasn¡¯t of much help either. William¡¯s eyes twitched in irritation before slowly saying, ¡°Thank you, Senior Sister.¡± Lan Yin chuckled before saying, ¡°My Senior helped just as much when I had to choose, but there isn¡¯t much else I can tell you. I¡¯ve never seen any of these cultivation manuals before. If you feel none are right, we can move to the repository to see if anything there fits you better.¡± The thing was, William didn¡¯t want to go elsewhere. Though the Flesh and Steel Technique might be the quickest way to gain power, and the Illusionist¡¯s Scripture made him imagine having an ability simr to Daoist Chen, something drew his eyes to the first tablet he picked. It was foolish to even think about picking something unknown as his foundation. Still, in his mind, he was justifying it byforting himself that he could always change it if needed¡­ at least, he thought so. ¡°Can I change my cultivation technique if it doesn¡¯t fit me?¡± ¡°You can,¡± Lan Yin nodded, making William¡¯s perk up, ¡°But you will lose all your progress and have to start from the beginning. Years, perhaps decades, of effort will be wasted. Of course, once you pass a mortal¡¯s lifespan, you will no longer have that choice.¡± William, for some reason, had assumed that cultivation techniques were something to be reced when wanting to ascend to a higher level. Apparently, he couldn¡¯t be more wrong with what Lan Yin said. His choice now would be the basis of his cultivation for the rest of his life. So why the hell did he still want to pick Horizon¡¯s Seeker? Perhaps it was some sort of sunk cost facying into y. William had maxed out his Luck, believing that it would reward him with helping pick the correct cultivation manual. It was possible that it was still influencing his thoughts. ¡°I¡¯ll choose this,¡± William said firmly, cing the other two tablets back on the table. ¡°Are you sure?¡± Lan Yin asked with a bit of surprise. ¡°Yes,¡± William nodded confidently, flinching when the jade tablet shattered in his hand as the information was imprinted into his mind. [Horizon¡¯s Seeker epted] [Main Quest Added | Switch your cultivation technique to Horizon¡¯s Seeker] He hoped that his Luck hadn¡¯t led him wrong, and if it did, he would have to make a switch before he advanced to the Foundation Establishment realm. ¡°Congrattions on picking your new cultivation technique, Junior Brother Liang,¡± Lan Yin said with a small smile, ¡°Would you like to explore it now? A few rooms are avable here with a concentrated amount of Qi.¡± William looked around the bare room but couldn¡¯t see what Lan Yin was talking about. ¡°Hold your pass to the wall there,¡± Lan Yin pointed to the wall opposite the entrance. He did as she told and blinked when a part of the wall slid up with a rumble, but instead of a staircase this time, it revealed a hallway with two doors on either side. ¡°You can select either of the doors, as both rooms serve the same purpose. Once you¡¯re finished, go to the Administrative Building and meet Wang Mei. She will be able to get me.¡± William bowed to Lan Yin and said, ¡°Thank you again, Senior Sister.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only what I should do,¡± Lan Yin said with a wave of her hand, ¡°Use the time inside wisely, Junior Brother Liang. I¡¯ll see you soon." He nodded before picking the door on the right. Chapter 39: Becoming a Better Cultivator! Chapter 39: Bing a Better Cultivator! [-100 HP] [Cultivation Technique Removed | A Beginner''s Guide to Cultivation] [Attribute Removed | Spirit] [Stat Removed | Spiritual Energy] William coughed up blood, though instead of pain, he had an incredulous look on his face as it sttered on the stone floor. He could barely see the red stter through the thick, silvery wisps of Qi filling the room, but the fact that it happened wasn''tputing in his mind. He had always thought that cultivators throwing up blood was a hoax, mrkey, a cheap way to express a character''s distress. However, he had to face his new reality when looking at a tenth of his health taken away. Honestly, William thought he had gotten away with it cheaply. While the alerts he received suggested that he had lost his added Spirit point, he could feel the Qi in his Dantian, waiting for him to summon it. He felt it would be much easier than before since he knew how to go about it. The lost health was a minor annoyance that could be fixed easily. He was in the Jade Healing Sect, after all. The thing that worried him wasn''t mentioned in the alerts, but he could see it, if that made sense. While meditating, he could easily feel thework of pathways that connected his entire body to facilitate the flow of Qi. While he had ''A Beginner''s Guide to Cultivation'' as his technique, thework was dimly lit with a minuscule amount of Qi flowing through it, while the twelve principal meridian points were slightly brighter. All of that was nowpletely dry. William knew that it would only be temporary, but he couldn''t help but feel highly ufortable at the empty pathways. He settled his mind and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before focusing on his Dantian. The beginning was quite simr to the previous technique, but that was where the simrities stopped. While ''A Beginner''s Guide to Cultivation'' spread his Qi thinly throughout his meridians, ''Horizon''s Seeker'' seemed to go with quality instead of quantity. Choosing which of the twelve principal meridians to focus on didn''t seem particrly important. At least the cultivation manual imprinted into William''s memory didn''t mention it, so picking one was purely his preference. Just in case it was beneficial somehow, he decided to pick the meridian connected to his lungs. Perhaps it might increase his low Stamina. The Qi in his Dantian quickly moved under hismand as he visualized it as a flowing river of energy. By the time it arrived at the intended destination, around half of the Qi had been lost. However, that was expected. Some Qi was required to activate the pathways to enable the easy flow of spiritual energy, while the remaining would be concentrated on the Lung Meridian. Unlike the faint glow he ''saw'' while using the previous cultivation technique, there was now a bright speck of light in his Lung Meridian as the remaining Qipressed themselves into a single point. [Cultivation Technique Added | Horizon''s Seeker] [Attribute Added | Spirit] [Stat Added | Spiritual Energy] [COMPLETED | Switch your cultivation technique to Horizon''s Seeker: +1000 XP] William ignored the alerts and focused on gathering all the Qi he could into his Lung Meridian until there was nothing to spare. Only when that was finished did he exhale slowly before opening his eyes. He cleared the alerts and opened his HUD to ensure his Spirit hadn''t been reduced. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 12 Experience: 1241/1500 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 900/1000 Spiritual Energy: 10/10 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 2 (2) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (24) Points: 1 William nodded to himself in satisfaction about his assumption being right. The problem now was what to do for the next couple of hours. When Lan Yin suggested he use this room, it sounded like she didn''t expect him to make any progress. Wouldn''t that make his rapid switch of cultivation techniques outrageous? After all, it had only taken him less than three hours. He eyed the silvery mist surrounding him and figured that he might as well try to cultivate. It would be a shame if he didn''t take advantage of the abundant Qi and increase his Spiritual Energy. Besides, it seemed he was in a particr mood at the moment. A mood to be a shut-in and cultivate like a true native. How would he have fully immersed himself in activating a principal meridian if he wasn''t? William closed his eyes again and slowly circted his Qi, from his Dantian to the Lung Meridian, over and over, for what seemed like hours until he finally noticed something changing with his Qi. He continued the cirction until the change in his Qi suddenly reverted back to the original state at the start. Before he could think about what had happened, his trance was broken by multiple alerts. [Cultivate for the first time: +500 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Cultivate for 1 Hour in a sparse Qi environment: +1 XP] He ignored the first two alerts and stared at thest one. The first thing he thought was that it must be wrong. There was no way the time he just spent was only an hour. The second was shock when realizing why his Qi acted so oddly. It seemed that right when he was about to gain the benefits of his cultivation, it was taken away and converted into experience points. While that would be a better choice, it certainly wasn''t when an hour of his time was valued at one experience point. It would be better spent stomping on the damned bunnies at the Garden. As for his third thought, what did the system mean by ''sparse Qi environment?'' William looked around the room to confirm that plentiful Qi had filled the room. If this wasn''t enough, what qualified as a dense Qi environment? Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 13 Experience: 242/1625 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 900/1000 Spiritual Energy: 10/10 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 2 (2) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (24) Points: 6 With the experience points William needed for level fourteen, it would be nearly two months of continuous closed-door cultivation. The problem with that was that he was sure he would go insane if he actually attempted that, and before the insanity could affect him, he would die of thirst or hunger. He sighed and pushed himself off the floor to stand up. There was no point in thinking of cultivating like that at this point. And since cultivation only gave him experience points instead of raising his Spirit attribute, he might as well not bother with it. That meant he would have to rely on his unused stat points to raise his Spirit, something he might as well do now. He''d save three points if he needed more Stamina for an emergency. [+3 Spirit] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction] William blinked to make sure he didn''t see things. To double-check, he pulled up his traits. Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction Increasing his Spirit attribute resulted in a lowering of the attribute reduction. Although the decrease was a mere one percent, allocating points to Spirit became a top priority. [+3 Spirit] Although William was disappointed that the soul damage''s effect hadn''t decreased further, he was able to determine the amount of Spirit points necessary for a change. With a current total of eight Spirit points, he ruled out changes for every three or four points, leaving only increments of five. That meant that his soul damage would no longer affect his attributes when he had a hundred Spirit points. Williamughed gleefully for a few seconds before suddenly coughing like he was trying to expel his lung. [-100 HP] William left yet another bloody mark on the floor before hastily sitting on the mat. He focused on regting his breathing and reining in his wild Qi. This resulted from the little thought he gave to the potential consequences of significantly increasing his Spirit attribute. After he had managed to sessfully rein in the Qi nearly overflowing from his Dantian and channel it into his Lung Meridian, he intended to request Lan Yin send him to Xuanjing City. Since William''s approach to cultivation differed wildly from that of his fellow disciples, it wouldn''t be ideal for him to live in the Outer Court. The Mission Hall and the Library were resources he would miss, but he could travel for them if needed. Chapter 40: Dragged to the Mission Hall Chapter 40: Dragged to the Mission Hall The speck of light in his Lung Meridian seemed to get brighter by the slightest of margins after he directed the additional Qi into it. It didn¡¯t magically increase his Stamina as he had hoped, nor did it make him feel any different. However, he still felt a strange aplishment for making that speck shine brighter. William took deep breaths for a few more moments before slowly opening his eyes. He was taking to this meditation business with surprising ease. He stood up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand to check for any blood, but luckily, he coughed out everything without staining his face. He pointedly ignored the red puddle on the floor and left the room, having nothing else left to do. He noticed that the jade tablets had been removed, making the existence of this ¡®private study¡¯ even more questionable. What did Lan Yin expect him to do here? Unless she was talking about the Qi-filled rooms, which unfortunately didn¡¯t have much use for him. William shook his head in disappointment and climbed down the stairs, holding the pass to the outline on the wall to reveal a very excited Ren Bo. ¡°Brother Liang!¡± Ren Bo almost squealed before shoving William to the side, ¡°Is Goddess Laning down?¡± ¡°Fuck,¡± William hissed, rubbing his stinging shoulder after hitting the wall, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?!¡± ¡°Ignore Ren Bo. He¡¯ll get over his obsession with Senior Lan eventually.¡± Turning his gaze from a visibly anxious Ren Bo, William noticed a tall boy sporting a bored expression. The boy¡¯s good looks were to be expected, but his appearance had a noticeable touch of aristocracy, unlike the others. [Name: Yang Fan | Level: 33] ¡°What do you mean?¡± William moved a safe distance from Ren Bo to stand next to Yang Fan. ¡°It¡¯s his thing,¡± Yang Fan shrugged, ¡°Ren Bo goes through a phase of fixating on his supposed ¡®dao partner.¡¯ That partner changes every month or so.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± William had wondered why it seemed like everyone ignored Ren Bo¡¯s creepy phrases for Lan Yin like it was normal. It was because they actually were used to it. ¡°Is he¡­ right?¡± William whispered, ¡°Mentally, I mean.¡± ¡°He¡¯s fine,¡± Yang Fan shrugged before tilting his head like he was thinking about the correct answer, ¡°Probably. Even if he wasn¡¯t, Ren Bo is a prodigy, and it¡¯s rumored that an Elder will take him in as a disciple as soon as the regtions allow it.¡± All William got from that was it was eptable to be a creep as long as you¡¯re talented enough. A far cry from the first impression he got from Ren Bo. ¡°Should I tell him Senior Sister Yin has already left?¡± ¡°NO! Where¡¯s Goddess Lan!¡± Ren Bo wailed when the hidden passage started to close. ¡°Leave it,¡± Yang Fan said with a shake of his head, ¡°He has to get out of it himself.¡± William stared at Ren Bo dramatically wing at the wall, making him wonder what stopped Ren Bo from entering while it was open for him. ¡°Like I said, ignore him. And wee to the Sect, Brother. My name is Yang Fan.¡± William returned the greeting by sping his hands together and nodding slightly. ¡°Greetings, Brother Yang. I¡¯m Wei Liang.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s Brother Wei,¡± Yang Fan gave him azy smile, ¡°I¡¯ll depend on you in the future.¡± ¡°Brother Yang¡­ I just joined the Sect. You¡¯re much stronger than me.¡± ¡°For now,¡± Yang Fan corrected without shame, ¡°I¡¯ll be a respected alchemist, while you¡¯ll be the fist that¡¯ll keep the undesirables away from me.¡± ¡°¡­. Thank you?¡± William wasn¡¯t sure if that was an insult since Yang Fan said that in a matter-of-fact tone. ¡°Hey, you want to do something fun?¡± ¡°What do you mean by fun?¡± William asked warily, suspecting someone that seemed to be friends with Ren Bo to have some strange quirk of his own. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the Mission Hall! I¡¯ve never partnered with a Sentinel before!¡± ¡°Brother Yang, I¡¯m not a Sentinel yet,¡± William corrected, ¡°And I could barely be called a cultivator, so I¡¯m not sure how much help I will be.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine,¡± Yang Fan dismissed William¡¯s concerns as he started to walk to the exit, ¡°Let¡¯s go, Brother Wei!¡± William hesitated, looking at Ren Bo ring at the wall with tears running down his face, before deciding that Yang Fan was a better choice. However, he was tempted to go the opposite way, forget about the two weirdos and meet Wang Mei as nned. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you.¡± William turned to the disciples watching Ren Bo breaking down a short distance away. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t do what?¡± ¡°Ignore Yang Fan. He¡¯ll keep bothering you until he¡¯s bored again.¡± The jumbled mess of blue text floating above their heads didn¡¯t help with much of anything until the system reacted to his annoyance and took away the unneeded information before leaving one above the person he was focusing on. [Name: Liu Yan | Level: 68] Liu Yan was a short girl with thick sses and an unassuming appearance. However, in typical cultivator fashion, she still made the look somehow work for her. ¡°Is he dangerous?¡± William asked with a frown. ¡°Not at all, but¡­¡± Liu Yan looked at Yang Fan¡¯s retreating back and lowered her voice to a whisper, ¡°He can be really, really annoying until he loses his interest in you.¡± William nodded, feeling relieved that it wasn¡¯t anything serious. ¡°Thanks for the warning, Senior.¡± ¡°If you really want to thank me, follow Yang Fan before hees back.¡± William turned to see Yang Fan gesturing at him from outside the Library to follow. He sighed before waving at Liu Yan and went outside to join Yang Fan. With how small the Outer Court was, the Mission Hall wasn¡¯t too far away. Still, William was already starting to regret his decision to follow Yang Fan. The boy was already talking nonstop about histest alchemy sesses, and saying that he found himself struggling to keep up was being kind. William had no idea what gibberish wasing from Yang Fan¡¯s mouth. However, all William had to do was nod his head asionally to make Yang Fan start talking again. This personality change was so far from the boy¡¯s bored expression at the start that he wondered how it could be the same person. As they approached the Mission Hall, William noticed it was much busier than when he hadst seen it. A group of disciples were gathered around the entrance, all talking excitedly about something. William nced at Yang Fan, who just shrugged before walking straight to the crowd. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Yang Fan asked one of the disciples, a tall, bulky man with a fierce expression. [Name: Zheng Tao | Level: 73] ¡°We just got word that there¡¯s been a sighting of a sentient spirit nt,¡± Zheng Tao exined, his excited voice not matching the face, ¡°We¡¯re forming a team to go out and catch it.¡± ¡°Sentient? Can we join?¡± Yang Fan asked eagerly, ¡°I brought Brother Wei to experience his first mission.¡± The man looked them up and down, his eyes lingering on William momentarily before shaking his head. ¡°Yang Fan, you y around too much. I can sense that some mortals are stronger than this Little Brother,¡± Zheng Tao paused before saying to William, ¡°This is not an insult. It¡¯s for your own safety. Besides, Senior Lan would kill me if I put her Junior Brother in danger carelessly.¡± William shrugged at Zheng Tao, showing that he didn¡¯t take offense. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I forgot about that,¡± Yang Fan said as he sighed in frustration, ¡°Brother Wei, you¡¯re still too weak to take any of the missions.¡± ¡°¡­ I know, Brother Yang,¡± William wanted to p the kid for acting like he just realized it, ¡°I told you that before you led me here.¡± ¡°Actually, there are quite a few missions that Little Brother Wei is eligible for,¡± Zheng Tao interjected, ¡°Yang Fan, why don¡¯t you choose one of the farming missions?¡± ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate, but there¡¯s nothing for you to do, Brother Wei!¡± Yang Fan ignored Zheng Tao, ¡°I can¡¯t apany you since Senior Brother Zheng asked me to join his team, but I¡¯ll make it up to you!¡± Zheng Tao seemed used to Yang Fan¡¯s antics if his expression was anything to go by, but William was more than happy to be rid of the chatterbox. ¡°How unfortunate,¡± William agreed sarcastically. Zheng Tao chuckled slightly and gave William another look before leading his team away from the Mission Hall. It was suddenly devoid of disciples other than the one manning the booth and William himself. Since he was already here, he might as well check out what kind of missions were avable before leaving. Chapter 41: Picking a Mission Chapter 41: Picking a Mission [Name: Wu Jing | Level: 99] Other than the cultivators that were permanent workers in the Garden, Wu Jing was at the highest level he had seen. Of course, since Wu Jing hadn¡¯t been shipped off to the farm for the rest of his life, the Sect must expect him to break through to Foundation Establishment. ¡°You¡¯re new. Harvesting, gathering, and mining tablets are near the end,¡± Wu Jing droned without bothering to look at him. William blinked in surprise at the feminine voice that came out of Wu Jing¡¯s mouth. He took a second look at the disciple and realized that the short hair and muscr build had overpowered the delicate features of her face, making him mistake her for a man. ¡°Could I take a look at the others, Senior?¡± Wu Jing finally looked at William, but it was with an annoyed frown. ¡°Do I look interested in being an introductory guide to the Mission Hall?¡± ¡°There¡¯s an introduction guide?¡± William asked eagerly, thinking of how useful it could be. ¡°Of course there is,¡± Wu Jing said seriously, ¡°It¡¯s given to every disciple who enters the Sect. In fact, without it, you technically can¡¯t be considered a true disciple.¡± William blinked in confusion as he stared awkwardly at Wu Jing, wondering why Elder Yu and Lan Yin had forgotten to give one to him. He hastily brought out the pass Lan Yin had given him and showed it to Wu Jing. ¡°I don¡¯t have the introduction guide, but I have this pass. Senior Sister Lan told me it would let me ess most of the Outer Court.¡± It was Wu Jing¡¯s turn to stare awkwardly at William as she sheepishly scratched the back of her head. ¡°So it¡¯s Little Brother Sentinel. I thought you were wasting my time, so I yed a little joke on you.¡± ¡°A joke?¡± William repeated in confusion. ¡°There¡¯s no guide,¡± Wu Jing chuckled at his expression, ¡°Though this is the first that a newly admitted disciple didn¡¯t know how the Mission Hall worked. Were you that distracted when the Elders told you about the point system?¡± William realized that he didn¡¯t know much about the rules of the Outer Court, or the Sect for that matter, and for once, he didn¡¯t think it was his fault. ¡°Elder Yu didn¡¯t get the chance to tell me anything yet, Senior.¡± ¡°Elder Yu?¡± Wu Jing muttered with a strange look, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean the Head Elder. It would be Elder Qiyue or Elder Fengming that should have told you. They are the heads of the Mission Hall and the Library.¡± ¡°¡­ I never met either of them, Senior.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Wu Jing said even though she didn¡¯t understand, ¡°I don¡¯t think I could help you much with the specifics about the point system for Sentinels since Senior Lan had already be an Inner Court disciple when I entered the Sect, but the tablets should show you the modified rewards for your Path.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± William nodded before asking again, ¡°Does this mean I can take a look at all tablets? Just to see what¡¯s avable.¡± ¡°No,¡± Wu Jing¡¯s eyes sharpened, ¡°Newbies like you are the ones that think too highly of yourselves. The number of disciples killed because of stupidity forced Elder Yu to make Outer Sect disciples earn the right to look at certain tablets.¡± William wanted to argue that he wouldn¡¯t do anything stupid, but that would be like arguing with a low-level customer service worker in apany. It would most likely be useless. ¡°I understand, Senior,¡± William nodded, and Wu Jing motioned for him to move along, which he wasn¡¯t as eager to do as he was at the start. He remembered Zheng Tao mentioning something about farming, and after weeks spent observing the workers at the Garden, he doubted the mission tablets he had ess to would interest him. Still, he was already here, so he might as well check, just in case. William walked away from the booth toward the wall stered with wooden tablets, with partitions separating them into four sections. The Sect didn¡¯t trust their disciples with an honor system to keep the restricted tablets secret. Smart. While he could see the tablets clearly from afar, the moment he was within reading distance, it suddenly became hazy, like his eyes couldn¡¯t focus. Even trying to step in their direction would make him feel like he was losing control of his legs. William shook his head to rid himself of the feeling. He did his best to ignore the restricted tablets before walking toward the partition on the farthest left. In contrast to the others, it did nothing to discourage him from reading them. He stood close to the tablets to quickly scan the titles and descriptions as he shifted his gaze from one to another every few seconds. Most were mundane tasks like collecting wild spirit nts or cleaning the Sect¡¯s buildings that awarded him ten to twenty points. However, William didn¡¯t have a clue about what those points were worth. What William found curious was that the system didn¡¯t prompt him to ept a mission when he touched a tablet, making him think that everything he saw was things that even a toddler wouldn¡¯t be tempted to ept. The asional farming mission awarded him fifty points, the highest amount he had seen thus far, which was likely why Zheng Tao rmended it. However, as mentioned before, he wasn¡¯t interested in that. He skimmed more titles and was about to leave when he noticed something different from the others. When William touched the wooden tablet, the system finally came alive. Mission: Investigate Strange urrences Location: Xiao Yuan Vige Description: The vigers have reported strange urrences around Xiao Yuan Vige. Your mission is to investigate these urrences and determine the cause of these strange happenings. The vigers have reported unusual noises at night, strange lights in the forest, and sightings of unexinable creatures. Your task is to gather information from the vigers and investigate the reported sightings to determine the source of the disturbances. Reward: 100 points Penalty: -100 points ept: Y/N William wanted to decline it, he really did, but surely it was safe if it was lumped together with the tablets for gathering wild spirit nts and farming in the Garden. And perhaps this could be a sort of penance for what he let happen to Cao Rui. He knew that it was unlikely that anything could have changed Lan Yin¡¯s mind. Then again, he remembered her asking if he had instructed the mortals to gather all the fruits. A small lie might have saved a life, but William had been more concerned about his own, so he had adamantly told the truth. This mission could be a ticket to settle his guilt. It seemed that these vigers were in trouble, and perhaps ying hero would be just what he needed. [Side Quest Added | Mission: Investigate Strange urrences] William smiled at the confirmation before it quickly fell off. He had no idea where thisXiao Yuan Vige was, so it looked like another trip to the Library was needed to review some maps. Before that, he needed to let Wu Jing know he was iming this tablet and maybe ask more about the mission while at it. ¡°Senior, I¡¯m choosing this.¡± Wu Jing pursed her lips, amused by what he handed her. ¡°Is there something wrong?¡± William frowned, arching his neck to see what he was wearing. ¡°Not at all,¡± Wu Jing praised, though he still felt something was wrong, ¡°Many disciples have chosen this tablet for nearly a year, and none have seeded.¡± ¡°A year?!¡± William said in shock, adding, ¡°Luckily, whatever the vigers are being tormented by doesn¡¯t mean them harm.¡± ¡°Harm as in, for their life?¡± Wu Jingmented as she shook her head, ¡°That¡¯s not the only way to ruin lives, but you¡¯re right. There¡¯s a reason this tablet is avable to you. It had been reserved for more powerful disciples, but once it was apparent that the vigers¡¯ lives were in no danger, Elder Qiyue moved it to the left-most partition.¡± ¡°I still want to take it!¡± William now said with more confidence. ¡°Very well,¡± Wu Jing smiled. Interlude: Yu Yanhua feels suspicious Interlude: Yu Yanhua feels suspicious With her life spanning several centuries, Yu Yanhua had grown adept at concealing her disgust for what was sprawled beneath her. She had long held a strong aversion towards mortal cities, and if it weren''t for the majority of the Sect''s Elders insisting on stationing alchemists in them, she would have dly abstained from ever setting foot in one again. The Elders'' wastefulness of precious resources had irked her greatly, but s, it was a battle she could not fight. To a cultivator, a city was a cesspool of negative energy and distractions, a ce where the weak and ignorant were held back by their limitations. The mortals below were trapped in their own small world, consumed by their selfish desires and blind to the greater mysteries of the universe. However, upon attaining the rank of Elder herself, she gained a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the Sect''s decision to station its members in the mortal cities. It was something necessary for the existence of their Sect. Yu Yanhua felt someone give her a warning by targeting their intent toward her. She scoffed as she red at the extravagant pce in the center that towered over the city. Still, she hid her growing disgust to stop the aura emanating from her body and affecting the mortals. While the Prince that protected Xuanjing City was in the Nascent Soul Realm, he was still far weaker than her, but the monsters in the Imperial Family were not to be trifled with. There was a reason that her Sect was happy to show goodwill toward the mortals. Yu Yanhua¡¯s form flickered and appeared before the Jade Healing Clinic. She didn¡¯t dawdle and entered, seeing Li Xinyue talking to a young mortal she was familiar with. ¡°Elder Yu!¡± Li Xinyue eximed, moving to wee her with a deep bow. ¡°Little Yue,¡± Yu Yanhua greeted as she kept her eyes on the fidgeting mortal, ¡°Are you still determined to waste your potential, Li Jie?¡± ¡°I have displeased you, Elder Yu!¡± Li Jie dropped to the floor and knelt before her. ¡°What a disappointment,¡± Yu Yanhua sneered and flicked her fingers, picking Li Jie up and throwing him out of the clinic without warning. Li Xinyue stiffened briefly before rxing when she saw Li Jie was unharmed. He was able to dust himself off before walking away, though he seemed more despondent than before. ¡°Stupid boy,¡± Yu Yanhua muttered, ¡°Huang Jingyi gets his sessor, but mine refuses to cultivate.¡± Li Xinyue pretended she didn¡¯t hear anything and stayed mute, waiting to be addressed, which happened soon enough. ¡°Little Yue, let your Master know I¡¯m waiting for him,¡± Yu Yanhua instructed, letting Li Xinyue leave before showing her exasperation. She could sense that Huang Jingyi clearly knew she had arrived but was making her wait on purpose. If it was anyone else, it would have drawn her ire for their arrogance. ¡°Elder Yu!¡± Huang Jingyi greeted happily, ¡°What brings you to my small clinic?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure you already know,¡± Yu Yanhua said drily, ¡°Let¡¯s talk in private.¡± ¡°Yue¡¯er, take care of the clients thate in,¡± Huang Jingyi instructed his disciple, indirectly telling her that she wasn¡¯t to follow before walking to the back of the clinic for privacy. A few minutester, Yu Yanhua was sipping on a cup of tea as she asionally looked at a proud Huang Jingyi. ¡°How long are you going to stay silent, Sister Yanhua?¡± Huang Jingyi smiled, ¡°The only usible reason I can think of for your visit to Xuanjing City is Wei Liang.¡± Yu Yanhua gently ced the cup on the table before nodding, ¡°You¡¯re right. It¡¯s because of him, but it might not be for good reasons.¡± Huang Jingyi frowned at the warning he heard in her tone. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°What do I mean?¡± Yu Yanhua leaned forward slightly and stared at him unblinkingly, ¡°Where did you find the boy? Did you know the Meridian Evaluating Gem exploded when he touched it?¡± ¡°Exploded?¡± Huang Jingyi repeated in shock, ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be possible! I sent two low-level mortals to test him, and I could sense that his strength increased exponentially with him barely making an effort!¡± ¡°That hasn¡¯t changed,¡± Yu Yanhua shook her head in shared disbelief, ¡°I sensed that the boy¡¯s spiritual energy increased by orders of magnitude with a few hours of cultivation. I haven¡¯t seen anyone put so little effort and receive such great benefits.¡± Huang Jingyi couldn¡¯t hide the shock he was feeling. He knew of plenty of geniuses that excelled while being a mortal. Still, that unbelievable growth rate would always slow, not increase, after learning a cultivation technique. The few that could were no longer geniuses but children of heaven. However, if that was true, Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t understand why the Senior that originally saved Wei Liang let him go. ¡°Sister Yanhua, did Wei Liang do something for you to have doubts?¡± ¡°Yes, he did,¡± Yu Yanhua¡¯s words made Huang Jingyi tense, ¡°He¡¯s too outstanding, Huang Jingyi. Dangerously so. If the Imperial Family finds out, they will go to great lengths to kill him, and unless the Grand Elder approves, we can¡¯t stop them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ not good,¡± Huang Jingyi thought that was the most courteous way he could put that. The Grand Elder was closer to the Imperial Family than the Sect, as typical with all the sects within the Tianxia Empire. ¡°Yes, I would say that is not good,¡± Yu Yanhua confirmed drily, ¡°I already made ns to avoid the Grand Elder¡¯s detection, but I need you to tell me how you found Wei Liang before I go through with it.¡± Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t hesitate to let Yu Yanhua know what Wei Liang had told him and the investigation he followed that with. He even went to where Wang Xiaoling told him she had met Wei Liang, and he let Yu Yanhua know that too. ¡°Hmm,¡± Yu Yanhua crossed her arms as she thought over what Huang Jingyi told her, ¡°I¡¯ll see if I can find something you missed. For some reason, that cultivator didn¡¯t take Wei Liang with him even though he went through the effort to save him. It¡¯s¡­ suspicious, at the least.¡± ¡°I agree, Sister Yanhua.¡± Yu Yanhua raised an eyebrow at Huang Jingyi¡¯s passiveness and added, ¡°Then I hope you also agree to host Wei Liang in Xuanjing City for the foreseeable future. The Grand Elder would never visit this ce.¡± To her surprise, Huang Jingyi didn¡¯t happily agree. ¡°Is there something wrong? This is the safest way to keep Wei Liang hidden.¡± ¡°Sister Yanhua, I would be happy to, but Yue¡¯er has told me some matters that make me reluctant.¡± Yu Yanhua became impatient when he didn¡¯t continue and prodded, ¡°And?¡± ¡°I think Wei Liang is taking to my disciple too well.¡± She exhaled slowly, reminding herself that Huang Jingyi was no longer that Junior Brother that needed a firm hand teaching him. She resolved that the best way to deal with this was to ignore itpletely. ¡°As I said, Wei Liang will return to Xuanjing City soon. I have given him a choice to stay in the Outer Court, as regtions require me to, but he won¡¯t be able to stay for long even if he chooses the Outer Court.¡± Huang Jingyi sighed and nodded in eptance after Yu Yanhua spoke to him in a frigid tone. ¡°And Huang Jingyi, Li Xinyue might tie Wei Liang to the Sect if your words are true. Do not interfere with them.¡± Huang Jingyi¡¯s robes fluttered slightly when Yu Yanhua disappeared. He sighed again before taking a first sip of the tea he had made and grimaced at theck of heat. As he cleared the table, heforted himself that Wei Liang was still young and nothing would happen for years, if it ever did. Interlude: Yu Yanhua feels excited Interlude: Yu Yanhua feels excited The speed at which Yu Yanhua could fly meant it took no more than ten minutes to reach the area that Huang Jingyi had mentioned. It had been weeks since Wei Liang had first appeared here, but even if the chances of finding out more were negligible, she had to make sure. epting a disciple of Wei Liang¡¯s suspected potential was not simple for any sect, especially if the sect had an overlord like the Tianxia Empire pressuring it in the shadows. At the least, it could be a death sentence for the Elders involved. In rare cases, a purge would be imposed on the entire sect to warn others of what would happen if they dared to ept such disciples instead of handing them over. There had been an instance when the Empire had ced a daughter of heaven in a sect showing signs of disobedience, giving them enough of an excuse to erase the sect from existence, adding another concern with epting such disciples. However, as far as Yu Yanhua knew, the Jade Healing Sect and the Empire were on good terms, and unless the Sect master had done something she didn¡¯t know of recently, that should still be the case. Yu Yanhua suddenly stopped as she stared at a spot that would seem no different than any other part of the dirt road to others, mortals and cultivators alike. Unknown to most, she was a rare cultivator with great insight into the tremendously difficult Space Dao. While it was only her secondary specialty, it was enough to make her one of the most dangerous Nascent Soul Realm cultivators in the Tianxia Empire. That insight let Yu Yanhua see a tear in the world, though it was almost healed to the point where she would have missed it if she wasn¡¯t already looking for anomalies in the area. While she couldn¡¯t confirm if the tear had beenrge enough to transport a boy of Wei Liang¡¯s size, the story she was given certainly implied it. Not that she expected to see such advanced use of Space Dao, something that was far beyond what she was capable of. Yu Yanhua had thought that the ¡®Senior¡¯ Huang Jingyi kept referencing might be a realm above her, but unless there was a cultivator that attained unmatched levels of insight into Space Dao while in the Spirit Severing Realm, she suspected that the one who saved Wei Liang was a respected senior in the Dao Seeking Realm. She wasted no more time looking for clues and used her full speed to fly back to the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s Inner Court. The surroundings blurred as a distance that would take mortals six months to travel was covered within four hours as Yu Yanhua rushed to report what she had found to the Sect Master. This was now a decision that was beyond her. ¡°Yu Yanhua!¡± A man adorned in precious gems yelped in shock at the sudden intrusion, ¡°Where are your manners?!¡± ¡°Sect Master Guan Feng, I have something to report!¡± Yu Yanhua bowed, knowing she was in the wrong. The Sect Master let out a heavy sigh before a pulsating surge of Qi enveloped her body, signaling that the formation had been activated. She rose from her bow to see the irritated look he was sending her. ¡°Yu Yanhua, if this is about Li Jie again¡­.¡± Guan Feng trailed off helplessly, knowing that there wasn¡¯t much he could do. He wanted Yu Yanhua to stop wasting her time and take more responsibility in the Sect, but she insisted on being the Head Elder of the Outer Court until she epted a disciple. ¡°I may have found a potential disciple, Sect Master.¡± ¡°You have?¡± Guan Feng asked, briefly stunned, before a bright smile appeared on his lips, ¡°That¡¯s great! Who is it? How can I help?¡± ¡°He¡¯s a new disciple named Wei Liang that was rmended by Huang Jingyi¡­ but there are problems that could be disastrous for the Sect.¡± Guan Feng¡¯s smile slowly turned into a grimacing frown as he listened to Yu Yanhua exin what she had discovered before standing up in shock at what he was told at the end. ¡°That can¡¯t be!¡± Guan Feng shook his head in disbelief, ¡°Do you know how ridiculous this sounds, Yu Yanhua?¡± ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± Yu Yanhua replied with a nod, ¡°But the alternative is equally preposterous. A Spirit Severing Realm cultivator with such control over Space Dao has never existed.¡± Guan Feng knew that, he did, but it was hard to reconcile with the fact that a true pir of humankind had made a move to save a mere mortal. After a few seconds of silence, he said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure it matters.¡± ¡°Sect Master?¡± ¡°I give you my permission, Yu Yanhua,¡± Guan Feng said carefully, ¡°But do not allow Wei Liang to get the attention of the Grand Elder¡¯s faction. I don¡¯t have to tell you what will happen if that¡¯s the case.¡± ¡°I already arranged for Wei Liang to stay with Huang Jingyi in Xuanjing City.¡± ¡°Xuanjing City?¡± Guan Feng repeated with a smile, ¡°I never thought I would hear you say that willingly after the headache you gave us for decades about mortal cities.¡± ¡°It¡¯s the best ce for him to stay and avoid detection,¡± Yu Yanhua said stiffly, ¡°The only danger is the Prince guarding the city, and he¡¯s a paper tiger at best.¡± Guan Feng chuckled, but he agreed with her. The Imperial Family¡¯s true experts do not concern themselves with the daily rulings of the Empire. They made it a habit of selecting mediocre talents in the family and raising them to the Nascent Soul Realm with precious pills before dumping the administrative work on them. It was a wasteful use of such pills, but it was also a way for the Imperial Family to show their extravagant wealth. ¡°You¡¯re correct,¡± Guan Feng finally agreed, ¡°I know this doesn¡¯t need to be said, but prepare for the worst.¡± Yu Yanhua nodded. ¡°Of course, Sect Master.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Guan Feng said, ¡°Unfortunately, I¡¯ll have to keep you as the Head Elder for the Outer Court since you can¡¯t announce that you will be taking Wei Liang as your disciple. I wish you hadn¡¯t made that deration to the Elders.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be able to take on more burden anyway,¡± Yu Yanhua shrugged without care. Upon seeing that Yu Yanhua was openly neglecting her duties instead of using the excuse of finding a disciple, Guan Feng found it difficult to suppress his frustration. It seemed that she no longer felt the need to hide her tant disregard for responsibility. ¡°Go!¡± Guan Feng signaled for her to leave with an irritated wave of his sleeve. Yu Yanhua lowered her head in a slight bow and departed the Sect Master¡¯s chambers. However, she couldn¡¯t shake off the unease as she walked to the exit. The fact that Wei Liang had caught the attention of such a powerful figure almost assured that he was a once-in-a-millennia talent. Still, it also meant that the Empire¡¯s discovery of him would be a matter of when, not if. They had eyes and ears everywhere. Even without that, if Wei Liang was too outstanding in front of the wrong people, it was unlikely that they would allow a talent like him to slip through their fingers. The worst that the Sect Master told her to prepare for was the Empire finding out about the existence of Wei Liang too early before they could make contingency ns for a quick retreat. It had been years, no, decades since Yu Yanhua had felt such an urgency to grow more powerful. At the heart of the Empire¡¯s power stood the Spirit Severing Elders, secluded in the Empire¡¯s sacrednds and devoted to uninterrupted cultivation. They emerged only in moments of crisis, when the Empire teetered on the brink of copse or when a prodigious talent threatened to jeopardize its future existence. Yu Yanhua had never personally witnessed such an event in her lifetime, but she epted it as a fact. After all, the current Emperor was not of imperial blood. Rather, he was an unparalleled prodigy deemed by the Spirit Severing Elders to be of such importance that he must wed into the Imperial Family to preserve their dominion. She harbored no doubt that Wei Liang would be bestowed with immeasurable riches from the Imperial Family if his existence were exposed. Therefore, it was even more imperative to keep Wei Liang hidden. Given his tender age, enticing him away withvish presents would not be challenging. This was not to say that the Jade Healing Sect would not do the same, but it would be reasonable, given that Wei Liang was a disciple of the Sect. Chapter 42: William Wants to Go Back Chapter 42: William Wants to Go Back "Wee back!" William flinched when Wang Mei started to repeatedly tap his face, specifically his cheeks, in delight. In a Sect full of kids his age, you would think she had never seen one before with how fascinated she was with him. "Wang Mei, enough." William couldn''t see Lan Yin since Wang Mei''s very distracting body blocked his vision, but the ice-cold tone made him freeze in fear, even though he wasn''t the target. As for the woman abusing his face, she mostly froze too, but her hands continued their all-important job of smushing his face. "Just a few more seconds, Lan Yin! You know I never get the chance!" "There''s a reason they all run away from you,¡± Lan Yin yanked Wang Mei back with a grip on her cor, "Now isn''t the time. Elder Yu is on her way, and you know how she feels about dys." "Elder Yu?" Wang Mei yelped before she disappeared. "Impressive," Lan Yin nodded as she peered at William, "Elder Yu told me that you were already sessful with switching your cultivation technique, but it was hard to believe." "Thank you, Senior Sister," William replied, asking after a slight pause, "Why did Senior Wang run away?" "Run away?!" Wang Mei reappeared, once again blocking William''s vision in a way that made him highly ufortable, "Little Liang, do I look like someone who runs away?" If William had to be honest, he would have to say yes, she did seem a little ky. But lying was the key to continued life. "Of course not, Senior Wang!" "That''s the right answer!" Wang Mei smiled brightly before handing him five notes, "Here is your allowance from the Sect. Remember that you will lose it if you don''t im it every month." The notes had the number one disyed clearly with a lotus in the background. It looked simr to cash from his old world, and small wording mentioned it could be redeemed for a Qi Stone. That confused William since he knew that Qi Stones were supposed to be valued by cultivators due to the energy that they contained. What was the point if a piece of paper reced them? "These notes are only spendable within the Sect," Wang Mei said, clearing up some of William''s doubts, "If you can''t find what you need and decide to shop outside, you can turn the notes in to get Qi Stones." William would have thought this was a clever way for the Sect to keep the Qi Stones inside their borders, but with how amused Wang Mei seemed as she finished talking, that guess might be incorrect. "It sounds like you don''t expect me to redeem the notes, Senior Wang." "No, I don''t," Wang Mei said while chuckling, "If you can''t find what you need inside the Sect, it''s almost impossible that you will do so on the outside. There''s a reason the Sect needs people like Elder Yu to protect its existence. Our Sect is far too wealthy, Little Liang." That wasn''t surprising at all to William. He would have to be an idiot to not realize the sheer wealth the Sect possessed when he saw that the Outer Court had entire buildings made out of jade. Though the part that did surprise him was the mention of Elder Yu. How could a mere Outer Court Elder, even if she was the Head, do much to protect the Sect? William assumed that the Elders of the Inner Court would be far more powerful, but Wang Mei must have a strong affection toward Elder Yu. "Anyway, here is the catalog of what you can order. As long as you are inside the Sect or near one of the outposts in the mortal cities, it will update itself automatically. A delivery fee will apply in the cities, but the Inner Court''s Treasure Pavilion has low prices that are unbeaten." William knew it was rude, but he couldn''t stop himself from opening it immediately. Just looking at the sheer number of categories listed on the first page with a corresponding page number would be shocking enough, but it was quickly evident that all these options couldn''t be listed in such a small booklet. It seemed the pages changed based on what category he wished to browse. "I told you, Lan Yin," Wang Mei grinned as she looked at William flipping through the pages, almost drooling at what he saw, "He wouldn''t wait." Lan Yin shrugged, admitting her loss, though she noted down the parts of the catalog he was interested in, as Elder Yu asked of her. "What''s this?" William pointed at a symbol that was different from the others. Wang Mei nced at it and said, "It represents a Spirit Stone. One Spirit Stone is worth one hundred Qi Stones, so it''s a little beyond you at the moment. Don''t worry, you''ll be able to afford it eventually." William stared at the talisman''s price in shock. Since it cost three Spirit Stones, wouldn''t that mean it would take him five years to be able to afford it with the current allowance the Sect gave him? "Senior Wang, how much gold is one Qi Stone worth?" William wanted to understand how much the things in the catalog truly cost with his experience from selling Wang Xiaoling''s goods. "Gold¡­" Wang Mei trailed off while tapping her chin with a finger in thought, "It''s rare to do so, but some cultivators with mortal families make that exchange on asion. It fluctuates, but usually between ny to one hundred and twenty Gold." William remembered the pompous look the people who spent two or three Gold had while he was selling those fruits for Wang Xiaoling. It was enough to let a decently-sized family livefortably for over a month. The Sect just gave him over two hundred times that amount, and they would do so every month. Then again,paring what a cultivation sect gave to what mortals earned was foolish. He supposed the urateparison would be to other sects. "Wei Liang." William almost jumped in shock when he saw Elder Yu staring at him intently, not knowing how long she had been there. "Wu Jing informed me that you selected a mission." "Uh, yes?" William shivered before clearing his throat, "I mean, yes, Elder Yu." "Hmm," A folded paper flew out of his pocket andnded in Elder Yu''s open palm. After she nced at it, she nodded and said, "Xiao Yuan Vige. I''ll be interested to see if you canplete it." "Little Liang, why did you pick that one?!¡± Wang Mei gasped, ¡°Go back and pick farming or even mining! You''re going to be a pauper!" William frowned in confusion and said, "What do you mean?" "This is my fault. I haven''t exined how the point system works yet," Lan Yin muttered before giving William a pointed look, "I also told you to head straight here to meet Wang Mei." "I was dragged against my will by a crazy person!" William defended himself, though he couldn''t deny he didn''t mind going along with it due to curiosity. "That doesn''t matter," Elder Yu interjected, "Since it''s your first mission, I decided to send Ren Bo with you as support." William felt himself get paler than he already was before realizing that the stalker boy should be normal without Lan Yin around¡­ so it was probably alright. He nodded and epted, "Yes, Elder Yu." "Good, and have you decided whether you wish to stay in the Outer Sect or Xuanjing City?" William knew what he wanted, but he didn''t know if it would annoy Elder Yu just like his choice did during the testing. Honestly, he was d Lan Yin and Wang Mei were present. Though Elder Yu outranked them, surely face was important in this world. She wouldn''t want to be seen pressuring a disciple. "Yes, Elder Yu, I''d prefer to live in Xuanjing City. I hope you forgive the inconvenience I''ve given you." William thought that wording was perfect since it was decisive yet respectful. He felt he was bing an excellent bootlicker. "Very well," Elder Yu nodded, "The mission will take you close to Xuanjing City. Lan Yin, you may send Wei Liang back to Elder Huang. He can head to Xiao Yuan Vige from there." "Understood, Elder Yu," Lan Yin nodded firmly. "And Lan Yin, I expect him to receive no help from you or any older cultivators. This will test his resourcefulness." Lan Yin nodded again as William looked on with suspicion. He thought Elder Yu was smiling behind that cold expression for some reason, but he had no proof to confirm that ridiculous thought. Chapter 43: Martial Skills Chapter 43: Martial Skills William stood within a teleportation formation with Lan Yin and Ren Bo on either side, while Elder Yu observed them a short distance away. "The Sect will be covering the cost for today''s activation, but future uses of the formation will be out of your pocket." "Yes, Beauty Yu!" William froze in shock, and he was more than aware that Lan Yin did the same before they slowly turned in horror to Ren Bo. It was bad enough that the kid had been obsessed with Lan Yin, but at least she seemed tolerant of his nonsense. He had been waiting for Ren Bo to move to his next obsession, but he didn''t think it would be even more suicidal. Elder Yu stared at Ren Bo silently for a few seconds before saying, "Wait here for a moment, Wei Liang, Lan Yin." Before they could react, Elder Yu disappeared with Ren Bo, leaving them alone in the Teleportation Chamber. "Is Elder Yu going to kill Ren Bo?" William asked with some pity. "¡­ I don''t think so," Lan Yin sounded unsure, though she seemed pleased, "It was inevitable for Ren Bo''s actions tond him in trouble. After he became fixated on me, I looked into his actions and saw that it started with a childhood friend that joined the Sect with him. That quickly passed, and he chose more and more outrageous targets to obsess over. I would have taught him a lesson if not for the Elder keeping a close eye on him." "So Ren Bo grew too confident and decided Elder Yu would do nothing?" The pity William had for Ren Bo disappeared. That kid needed a hard lesson before he got himself killed. "Elder Yu is fair toward everyone," Lan Yin said proudly, "No matter their background." William wasn''t sure about that, but he wasn''t about to speak his doubts to Lan Yin, who obviously looked up to Elder Yu. "I might as well go over the manuals before Elder Yu returns," Lan Yinmented after some silence, "Are you sure you don''t require anything else?" William shook his head, but even after what he experienced in the Library, he could barely believe a sect could be so¡­ easygoing. In another apparent benefit for disciples on the Sentinel Path, the cost of taking out manuals from the Library was waived. The only requirement enforced was the cultivation level required to enter higher floors. Just like that, the points William would get forpleting missions had one less thing to be used on, which meant it could be saved for use on the items in the catalog. When Lan Yin exined to him what those points on the mission tablets could be used for, he got rather excited. Those hundred points that would be a reward for solving the mystery of Xiao Yuan Vige could be converted into a hundred Qi Stones or one Spirit Stone. However, that also meant that failing the mission would mean he would owe the Sect the same amount. However, instead of paying back the Sect in currency, the only way to clear the deficit would be toplete more missions. Honestly, it made William wish that he had just picked something easy, like those farming missions that awarded fifty points for eachpletion without a chance for penalty. "I already picked the skill manuals I thought fit me, Senior Sister Yin. Didn''t you say choosing too many will be a distraction?" "That is true," Lan Yin nodded with a frown, "But I didn''t expect you to only choose three manuals." William didn''t expect to do that either, but for once, the system was of more use than simply acting like a status screen. "The others didn''t feel right, Senior Sister. Isn''t that what you said? I should trust my feelings." Lan Yin gave him an exasperated look before deciding to leave it alone. When she said that, it was for the cultivation technique. That didn''t mean he should pick his martial skills based on it too. However, instead of selecting the most impressive fire skill or something shy, William had picked something low-key. And they were all what Elder Yu told her would fit his cultivation technique best. Lan Yin didn''t have to say a word to convince William to choose them since he did that by himself. "Very well," Lan Yin sighed, "I suggest you gain basicpetence of those skills before leaving for Xiao Yuan Vige. Unlocking your Qi will not be of much help without that." "Yes, Senior Sister," William agreed readily since that was his n anyway. The skill manuals he had picked had exciting descriptions, but theirpatibility with his cultivation technique, something the system surprisingly told him, was concerning, though they were the best avable in the Library. Side Quests (7): 1. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) 2. Mission: Investigating Strange urrences 3. Learn the Martial Skill - Thunderous Palm 4. Learn the Martial Skill - Thunderous Kick 5. Learn the Martial Skill - Earth-Shaking Stomp William opened the detailed view of the new side quests and reread the descriptions. Thunderous Palm - (20% Compatibility) When performing this technique, the user focuses their Qi into their palm before unleashing it in a sudden burst of explosive force, creating shockwaves that can knock back opponents and cause damage to surrounding structures. [Learn the Martial Skill - Thunderous Palm] [Reward: 500 XP | Penalty: -1 Spirit] Thunderous Kick - (20% Compatibility) When performing this technique, the user focuses their Qi into a single point on their feet before delivering a powerful kick, unleashing a shockwave that can knock back opponents and cause thunderous booms to echo through the air. [Learn the Martial Skill - Thunderous Kick] [Reward: 500 XP | Penalty: -1 Spirit] Earth-Shaking Stomp - (15% Compatibility) When performing this technique, the user focuses their Qi into their legs before mming their foot into the ground, creating a shockwave that can knock opponents off their feet and cause cracks in the earth. [Learn the Martial Skill - Earth-Shaking Stomp] [Reward: 500 XP | Penalty: -1 Spirit] That all sounded very impressive. Kicking, stomping, and punching, or rather, palming hard enough to create shockwaves would have been something William drooled about. However, there were plenty of skill manuals in the Library that far exceeded the ones he picked. Who wouldn''t want to create a wall of fire that could turn people into ash? Or pick the manual that taught you how to control the wind to fly as long as enough spiritual energy was avable? Even though William was aware that those skills were out of consideration for him, he couldn''t help but wish for them. Unfortunately, hispatibility with most skill manuals was less than one percent. It was a stroke of luck that he could find three manuals that had apatibility rate of fifteen percent or higher. An added benefit was that the penalties for notpleting the side quests were almost insignificant. While the loss of a Spirit point would have been disastrous, the likelihood of that happening was practically zero since there was no time constraint for finishing the quest. This effectively meant that William would earn a level up as a reward for learning the martial skills, making it a double advantage for him. In the absence of any other topics to discuss, Lan Yin''s silence allowed William to focus on reviewing his status screen. However, when Lan Yin abruptly straightened her posture and appeared more attentive, he followed suit. As expected, it wasn''t long before Elder Yu reappeared with a much more subdued Ren Bo. "Are you ready?" Elder Yu asked after Ren Bo silently walked back to stand beside them. However, William noticed he didn''t try to stand next to Lan Yin this time and used him as a buffer. "Yes, Elder Yu," William and Ren Bo answered in unison. "Good," Elder Yu nodded and continued, "Little Yin, let your brother know I want to speak to him. I tried to contact him, but I suspect he has secluded himself for closed-door cultivation." While Lan Yin assured Elder Yu that she would deliver the message, William found himself preupied with trying to recollect the appearance of the man in question. Since he had met Lan Yin''s brother not too long ago, William found it strange that he couldn''t remember what the man looked like. In fact, he couldn''t remember the name either. Before he could think about it further, Lan Yin activated the formation. Elder Yu gave them a nod as wisps of Qi were drawn from the stones powering the formation before a familiar sh of light filled William''s vision. Chapter 44: Something Is Broken Chapter 44: Something Is Broken ¡°Wee back,¡± Huang Jingyi greeted them with a smile. ¡°Elder Huang,¡± Lan Yin bowed slightly, ¡°You remember Ren Bo. He was chosen by Elder Yu to apany Wei Liang on his first mission.¡± ¡°Mission?¡± Huang Jingyi raised his eyebrow in curiosity, ¡°No matter, that can be discussedter. Wei Liang, or should I call you Junior Liang now that you are part of my Sect?¡± William bowed deeply to the man that helped him the most, even if it wasn¡¯t strictly for altruistic reasons. ¡°I¡¯m fine with whatever you decide, Elder Huang.¡± Huang Jingyiughed before saying, ¡°Then Junior Liang it is. Yue¡¯er is waiting for you at the reception. Why don¡¯t you meet her while I discuss some matters with Lan Yin and Ren Bo?¡± William wasn¡¯t sure why they needed him gone to talk, but he was a new entrant into the Sect, so he wasn¡¯t too surprised some things weren¡¯t meant for his ears. He gave another bow before leaving the room, the door closing behind him immediately as he made his way to the front of the clinic. As expected, Li Xinyue had her head down, reading a thin booklet like it contained the secret to life¡­ considering what she usually read, that was probably true. He nced at her level and was surprised to see she had gained one. He decided to use Observe in curiosity. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Li Xinyue Age: 16 Level: 95 Health: 1900/1900 Spiritual Energy: 750/750 Spirit: 150 Strength: 91 Stamina: 103 Agility: 112 There were plenty of things that stood out to William with what Observe revealed about Li Xinyue. The most obvious was her age. He had been under the impression that she was closer to twenty, but being at her level at only sixteen made much more sense since she was called a genius. That initial surprise at her actual age was quickly shoved to the side when he saw her ridiculous attributes. Other than Spirit, the rest of the attributes were all within expectations. Still, that high Spirit should have been impossible unless the max attribute suddenly changed at a higher level. It was too bad that Luck couldn¡¯t be seen by using Observe. [Use Detailed Observe? | Cost: 20 Spiritual Energy] [Y/N] William was surprised at the prompt and that something called Detailed Observe existed, but didn¡¯t think of declining since there was no other use for Spiritual Energy. However, when he saw only one additional stat visible, it was disappointing yet equally horrifying. Luck: 200 That number made no sense with his current knowledge of how attributes worked, even more so than Li Xinyue¡¯s Spirit. However, it certainly did when thinking in terms of a xianxia protagonist. It also let him know it would be unlikely to ever get such a monstrous Luck attribute unless he could find something that helped him get to that level. If other cultivators that could be considered a ¡®genius¡¯ had simr stats, it was hard for William to understand how he could match them when he was in a simr realm. He would have to either run for his life or act like one of the background characters to avoid attention, neither of which appealed to him. What was the point of cultivating if he didn¡¯t aim for the top¡­ then again, he would probably live longer if he was low-key with his actions. It would be a decision that would need to be made, but could be postponed to another time since that would be in the far future. If being a broken, overpowered cultivator wasn¡¯t in the cards for him, it would be best to apply his burgeoning bootlicking skills to Li Xinyue, even more than he already was. Maybe something ridiculous like a fruit that let him learn a Dao would drop on his head while walking with her. ¡°Sister Li,¡± William called out happily, making the girl turn her attention away from her reading. He suddenly realized that Li Xinyue was basically the equivalent of a valedictorian in his old world with her love for reading. ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Li Xinyue greeted before her eyes took in his new clothing with shock, ¡°You joined my Jade Healing Sect?!¡± ¡°I did,¡± William grinned, ¡°How does it look?¡± Li Xinyue chuckled when he turned in the spot to show her both sides. ¡°Very cute, Wei Liang.¡± William¡¯s smile faltered momentarily before it came back with greater force. ¡®Cute¡¯ was the highest ofpliments for a thirteen-year-old, at least going by Wang Mei¡¯s reaction to his presence. He actually couldn¡¯t remember what being so young would be like since his memory was spotty at best of those years in his old life. ¡°Thank you, Sister Li,¡± William felt a resistance at the way he addressed her for the first time. It was likely her age that changed it for him. ¡°Elder Huang said you wanted to speak to me. What did you need me for?¡± ¡°Right, that,¡± Li Xinyue¡¯s smile disappeared as a frown reced it. She put down her book and led him to the door on the side, ¡°What did you do at the Garden? I thought you went there to learn how to care for the spirit nts, not go on a harvesting spree.¡± William almost choked on his breath when Li Xinyue opened the door to reveal a decently sized room filled with spirit fruits. He didn¡¯t think taking more than a few steps into the room was possible since it was so packed. ¡°When did all of this arrive?¡± William remembered Lan Yin telling the mortals who trespassed how all their efforts would benefit him. He had honestly forgotten about it, most likely in an attempt to ignore the disastrous ending. ¡°A few days ago,¡± Li Xinyue answered with a frown that somehow got deeper, ¡°Master had to close the clinic for an entire day while we set up the proper storage. What are you expecting to do with all of these? I hope you¡¯re not thinking of consuming them, especially since I know you¡¯re aware of what¡¯ll happen.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not doing something that stupid, Sister Li,¡± William assured, trying to calm an increasingly riled-up Li Xinyue, ¡°This wasn¡¯t even supposed to be mine. Senior Sister Yin took them away from mortals that broke the rules and handed the fruits to me.¡± When Li Xinyue didn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds, William looked away from the spirit-fruit-filled room and nced at her to see a nk stare. ¡°Sister Li?¡± Li Xinyue narrowed her eyes. ¡°Senior Sister Yin? Nobody in the Sect should be allowed to address Senior Lan in such a manner. Wei Liang, are you a Sentinel?¡± ¡°¡­ Is that a bad thing?¡± Li Xinyue pouted, suddenly seeming to act her age, ¡°I don¡¯t see how you could get into that Path when I couldn¡¯t!¡± William blinked when Li Xinyue huffed and walked away, leaving him in front of the open door, filled with confusion. As far as he was aware, she was a genius in alchemy. Why would she want to be on a Path forbat? Luckily, this seemed to be the sort of angermon in mood-swinging teenagers, so it shouldn¡¯t be anything to be concerned about. It would likely resolve itself the following day¡­ or maybe a week since this was a cultivating teenager. They were supposed to hold long grudges, so he had to ount for that. The question now was what to do with all the spirit fruits. While he definitely nned to consume as much as he safely could to save his stat points, that didn¡¯t require the massive amount avable in the filled room. His first thought was to somehow give the majority of the fruits back to the workers that spent weeks gathering them. However, he doubted Lan Yin would be happy that her punishment was negated, though there might be a chance that she would give him leeway since he was now her Junior Brother. If, for some reason, she didn¡¯t mind, it still wouldn¡¯t be possible. There was no way he could transport all of this back to the Garden. And he wasn¡¯t bold enough to ask Lan Yin for help. That would be pushing it a little too far. As he pondered how to ask Lan Yin without angering her, the door to the clinic burst open, and in strode Wang Xiaoling, as brash as William remembered her. ¡°Is the brat back yet?¡± Wang Xiaoling questioned loudly without bothering with a greeting. When Li Xinyue pointed at him without looking up from her reading, Wang Xiaoling beamed a bright smile, ¡°Wei Liang! I thought I would have to hire more useless people if you stayed away longer! Come, we have goods to sell!¡± William smirked when Wang Xiaoling grabbed his hand and made to drag him like she always did. He was no longer the weakling from a month ago. He was now an honored cultiva- What? He gaped in shock as he was pulled out of the clinic, his attempts to drag his feetpletely ineffective with Wang Xiaoling¡¯s strength. [Name: Wang Xiaoling | Level: 3] Her level hadn¡¯t changed, but she somehow ignored his avable sixteen Strength attribute like it was nothing. He immediately tried to use Observe. [The skill Observe is not avable on target] William wasn¡¯t fazed by the additional uniqueness of Wang Xiaoling. He tried Detailed Observe, though he didn¡¯t expect it to work since he only had five Spiritual Energy. [Spiritual Energy insufficient for Detailed Observe on target] All he wanted was to know if it was possible. The strangeness of Wang Xiaoling¡¯s strength would be solved after a few hours when his Spiritual Energy recovered. That was enough for William. Chapter 45: It Can鈥檛 Be So Easy Chapter 45: It Can¡¯t Be So Easy He thought his days of being browbeaten by Wang Xiaoling were over, so why did he fearfully follow her instructions to be her helper? William was now a proud cultivator striving for immortality! Not someckey that worked for a couple of Silver! "Brat! You better speed up, or I will get Fatty Xu to sit on you!" "Yes, Sister Xiaoling!" William had been shilling the inferior spirit fruits for over three hours, and they hadn''t even gotten halfway through the stock that Wang Xiaoling had managed to get. Of course, this obviously gave him the idea to partner with her to sell the spirit fruits he had obtained from the Garden. Still, whenever he tried to bring up the subject, she started to roar at him about focusing on selling. He would have lost his temper if he hadn''t gotten to know Wang Xiaoling''s fanatic, copper-pinching behavior. ¡­ It also helped that Fatty Xu acted as a massive bulk of meat to keep the order with the crowd around the stall. William usually wouldn''t be wary of mortals, but after the shock Wang Xiaoling put through him, he asionally checked the status of the mortals that came close to him, including Fatty Xu. However, there was a big problem with that. Fatty Xu didn''t have any blue text hovering over him. William tried to use both Observe and Detailed Observe, but the system didn''t react, not even to say he didn''t have enough Spiritual Energy. That brought up a vague memory of how Fatty Xu didn''t have blue text over him the first time he saw him, even though, at that time, he hadn''t disabled the automatic reveal of the name and level. William had no idea what Fatty Xu was, but he had a gut feeling that he was dangerous since Wang Xiaoling seemed to trust him. With that factor ying against him, he figured the best thing to do was sell the spirit fruits obediently. Besides, he had activated a side quest, so it''s not like it would be a waste of his time. William was almost running on muscle memory as he mindlessly fulfilled the orders, exchanging fruit for coins as he nced at a stat he was keeping an eye on. Spiritual Energy: 23/30 (20% per Hour) When his Spiritual Energy reached twenty, he had attempted to use Detailed Observe on Wang Xiaoling. However, the system indicated that it was still insufficient. It appeared that her peculiarity caused Detailed Observe to need more Spiritual Energy than was required on Li Xinyue. Still, it was just a minor roadblock. He assumed it would work once fully restored, which would take slightly over an hour. William wanted to find out what made her tick. How could a level three mortal be stronger than a cultivator in the first stage of Qi Condensation? William ignored that he was basically a useless cultivator since he didn''t know any skills yet, but still, he was at level thirteen. He should be able to stomp Wang Xiaoling on a whim, not the other way around. There was only so much stat browsing William could do, so to get through the mind-numbing task of yelling simr words and selling fruit for coin, he made the mistake of lifting the restriction he put on the system on the blue text back when the mob of Sky Hares surrounded him. The sudden st of blue almost blinded him from the overload before he quickly shut it off. Not that it let him avoid blinking his eyes rapidly to get the burned-in blue text from his sight. It was curious that it affected him like actual light when the system was imprinted into his soul. Still, it wasn''t enough of a discovery to warrant more thought into it. Especially since his brief slowdown got Wang Xiaoling''s attention. William shook his head slightly and abandoned his original n. Still, he could people-watch the old-fashioned way, with only his eyes involved. He observed as the next batch of customers approached his stall, their eyes darting from one fruit to the next. As they drew closer for their turn to buy, he paid close attention to their bodynguage, their tone of voice, and even the emotions that were so expressive in their eyes. He noticed their eyes were focused on a particr batch of spirit fruits. And how their breathing quickened as they considered a purchase. He was able to eventually start proactively preparing the fruits he thought were needed. While stereotypes didn''t always work when he considered the quality of the clothes the customer was wearing, it was more urate than not when predicting the quantity of fruit they were about to buy. It got to a point where he was starting to enjoy being a peddler of poor-quality spirit fruits just to see how correct his guesses were. The next hour or so flew by as the remaining fruits started to fly off the stall. William eyed the desperate look a woman carrying a child had as she stared at the few remaining blood oranges hungrily. He casually moved them toward her before she could say anything when he suddenly got an alert. [Submenu Opened | Dao Insight] [Added | Dao of Perception] [Calcting percentage] [ERROR | User''s cultivation insufficient] [Removed | Dao of Perception] [Submenu Closed | Dao Insight] William epted the coins from the woman and handed her the blood oranges like an automaton. His mind was filled with questions that he was constantly throwing at the system, trying to get an exnation about what had just happened. With the Dao that was just attempted to be added to his stats, it was obvious how it hade to be. Apparently, spending hours closely watching people while trying to figure out their desires by noticing minute tells was enough to gain some insight into Perception Dao. The real question was why it was even shown. The system primarily functioned as a status disy. Therefore, the alerts suggested that there could be the smallest of chances that even though he couldn''t use the Perception Dao at his current cultivation, he could still gather and save the insight he gained from his actions. If true, it could give him a tremendous head start when the Dao was open to him. "Just as I expected, Wei Liang! You''ve gotten even better sincest month!" Wang Xiaoling praised with a beaming smile before it froze and suddenly dropped, "Are you working with another merchant? Let me tell you right now that I won''t allow it!" "Sister Xiaoling, look at my robes," William said tly, wondering how she hadn''t realized he was in Sect robes while trying to avoid the urge to observe more people to help the Perception Dao along. "What about them? Did you spend all your earnings from thest sale on this? It''s good quality, the best I''ve seen, actually." The best way to get through to a Gold-drunk Wang Xiaoling was to be as blunt as possible. "I joined the Jade Healing Sect. I''ve been trying to tell you that from the beginning." Wang Xiaoling blinked at him as if this was her first time seeing him. "You joined that Sect?" William noticed the skepticism in her tone, and his lips twitched, but he didn''t dwell on it. "Yes," he said. "But that''s not important. I was able to get spirit fruits that are near the quality needed to be eligible for use in the Sect. As an apology for having to stop working for you, I want to let you sell the spirit fruits for me." The greed he could see in her eyes was almostical. Still, at least William could rest easy knowing he no longer had to think of how to deal with the massive amount of spirit fruit. "How many are there?" "I have no idea, but it filled an entire side room in the Jade Healing Clinic," William could practically see her eyes gleaming with Gold. "Entire room?" Wang Xiaoling shivered before her voice sharpened quickly, "I want thirty percent of the sale! No negotiations!" William hadn''t nned to since he thought it was more than a fair offer. "Agreed." "Good!" Wang Xiaoling perked back up, "Fatty Xu, take the coins and deposit them into the bank! Let¡¯s go, Wei Liang!¡± William walked behind Wang Xiaoling, making use of her ability to terrify the crowd and make them instinctively part ways. He hoped his share of the sale was enoughpensation for Cao Rui and the rest of the workers. Enough to satisfy his guilt, at least. As they moved through the bustling marketce that never seemed to rest, William was ovee by an eerie sensation that crept into his mind. Although he nced around for any suspicious figures that could be setting it off, he couldn''t spot any. Without warning, a sudden pain pierced through his head, causing him to falter and almost copse. He grasped at his temple, attempting to regain his bnce as his surroundings started to spin. Before he knew it, the world went ck. Chapter 46: Life Is Precious Chapter 46: Life Is Precious A second. Hour. Month. Hell, it might as well be a year. It was all the same here. William recognized this ce. Well, at the least, it was familiar to him. Thest time he was here, he had died inside that elevator. A ridiculously stupid way to die, now that he thought about it. Who would be so unlucky that every safety feature would fail, and he would be inside, right when it happened? Obviously, he would. He would be that unlucky. So he supposed it shouldn¡¯t be a surprise that he had died again, except this time he didn¡¯t know how it happened. Thest thing he remembered was walking through the market, following Wang Xiaoling to the Jade Healing Clinic. It was¡­ depressing, which was an understatement. William hadn¡¯t realized how much he was already attached to his new life until it was ripped away, forcing him to understand that feeling. His life in the Tianxia Empire hadn¡¯t evensted three months. Still, he looked at it even more fondly whenpared to the over twenty years he experienced in his first life. If William had eyes... or a face, he was sure his cheeks would be wet from tears, even though his thoughts weren¡¯t at that level of sadness. It couldn¡¯t be. After all, he could feel only so much sorrow after thinking the same thought for the hundredth time. At least, if his fate was to be stuck here forever, he had a remnant from the cultivation world. [Unavable] The system didn¡¯t say anything else, no matter what he tried to do, but the bright blue text was a balm for his sanity in the inky ckness around him. William had no doubt that he would still lose his mind the longer he stayed here, but it wouldn¡¯t be as fast, which was good enough for him. Anothermon thought was how William was a little ashamed that he had taken away Daoist Chen¡¯s hope with his death. The man who saved him would never see someone use the system his master wanted to hand down. All because someone killed him from the shadows. So much for getting that insight into Perception Dao. His senses warned him something was wrong, but he still couldn¡¯t save himself. ¡°Hoh? What a surprise!¡± William felt as though a thousand knives pierced his soul with every word spoken, and he would have screamed in agony if it were possible. ¡°I imagined the mark I left on you would activate when you were in mortal danger from an external threat. Not because you started toprehend Dao!¡± He didn¡¯t want to know the reason. He just wanted the voice to stop talking. If he wasn¡¯t already dead, the pain he felt would have aplished it a thousand times over. ¡°What an outstanding child! But I must seal that off until your soul can handle such strain.¡± William felt a loss of something, but it was quickly forgotten as he struggled to keep his sanity. It was surprising enough that he had enough room to feel anything other than pain in the first ce. ¡°That should be enough to stop you from overachieving to death. Unfortunately, I sense that the heavens will not allow me to interfere again. This is both a good and bad thing, Wei Liang.¡± He finally felt the pain stop as his thoughts nked, blissfully happy that it had ended. He knew what the voice said but still hadn¡¯t processed it thoroughly. That could be done after a long rest. ¡°The brat¡¯s awake!¡± William tensed, already prepared for the pain to return. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with him?¡± He breathed a breath of relief before realizing he could feel his body. He slowly opened his eyes to see Wang Xiaoling and Li Xinyue looking down at him with frowns. It took him a second to realize he was lying on a bed. ¡°You had us worried, Wei Liang,¡± Li Xinyuemented as she pressed her fingers to specific points on his body. William recognized it as areas where his meridians were located. ¡°You must be one of the weakest cultivators ever!¡± Wang Xiaoling dered, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen one faint without reason.¡± William blinked when he was reminded of what had happened. identally getting insight into Dao almost killed him because of a weak soul. With no pain blocking him from thinking coherently, he recognized the voice that spoke while his soul was tortured. Daoist Chen. The old monster had saved him again. From his words, he had left a mark that would alert him when William was close to death. ¡­ And it was wasted. No, that wasn¡¯t urate since his life was saved, but it definitely stung that it activated because of his own fault. Especially since he would no longer have Daoist Chen to fall back on if he was once again near death if his understanding of thement of the heavens was correct. A silly thing to be disappointed about because William wasn¡¯t aware that he had that safety in the first ce. ¡°Senior Lan should be on her way,¡± Li Xinyue filled in the silence, ¡°She contacted some of the Elders in the Inner Court¡¯s Clinic for help¡­ You¡¯ve be close with her.¡± William nodded, trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall over being able to return to this world. ¡°Are you about to cry?!¡± Wang Xiaoling blurted out with a giggle, ¡°Cheer up! You¡¯re going to be a rich boy! I saw what you wanted me to sell. If I wasn¡¯t such an upright merchant, I would have hoped you would have-What?¡± Li Xinyue shot the ranting Wang Xiaoling a look to stop her from talking. Still, William already understood what she was trying to say. He wasn¡¯t even mad since he was almost sure that it was a joke¡­ probably. Honestly, even if she meant it, he didn¡¯t give a damn. He was just happy that he was back to hear Wang Xiaoling¡¯s pettiness. ¡°H-How much do you think it¡¯s worth, Sister Xiaoling?¡± William winced at the scratchiness of his voice. ¡°If I sell it individually? I could easily get eight thousand Gold! Maybe even more!¡± Wang Xiaoling was in her element, her eyes revealing the piles of coin she was expecting. ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± William chuckled as he tried to rx. He closed his eyes and muttered, ¡°Really good.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll leave you to rest, Wei Liang,¡± Li Xinyue said after a pause, ¡°Come on, merchant girl.¡± ¡°Merchant girl?¡± Wang Xiaoling yelped, ¡°Respect your elders!¡± William opened his eyes in a snap after they left the room, realizing something terrifying. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 13 Experience: 242/1625 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 800/1000 Spiritual Energy: 30/30 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 8 (6) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (24) Points: 0 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction Theugh that escaped William¡¯s lips was filled with relief, happy that his soul damage hadn¡¯t regressed into something worse. By all rights, it should have after what he had gone through, but maybe Daoist Chen did some old monster things and prevented it. ¡°What is it that amuses you?¡± William looked away from the status screen to see Lan Yin and Huang Jingyi walking toward the bed. Speaking of which, he wasn¡¯t sure why he was still lying down. He felt perfectly fine, though some phantom pain still ran through his body from the memory. ¡°No need to get up, Junior Liang,¡± Huang Jingyi said with concern, ¡°It might be best to rx for a few days.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s alright,¡± William shook his head as he got on his feet, ¡°I¡¯m not sure what happened, but it already passed.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Huang Jingyi sighed, ¡°We were unable to detect any issues either.¡± ¡°Elder Huang,¡± Lan Yin said as she scrutinized William closely, ¡°Could you check again? Just to be sure.¡± Huang Jingyi nodded, moving closer to check his vitals. It took less than a minute for it to finish. ¡°Perfectly fine,¡± Huang Jingyi announced, ¡°Though there is an injury, I suspect it¡¯s from something else.¡± ¡°Er, yes, Elder Huang,¡± William confirmed, ¡°That¡¯s from when I was cultivating.¡± ¡°We can get that healed today,¡± Huang Jingyi nodded, ¡°But like I said, perfect health other than that.¡± ¡°Good,¡± Lan Yin sighed with relief, ¡°Thankfully, you recovered before I had to leave.¡± ¡°Leave?¡± William frowned, ¡°Are you returning to the Garden, Senior Sister Yin?¡± ¡°Correct, but my brother will arrive to rece me in a week. You can go to him if you need anything. He¡¯s also your Senior Brother, so don¡¯t be shy. And if he doesn¡¯t treat you right, tell me, and I¡¯ll make it right.¡± William blinked at the word vomit before nodding with a smile. Lan Yin might have seemed like the ice beauty type of cultivator at the start, but she was rather warm¡­ once she decided you were worth talking to. ¡°That reminds me,¡± Huang Jingyi interjected, ¡°If Junior Liang feels up to it, why don¡¯t you show him the Qi refining rooms in the city?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Lan Yin nodded, ¡°Junior Brother, shall we go now?¡± William didn¡¯t want to since he doubted he would spend much time cultivating with the tiny reward it gave him, but it would be suspicious if he didn¡¯t. ¡­ Though, he supposed that could be a ce where he learned his Martial Skills. After returning to that ce where all he had to apany him were his own thoughts, William was convinced that leveling would be the only thing that could help him with never having to return. His only goal should be topletely rid himself of the soul damage, who knew what other hidden limitations it put on him. If his fate was to die, he didn¡¯t want to, as Daoist Chen said, overachieve to death. That would likely top his embarrassing end by elevator. ¡°I¡¯m ready, Senior Sister.¡± Chapter 47: Prince Yuan Chapter 47: Prince Yuan William had seen the pce plenty of times from afar. It was hard to miss it, with how visible it was every time he looked up. However, it quickly became a background decoration over the few weeks he stayed in the city. He supposed arge part of it was the areas he frequented. When William first arrived in this world, he spent most of his time at the Golden Lotus and Jade Healing Clinic, both of which were at the same distance from the pce. His only goal was to gain easy experience points, and there was no need to go anywhere other than the Clinic. Well, there was the Phoenix''s Nest, the restaurant where Li Xinyue treated him to a meal, but that was even further from the pce than the Clinic. So he felt that he deserved a little break when he constantly snuck nces at the breathtaking architecture of the building. Not that Lan Yin gave it to him. "You might be the seconding of the Sect Master." Lan Yinmented as they walked through the packed, narrow streets. Though, the mortals seemed to instinctively give a wide berth to them. William quickly looked away from the gold glinting on the pce''s facade to see Lan Yin staring at him, thoroughly unimpressed. "What do you mean, Senior Sister?" William thought being simr to the Sect Master would be good, not something that would make her frown in distaste. "Sect Master Guan Feng has a¡­ taste for mortal metals. You must tell me, Junior Brother, if you feel such a desire. I will be able to fix it before it bes an issue." William quickly nodded, wondering how bad it was for Lan Yin to sound so severe. And what did she mean by the Sect Master having a taste for the metals? The first thing he thought of was a handsome cultivator eating gold like a delicious cake, but surely that wasn''t it... Unless there was a cultivation technique that required him to do so. Either way, William could confidently assure Lan Yin that she didn''t need to worry. "I don''t have a great desire for gold, Senior Sister. It was the pce as a whole that interested me. It must have taken decades for them to build this." Lan Yinughed, making some mortals around them stare, and said, "For something like this? It is simply a building made of mortal materials. If the pce was constructed by mortals, then it might have taken that long, but the Imperial Family has plenty of cultivators whose sole reason to exist is to construct residences for the family. If I remember correctly, this one was built within a year." William goggled at Lan Yin before gaping at the enormous pce with an even greater shock. He couldn''t imagine the wealth and power the Imperial Family held to have cultivators dedicated to such a task. "Don''t be so surprised," Lan Yin continues, "Our Sect has the same resources." "¡­ But wouldn''t it be a waste of talent?" William asked the obvious, wondering why a Sect with a selective process wasted manpower. "What talent do you speak of?" Lan Yin asked nkly, "It''s impossible to truly know most disciple''stent talent until the Foundation Establishment Realm. For the ones that break into that realm, the Sect deems their talent sufficient to invest in. As for those stuck at the bottleneck, they must work in other ways to pay off their debt to the Sect." "¡­ Like the managers at the Garden?" William immediately thought of Shao Jun, who was at level ny-nine yet utterly subservient to him because he had Lan Yin''s attention. It hadn''t even mattered that he had been a mortal then. "Correct," Lan Yin nodded slightly with a small smile, "That is one option they can choose." That was¡­ smart. William supposed that was better than kicking out the disciples that failed for whatever reason. And it was honestlyforting that the Sect gave failed disciples such cushy positions. However, it did seem like it mighte with stripped dignity, with how Shao Jun constantly bowed to him. But that could be more of a personal issue rather than a Sect mandate. Thinking of Shao Jun made William wonder about something he had been curious about for some time. While the Garden was impressivelyrge, it still didn''t seem enough for the Sect to do what Lan Yin imed it did. "Senior Sister, you mentioned that the Sect provides pills to the Empire and the Kingdoms surrounding it, but the Garden doesn''t seemrge enough for such demand. Do we have other farnd?" William blinked when Lan Yin patted his head as an apparent reward. With a bright smile, she said, "Clever! You''re right. While we can cover a quarter of the demand with the Garden, the rest of the spirit nts are sourced from the Imperial Family." He fell silent as he slowly understood why the Imperial Family allowed the Sect to sell to the neighboring states. They could stop the flow anytime they wished by cutting off the Sect''s ess to the spirit nts. He thought it was a brilliant act of allowing independence while keeping firm control where needed. William shook his head, it was interesting to know, but he was currently a useless cultivator. He didn''t need to consider the dynamics between his Sect and the Empire. What he needed to do was learn Martial Skills so he couldplete the mission and get some experience points. Anything more was out of his control. "Ah, I should remind you that using Qi within the city walls is strictly forbidden unless given prior approval," Lan Yin stated suddenly as they turned from the main street, "This includes using it for running, so don''t be impatient, Junior Brother." He wasn''t sure why Lan Yin said that, but he nodded in eptance. "So you''re Sister Yin''s Junior Brother!" William was taken aback by the familiar way the man, who appeared out of nowhere, addressed Lan Yin. He half expected her to immediately cut the man down for being presumptuous. "Prince Yuan," Lan Yin gave a stiff nod, "A little early in the day to visit a brothel." That got William''s attention. He looked behind the so-called Prince to see an opulent mansion that looked like a residence to a wealthy family, if not for the women peering out the windows at the Prince as if it would lure him back inside. "It''s never too early!" Prince Yuanughed loudly, causing titters to leave the lips of the women watching, "I am far too active for the time of day to matter, Sister Yin! Perhaps I can show you what I mean?" This was it, the point where William expected the Prince to lose his head. It was disappointing that the first Young Master he met would already die. Still, now that he knew they existed, there would be chances in the future to gain some benefits. After all, weren''t Young Masters supposed to be great stepping stones? Before this one died, he quickly looked at this Prince Yuan with the system. [Name: Prince Yuan | Level: 10] "I will have to decline, Prince Yuan," Lan Yin replied calmly, "Perhaps the multitude of women behind you will be enough to satisfy you." It took all of William''s willpower to stop himself from gaping in shock at how respectful Lan Yin still was when she spoke to Prince Yuan. Was the status so great that she couldn''t do anything about it? As far as he knew, Imperial Families such as the one ruling the Tianxia Empire could popte small cities with the princes they had, so a cultivator was generally of higher status. "One day, I''ll convince you into my bed, Sister Yin," Prince Yuan said with conviction while tantly running his gaze over Lan Yin''s body. It was so over the top that it made William have to hold back a shudder of disgust. However, that didn''t stop him from using Observe. [The skill Observe is not avable on target] [The skill Detailed Observe is not avable on target] "Sister Yin''s Junior Brother, if you ever want to taste life''s best pleasures, mention my name when you visit the Thousand Petals. I will pay for everything!" Prince Yuanughed boisterously before wandering back inside with a careless wave of his hand. "Come, Junior Brother," Lan Yinmanded tersely, "Let''s not wait for him to change his mind." William matched Lan Yin''s faster walking speed as he wondered why his Observe failed. When they were far enough from the brothel, he asked, "Why did you let him be so disrespectful, Senior Sister?" "¡­ He is the genius of the imperial family," Lan Yin ground out, "At only eighteen years of age, he has reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. The lecher has low-level cultivators feeding him information about where I am whenever I visit this city. Why else would he be in the brothel so early?" William could practically feel the hatred emanating from Lan Yin and figured it was best to stay silent while nodding in agreement. But he wasn''t too focused on that. He was stuck on herment about Prince Yuan being in Foundation Establishment. That was impossible at level ten. There were some exnations for what William saw. The system was malfunctioning, there were things that could confuse the system, or Prince Yuan was somehow pulling off a con. All three of those possibilities were concerning, though, at a regressing scale. Chapter 48: Thunderous Palm Chapter 48: Thunderous Palm "We''re here," Lan Yin announced as they moved from the busy street packed with mortals to one that seemed exponentially calmer. A few people were watching them closely, seemingly situated like guards, and they were all cultivators of a higher realm. William could still see the crowd of mortals going about their daily lives, but none of the sounds reached him. He tried to find what could be blocking the noise as he walked with Lan Yin to an old woman who was dozing off on a chair inside a wooden structure that was barely big enough for her. [Name: Li Meiying | Level: ?] Seeing grassynd in the middle of a city was jarring, causing it to stick out like a sore thumb when surrounded by opulent buildings. "Greetings, Senior Li," Lan Yin said as she reached into her robes to pull out a familiar card made out of red jade. The old woman blinked her eyes open tiredly to see the pass beforezily pointing her finger up, making an opening in the ground. "Thank you," Lan Yin bowed before motioning for William to follow her down the steps into a well-lit chamber. In contrast to the nearly empty area outside, the chamber was packed, with people clustered in groups while chatting casually. William blinked rapidly at the burst of light before shutting off the system''s auto-reveal to avoid the blue text from irritating his eyes. He had already done that for mortals but hadn''t needed to for cultivators since he had never seen them packed into such tight spaces. If he had to guess, he would say around a hundred people were in the chamber. Lan Yin glided through the crowd, nodding at a few people here and there before reaching what seemed to be a reception. ¡°My Junior Brother would like to rent a room. Wei Liang, how long do you want to cultivate?" [Name: Zhang Xuanlong | Level: ?] "Is it possible to practice my Martial Skills instead?" William asked hopefully, getting strange looks from Lan Yin and the man behind the counter, Zhang Xuanlong. "Are you sure?" Lan Yin asked, "The cultivation rooms here are equivalent to what our Sect offers for Outer Court disciples." That reinforced his decision. William had zero interest in cultivation when the room was at that level. Learning one of the Martial Skills he had picked would equal five hundred hours of cultivation. "I''m sure, Senior Sister." "Very well," Lan Yin nodded, before addressing the man who continued to stare at William in confusion, "Do you have a room with an illusionary array avable?" "Of course," Zhang Xuanlong sounded as if the question shouldn''t even be asked, "However, this little brother should reconsider. Martial Skills are not at all important this early in your cultivation." "I didn''t ask for you to give my Junior Brother a lecture," Lan Yin warned with narrowed eyes. Zhang Xuanlong immediately lowered his eyes in acquiescence before stepping out from behind the counter to lead them to the room. "The next time you want to visit, you can use your Sect pass to gain free entry, along with the pick of the room you may want." "¡­ I can pick whichever one I want?" William repeated, more than a little surprised, "How long can I use them?" "As long as the Qi inside that room is sufficient for your needs," Lan Yin gave him a slight smirk, "There are plenty of benefits you will find for being a member of our Sect, Junior Brother." William wondered if prospective disciples were given a brochure of these benefits or if it was simply a known fact. If it was the former, he needed to get one as soon as possible, but it was likely thetter. With the massive scale of the Jade Healing Sect''s operations, it would be hard not to know of them. "Here we are," Zhang Xuanlong spoke for the first time since Lan Yin told him off, "Little brother, this room had enough Qi to power the array for eight hours." "Thank you, Senior," William bowed slightly, making the man step to the side quickly to avoid the bow. "That''s not necessary!" Zhang Xuanlong said nervously while ncing at Lan Yin, "If you have anything you require, I''ll be at your service." William gave a questioning look to Lan Yin when the man practically ran away after showing them the room. "Ignore him," Lan Yin sneered, "Thest time he gave out advice, he caused multiple young cultivators to have Qi deviations, and two were permanently crippled. He''s bad luck. The only reason he still dares to work here is the family behind him." This was where William should scoff and put it aside as superstition. But there''s something that could literally quantify his luck. Luck: 30 (24) He believed Lan Yin and wasn''t in a rush to take pity on the man to have that bad luck affect him. "Thank you for the warning, Senior Sister." "Good," Lan Yin patted his head again, making him wonder if this was going to bemon before she continued, "Now, which Martial Skill do you want to learn first?" William blinked as he followed Lan Yin into the room. It was as sparse can be, with no decorations whatsoever other than the array that covered the entire floor. "You''re going to help?" "Of course," Lan Yin was matter-of-fact, "It''ll be my gift to you before I leave. My brother won''t be there to protect you on the mission, so I would feel reassured that you can protect yourself." The more time William spent with Lan Yin, the more he liked her. Of course, that required him to disregard what happened before he joined the Sentinel Path. While she seemed to view mortals as little more than annoyances, that certainly didn''t apply to him. Not with the effort she was making to ensure his well-being. "Thunderous Palm," William said with a smile, "I want to learn that first." "Good," Lan Yin shut the door and stood outside the array, "Stand in the center. The array will activate automatically once you''re in ce. It will seem like you have been transported to another area but don''t panic. I''ll be able to guide you with my voice." William did as Lan Yin told. The array immediately lit up, drawing the Qi required from the stones powering it before he got an alert. [External force is affecting User''s mind] That was thest message William saw before the nd room disappeared to be reced by an elevated stage with a faceless man standing at the other end. "The array provides a target to test your skills on. You can set the level as high as the ninth level of Qi Gathering Realm." William thought it was strange that Lan Yin''s voice sounded like it wasing from the illusionary sky, but it worked well enough. "So, do I just start?" "I assume you have the steps of the skill memorized? It is fairly simple." "I do," William confirmed. There really wasn''t much to the skill other than the ability to instantly shift his Qi to his palm right at the moment of attack. "Good, focus your Qi to your palm, but do not attack!" William nodded to himself and closed his eyes, grasping the energy slowly circting through his meridians. A significant advantage he had found about his cultivation technique was the ease at which he couldmand his Qi. The fact that it was all concentrated into his lung meridian seemed to be helping with that greatly. "Very good, Junior Brother!" Lan Yin praised, "There is a consistent flow of Qi focused in your palm. That level of control will help you greatly with moreplex skills. Now, attack!" With a rough grunt, William thrust his palm forward, releasing the gathered Qi in an explosive burst, or at least, that was his intention. [-5 Spiritual Energy] [-25 HP] He yelped in pain as the Qi was expelled in areas other than his palm. A close look at his hand showed no damage, but that was only on the surface. It was likely the damage was underneath. "That was a good first try, Junior Brother. Your Qi was a little vtile at the moment of the attack, but you almost have it. Try again." His arm felt like it was on fire, but after the pain William had learned to push through, it was nothing. Hemanded his Qi and prepared to attack. Once more, William thrust his hand forward with his palm open. He maintained his Qi at the level approved by Lan Yin to ensure the desired oue was achieved. The air in front of his palm shimmered as a small explosion was heard from his palm, with slight wisps of Qi slowly leaving his hand like steam. [-5 Spiritual Energy] [Side Quest Completed | Learn the Martial Skill - Thunderous Palm] [+500 XP] [Cultivation Info Added | Martial Skills] William blinked in shock, unable to believe this was all it had taken. With the skill only having a twenty percentpatibility, he imagined that learning it would be a long and painful grind. "That''s odd. You have clearly learned it, but the attack is so weak¡­." William heard Lan Yin''s muttering and instantly understood what thatpatibility meant. It wouldn''t stop him from learning a Martial Skill, but it would be horribly underpowered. However, he had to admit his attack seemed plenty powerful in his eyes. It didn''t matter in the end. The three skills William picked will have to do until he could get something that fits him better. "Senior Sister, could you help me with the other two as well?" Chapter 49: Not as Helpless Chapter 49: Not as Helpless [-5 Spiritual Energy] [Side Quest Completed | Learn the Martial Skill - Earth-Shaking Stomp] [+500 XP] [Level up! | 5 stat points added] William grinned widely as the ground rumbled, cracks spreading from where he stomped his foot from sessfully using Earth-Shaking Stomp. After he learned Thunderous Palm, the following two skills were ridiculously easy to learn. It certainly helped that all the steps were the same except where he had to direct the Qi, and William could do that with hardly any effort. Of course, this time, he made sure to keep the level of his Qi stable to avoid any bacsh. "You''re a natural, Junior Brother!" Lan Yin sounded proud at his rtively minor achievement, "Now, why don''t you try a few attacks on the target the array provided? I sense that you still have some spiritual energy to spare." Lan Yin was right about that. William eyed that part of his status screen. Spiritual Energy: 10/30 (20% per Hour) Every skill taking five Spiritual Energy when William used them gave him two more attacks. Of course, he received the five extra stat points for leveling up, but he had no intention of adding them to his Spirit carelessly. He had already made that mistake before, and it was too soon to repeat it. Besides, how was he supposed to exin to Lan Yin how his Spiritual Energy surged in capacity seemingly without reason? "If you can catch an enemy by surprise, an attack to a vital point of the body will be fatal as long as the enemy is in the same realm. Set the target to the peak of the first Qi Gathering Realm and aim for the back of the head. Let''s see how effective your martial skills are." "Yes, Senior Sister," William nodded as the faceless man provided by the array slowly turned around to face away from him, "¡­ So I won''t be attacked in retaliation? I don''t think I can fight somebody at that level." "The array can only provide a target to test your attack''s strength. Fighting experience is far beyond its capabilities." William nodded at the reassurance from Lan Yin''s disembodied voice. It felt odd walking up to the target casually as he prepared to attack it with full force, especially since the target didn''t seem any different from an ordinary person from the back. Thefort of seeing the faceless head couldn''t apply since, well, the target wasn''t facing him. When he was within range, William circted his Qi and focused it in his palm, immediately recognizing a problem. If this was actualbat, no enemy would wait patiently for him to prepare to focus his Qi so he could attack. It would have to be near instantaneous instead of the second or so wait it currently took. [-5 Spiritual Energy] [-25 HP] William flinched at the sharp pain as his palmnded on the back of the target''s head, making it stumble forward like a dazed human before standing straight again with no visible damage. That made sense since he most likely damaged himself more when he lost his concentration the moment his palm touched the target''s head, causing his Qi to destabilize. "Again, Junior Brother!" Lan Yinmanded. William nodded firmly and readied the attack again. It was disappointing that something like his palm meeting its target could destabilize his Qi, but repetition was key. It would be the foundation for moreplex moves he would learn in the future. He grunted as he thrust his palm toward the target''s head the second time. [-5 Spiritual Energy] This time, there was no self-harm, and the attack was sessful. Too sessful. William sputtered in shock as his face was showered with blood and what felt like brain matter. He wiped his eyes to clear away the blood blocking his vision to see a headless target copse on the ground. It was a gruesome sight that he hadn''t expected. "Excellent, Junior Brother!" Lan Yin''s cheery voice broke William''s shock, "While I suspect this skill is not suited to you, it can still adequately protect you on the mission!" William nodded with a nk expression as he wondered if it was worrying he didn''t feel anything other than disgust at what just happened. Sure, he killed two bandits, but that was self-defense. He had also massacred countless Sky Hares, but they were little shits that deserved to be ground into oblivion. This felt like it should be different. It was an eerie analog to a person, and he had sneak attacked it and quite literally blew its head off. The only exnation William could give himself was that it wasn''t an actual person, which was why he didn''t feel anything. "I think you''re out of spiritual energy," Lan Yinmented, "Unless you think you can try one more attack?" "No, I''m done," William confirmed as he wiped away the blood on his face. A pointless act since everything disappeared when the array was deactivated. He saw Lan Yin smile at him in amusement at his actions. "Let''s head back to the Clinic," Lan Yin beckoned him as she made to leave the room, "You''ll need to be healed before anything else." William followed her out and saw Zhang Xuanlong waiting for them. "I hope everything was satisfactory, Sentinel Lan?" Lan Yin hummed and said, "Save that room for my Junior Brother. He should be able to make use of it whenever he wishes." "Of course!" Zhang Xuanlong bowed so deeply that William thought his forehead might touch the floor. It once again brought up the question of Lan Yin''s status. While she mentioned that Zhang Xuanlong wasn''t well-liked, that wasn''t enough reason to show such subservience. Then again, if Lan Yin''s status was that high, why did that Prince Yuan show no respect toward her? In fact, he could even say that the Prince humiliated her without consequence. Zhang Xuanlong led them back to the waiting chamber, which was as packed as before, and said, "Thank you for visiting us, Sentinel Lan." Lan Yin waved him off and guided William to the exit, though he noticed that multiple people wanted to greet her and were rejected with a slight shake of her head. After they walked past the old woman still dozing off on the chair, William asked, "We can stay longer, Senior Sister. I noticed that your friends wanted to speak with you." "Friends?" Lan Yin scoffed, "They are opportunists, nothing else. We are not mortals to make such easy friends." "Oh," William fell silent, not knowing what to say to that. He noticed they were taking the same path they arrived in, meaning they would soon pass the brothel where Prince Yuan undoubtedly waited. He looked at Lan Yin strangely and wondered if she secretly liked him. "Rid yourself of such thoughts," Lan Yin said sharply at the tant question on William''s face, "Avoiding that path is weakness. And why must I be scared of such a small Prince?" "As you say, Senior Sister," William cated, though that sounded more of an admission to him than anything. The reasoning didn''t make much sense otherwise. With a slight shrug, he checked his status screen. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 14 Experience: 117/1750 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 750/1000 Spiritual Energy: 0/30 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 8 (6) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (24) Points: 5 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction Main Quests: Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state) Side Quests (5): 1. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) 2. Help Wang Xiaoling sell spirit fruits 3. Mission: Investigating Strange urrences It had been a while since he had paid attention to his full status screen since it was bing a little unwieldy. But he saw something that made his lips twitch in irritation. He hadpletely forgotten about the side quest he had gotten for selling Wang Xiaoling''s spirit fruits. It was understandable on his part since he had pretty much died from foolishly being too much of a genius for his own good. Still, there was no way Wang Xiaoling would have forgotten about it. That miser remembered every Copper she earned, so how could she possibly forget? It was more likely that she was hoping it had slipped his mind so she could save a few Silver. William was almost tempted to take back his deal with her to sell the spirit fruits from the Garden. "Is Wang Xiaoling still at the Clinic?" "Who?" Lan Yin asked distractedly as she red at the Thousand Petals, the brothel Prince Yuan was visiting. "The girl that was with Sister Li," William added as he joined Lan Yin in eyeing the brothel. Surprisingly, there were no signs of anyone exiting to block them like the first time. "The mortal girl?" Lan Yin huffed as they turned onto the packed main street, "How should I know?" William supposed it was a stupid question to ask her. He would find out soon anyway. Chapter 50: Windfall Chapter 50: Windfall "Watch it!" William hissed through his teeth when Ren Bo carelessly poked him with a needle, "I swear you''re doing this on purpose!" "Brother Wei, you''re making me feel sad," Ren Bo stated tly as he continued his work like nothing happened. Whatever happened between Ren Bo and Elder Yu apparently ticked off the boy enough for him to take his frustration out on William. Not that he could prove it. William had to admit that Ren Bo''s mistakes were no more than what he experienced in the Outer Court''s Clinic. However, that didn''t mean there wasn''t suspicion niggling in the back of his mind. [+50 HP] William felt more of the lingering pain that came from his training disappear. Huang Jingyi had offered to let him heal with a Vitality Pill, but he had be wary of taking unnecessary pills. Sure, it might not be an issue currently, but it would be impossible to tell when he would be desperate to take another. And he did not want that desperate action to affect him negatively by giving him another addict trait. Since there was no need to heal quickly, William asked for a slower way, which brought him to this situation. "Almost done, Brother Wei," Ren Bo said as he concentrated on guiding William''s Qi to the areas that were damaged. It was a fascinating way to heal someone, and apparently, it was not at allmon, at least from Li Xinyue''s words before she left them alone. [+25 HP] "There we are!" Ren Bo eximed brightly as he pulled away with beads of sweat forming on his forehead, "You''re fully healed!" Health: 1000/1000 William nced at his health and nodded with a smile, "Thank you, Ren-" He cut himself off with a hiss when Ren Bo abruptly started to pull the needles from his body. This, he knew, was on purpose. When he first arrived at the Sect, this was the step that Ren Bo had no issues performing smoothly, but suddenly it caused pain during the removal? No, this was too obviously intentional. "Brother Wei," Ren Bo said with narrowed eyes, "Why must you treat me so coldly. We are of the same Sect. Call me Brother Ren." "¡­ My mistake, Brother Ren," William acquiesced readily, rxing when Ren Bo started to remove the needles without causing pain. "So when are we heading out of the city?" Ren Bo asked when he was finished. William got out of bed and draped his robes over his shoulders while contemting the answer. Although he couldn''t provide an exact timeframe, he could estimate how long it would take him to learn the martial skills to a level he would be satisfied with. One thing was for sure. He had no intention of leaving the city before he fixed the issue with focusing his Qi. Unless it was possible to attack without waiting like an idiot for a second, it would likely be suicide. "How about a week, Brother Ren?" William asked after some thought, "Unless you prefer sometimeter?" "A week is fine," Ren Bo shook his head, "I wanted to know how long I have with Goddess Li before we have to do that stupid thing." William stared at Ren Bo nkly before sighing in resignation. At least this new obsession wasn''t as suicidal as getting attached to Elder Yu. ¡­ Unless it was even worse. William assumed that Elder Yu wouldn''t be so quick to harm a promising member of the Sect. Unlike the cold Elder, he distinctly remembered Li Xinyue wanting to kill him due to her assumption of his leering, which had been false in the first ce. What would happen with Ren Bo, who would actually leer at her tantly and likely interrupt the bookworm as she tried to study? "You''re hopeless," William patted Ren Bo on the shoulder, "Try not to get in trouble before the mission, Brother Ren." Without bothering to pay attention to his response, William proceeded to exit the room and headed towards the reception area, where he unsurprisingly found Li Xinyue engrossed in her papers. "Sister Li, I''ll be staying at The Golden Lotus," William skipped the pleasantries, "And can you tell Wang Xiaoling to meet me there if shees back?" "Sure, Wei Liang," Li Xinyue said distractedly, "Take care." William gave her a wave that he was confident she didn''t notice and walked out of the Clinic, wanting to get some privacy to use his stat points. Besides, lingering had no benefit. Lan Yin was busy talking with Huang Jingyi, and Wang Xiaoling had apparently taken half of the spirit fruits stored in the side room and disappeared, iming that she had a buyer for them. William didn''t want to doubt her, but when it involved money, that was his only option. The Golden Lotus would still be the ce she roomed in, having nagged the proprietor into lowering the prices, so in case she wanted to avoid him, that would be the ce for him to stay. More than the spirit fruits, William wanted toplete that side quest. Anything to get him to level up would now be considered priceless and of top priority. The faster he reached level hundred to rid himself of the soul damagepletely, the more peace of mind he would have. With the barest of insight into Dao of Perception nearly killing him, there should be something else his soul couldn''t handle. How ridiculous would it be that he gained a natural treasure but died because his damn soul was too weak? [COMPLETED |Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (2 visits): +40 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Visit The Garden: +200 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Observe the maintenance of spirit nts: +400 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | ess the forbidden zone of The Garden: +200XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Consume 10 spirit nts: +400 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Consume 30 spirit nts: +1000 XP] [Level up! | 5 stat points added] [HIDDEN BONUS | Kill your first spirit beast: +100 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Kill 10 spirit beasts: +400 XP] [HIDDEN BONUS | Kill 30 spirit beasts: +1000 XP] [Level up! | 5 stat points added] [HIDDEN BONUS | Gather 200 Qi Stones worth of spirit nts: +2000 XP] [Level up! | 5 stat points added] It took a good second for William''s brain to register the boon that had been dropped on his head. With the system alerts bing a regr urrence, he had been rather good at skimming over them so quickly that it no longer looked as if he was empty-minded. The mass of alerts he had just received reverted him to that dull state. It suddenly made sense why he couldn''t trigger a quest while he was at The Garden. Everything he did was already being logged under an existing quest, though that fact was more than a little terrifying. If he had chosen to stay in the Outer Court instead of returning to Xuanjing City, wouldn''t that have meant he would have missed out on all the experience points? Speaking of which, he had somehow received enough to level up three times. Theugh that escaped him following that thought drew wary looks from the mortals passing by, but he didn''t give a damn. It was three levels! Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 17 Experience: 232/2125 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 1000/1000 Spiritual Energy: 12/30 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 8 (6) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (24) Points: 20 The best way to assign those stat points would be to dump them into Spirit so he wouldn''t be limited to six attacks. He could already see the gloriousness of being able to use his martial skills twenty times in a row, causing havoc to his enemies¡­ as long as his Stamina would be sufficient. Perhaps the wise choice would be to use the spirit fruits to raise his other stats before depleting his unused stat points. His Stamina certainly wasn''t high enough for William to be happy about it. While Strength and Agility seemed sufficient, he never had a proper fight with a cultivator to be confident about it. William''s mind immediately went to Ren Bo as a training partner. The boy was the only one that he wasfortable trading blows with, which, on second thought, was stupid. He seemed to have extreme mood swings between sadist healer and bumbling idiot. It wouldn''t bode well if that transferred to fighting. With an extra skip in his step, William ignored the confused mortals and happily made his way to The Golden Lotus. While pleased with the multiple surprises, he didn''t miss what thest alert really meant. Two hundred Qi Stones were worth approximately twenty thousand Gold, not the eight thousand that Wang Xiaoling imed she could sell them for. William would let her think he didn''t know right till the end. He might not be able to overpower her¡­ for some reason, but he would be able to enjoy the despair on her face as she handed over the Gold she thought of as hers. Chapter 51: More Trouble Chapter 51: More Trouble William woke to a familiar ceiling, only this time, he hadn¡¯t soaked the mattress in sweat from a horrible dream. His sleep was extremely pleasant, all things considered. After all, he wavered on his decision to allocate the stat points to his Spirit attribute until he dozed off from his internal debate. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, as he was primarily waiting for any indication of Wang Xiaoling''s return, but when Wu Chang failed to notify him, he abandoned that and went to sleep, deciding to deal with the stat points in the morning. He wasn''t about to increase his Qi when he wasn''t in his peak mental state since sleep weighed on him. However, that was no longer a problem. Spirit: 8 (6) Points: 20 From the alert he had gotten back when he had raised his Spirit to five, it seemed that his soul damage effect was lessened by his natural attribute, not by the number after the reduction. It made him want to smack himself in the face since the decision he uselessly hesitated on was whether he should increase his Spirit to fifteen or twenty. The answer was stupidly simple. Increase it to fifteen for now, then assign more points when he was satisfied with the other attributes. William threw the nket off his body, reluctantly got out of thefortable bed, and sat on the hard floor. He wanted the stability the floor could give him so there would be no distractions when he was circting the additional Qi that would be avable to him. [+7 Spirit] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 17% Attribute Reduction] He immediately closed his eyes and started to take deep, steady breaths as hemanded the newly avable Qi to flow through his meridians, letting his body get limated to the change before concentrating it into his lung meridian. It was a slow process, but at least there was no repeat of William having to cough out blood due to poor nning. By the time thest drop of Qi had entered his lung meridian, circting the energy had almost be as simple as breathing. It made him realize that while cultivating might not give him the benefits that most other cultivators get, it was still greatly helpful in achieving instantaneousmand over his Qi. After all, that was his goal before leaving Xuanjing City. [Modified | Spiritual Energy: 60/60 (20% per Hour)] William exhaled slowly and opened his eyes, grinning at his aplishment, no matter how minor it seemed. It was still unbelievable to him that he was a cultivator. He stood up and pulled his status screen in front of his vision. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 17 Experience: 232/2125 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 1000/1000 Spiritual Energy: 60/60 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 15 (12) Strength: 20 (16) Stamina: 10 (8) Agility: 20 (16) Luck: 30 (25) Points: 13 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 17% Attribute Reduction William¡¯s smile grew even wider when he noticed the additional change. The decreased effect of his soul damage caused his Luck to change from twenty-four to twenty-five. Again, it was a minor aplishment, but it felt like he got a free point added to him. He quickly threw on his robes and left the room, heading directly to the reception, where Wu Chang was waiting. ¡°Good morning!¡± Wu Chang bowed deeply, ¡°How may I help, esteemed cultivator?¡± William¡¯s happy mood faltered slightly before he forced it back up. Wu Chang acted far too servile to befortable when he saw his sect robes. He even tried to waive the meager cost of the room, at which point William shoved a Silver into his hands before leaving for the room. ¡°Did Wang Xiaoling returnst night?¡± ¡°No, she didn¡¯t,¡± Wu Chang bowed deeper, ¡°I apologize, esteemed cultivator.¡± William¡¯s lips twitched at how Wu Chang was scared to even look at him for too long. With a resigned sigh, he said, ¡°Alright, let her know I¡¯ll be at the Jade Healing Clinic if shees back.¡± ¡°As youmand.¡± William had to resist making the man stand up straight but was scared he might cause him to die of shock. He could only assume that Wu Chang had terrible experiences with cultivators in the past. With a slight shake of his head, William exited The Golden Lotus before making his way to the Clinic. With plenty of spiritual energy avable, he wanted to try and spar with Ren Bo if possible. If not, he would head to the Qi refining rooms and practice his martial skills by himself until he was satisfied. Or, that was the n until he had to move himself to the side of the street, following the actions of all the mortals surrounding him as a horse-drawn carriage dangerously sped through the newly formed space. William clenched his fist at the arrogance of the carriage owner. Still, he stayed in ce, observing that it was just slow enough for nobody to get seriously injured. He saw plenty of mortals cry in pain at sprained ankles from moving too quickly, but it was all something a few days of rest would cure. Just when he was about to ignore the senselessmotion, the carriage came to a screeching halt, as if that made any sense without brakes. He frowned when the mortals started whispering nervously and backed away as if more afraid of what would happen than when the carriage looked like it would run them over. The driver had hopped down from his seat and opened the door before moving aside, letting the person inside step out. For the first time since William hade to this world, he had a¡­ reaction. Every female cultivator he hadid eyes on seemed to be unbelievably attractive, with Elder Yu at the top of that list. Still, none of them made him fidget on the spot nervously. Sure, he was stunned by their beauty, but they weren¡¯t trying to unt it by dressing to highlight their bodies. The woman that stepped out of the carriage was. She was wearing a traditional cultivator¡¯s robe, but it showed far more bare skin than he had seen with anyone in the Jade Healing Sect. It was fitted to hug her slender figure as if it would be a crime not to disy the assets she possessed. While it was dangerously provocative, it didn¡¯t go to the extent of the women William had seen in the brothel, which somehow made it worse. He saw her looking around at the crowd before moving in his direction. Even her walk was alluring if that was at all possible. The intricate embroidery on her ck silk robes came to life with her every step. It exuded elegance and purpose, and despite all of these attractive physical features and mannerisms, what William paid attention to the most was the underlying strength in her aura. [Name: Mei Lingxi | Level: ?] All of the gaping took ce in less than the span of a second, which he hoped would be drowned out by the drooling mortals around him. He had no idea why this woman had stopped in the middle of a packed street and put on a fashion show, but he didn¡¯t want to gain her attention. William saw Mei Lingxi stop a short distance away from her carriage and talk to a child that seemed to be crying. She smiled as she handed the child something, but he was more interested in the mortals that started to move again, seemingly broken from their daze once they could no longer see Mei Lingxi¡¯s face clearly. He discreetly put himself in the middle of the growing crowd and patiently matched their pace. Perhaps it was too cautious of him to act like this, especially since the woman only stopped tofort a kid for some reason. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. William was confident that he had been unreasonably lucky with finding cultivators that seemed to be on the saner side of the spectrum, but it was only a matter of time before he was confronted by some lunatic. Prince Yuan was an example, though that man was more interested in Lan Yin than him. However, if one Prince Yuan existed, there must be countless more like him in the Empire, let alone the world. And while William might have been happy that Young Masters existed due to the fact that they were legendary stepping stones on the road of cultivation, it didn¡¯t mean he wanted to meet one right now. William was about to breathe easy when he was about to escape, but he should have known better. ¡°Stop.¡± That word was said in a gentle tone rather than a yell or anything uncouth. But it still felt like it was right next to William¡¯s ear. The group of mortals around him instantly came to a halt, forcing him to follow unless he wished to trample the mortals under his feet. ¡°Little Brother Wei, I halted my trip for you. Why don¡¯t I take you to your destination in my carriage?¡± William knew it. He knew she was trouble. He should have bolted the moment he saw the question mark where her level should be. Chapter 52: Another Windfall? Chapter 52: Another Windfall? As ifmanded by a higher power, which he supposed Mei Lingxi was, the crowd of mortals that was keeping him hidden from sight parted. William''s lips twitched into a smile as he met almond-shaped eyes, which were surprisingly a bright violet, making it all the more unnerving. "Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi smiled gently and beckoned for him. William was hoping to stall and hope for someone from the Jade Healing Clinic to arrive and save him from having put himself in unknown hands, but the almost imperceptible narrowing of Mei Lingxi''s eyes hinted at knowing exactly what his thoughts were. That unglued his feet, and he started to walk as slowly as eptable, which wasn''t slow at all because he was no longer a mortal when it would be reasonable to drag his feet. William wished he still had Daoist Chen''s mark. "Senior," William bowed when he was a few arm''s lengths away from Mei Lingxi, unwilling to look at her because she was even more distracting up close. He didn''t dare test his discipline on this unknown woman. "No need for such formality, Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi chuckled, "You may call me Sister Lingxi. After all, we will be quite familiar with each other." "We will?" William asked in confusion, something Mei Lingxi ignored. "Come, let''s not disrupt the street any more than we have already." William blinked at her wording, wondering when he had be party to what she had done. Still, he followed her into the carriage, but not before giving ast look toward the direction of the Jade Healing Clinic, hoping somebody was on the way. Nobody was. That was why he was sitting on the plush cushion inside the richly decorated carriage while trying to avoid Mei Lingxi''s amused look. "I don''t bite," Mei Lingxi reassured gently, "You are Sentinel Lan''s Junior Brother. If anything, I should be the one cowering, not you." "Senior Sister?" Williamtched onto the person that seemed to have more power than he thought, "You know her?" "Of course," Mei Lingxi nodded with a smile, "It would be shameful if I did not know my Master''s future wife." All the thought processes that William possessed halted in their tracks. Was this the start of some plot that was at the beginning of every cultivation novel? Lan Yin was obviously outstanding in the Jade Healing Sect, so that should mean that her fianc¨¦ would be a waste if he was the protagonist. "Who''s your master?" William asked curiously, shivering when Mei Lingxi''s eyes sharpened momentarily. "Prince Yuan, of course." He wasn''t sure what to think about that answer. It should have been evident that Mei Lingxi''s master would be extraordinary since she herself was outstanding. Still, he didn''t think it would be a Prince. Especially that Prince. This suddenly turned from a standard cultivation romance to something better fitting a struggle for the throne. Or perhaps he was thinking in cliches too much, and it was neither of those. "I see," William said slowly, "And what does the Prince want with me?" "Want?" Mei Lingxi asked, as if amused that word left his lips, "My Master doesn''t want anything, Little Brother. That was his question to you. Since you are Sentinel Lan''s Junior Brother, you may choose three treasures from Xuanjing City''s Treasure Pavilion." "Three treasures?" William repeated in surprise before quickly stamping down his greed, "Prince Yuan is generous, but I can''t ept until I let my Senior Sister know." "Sensible," Mei Lingxi nodded, "You can ask Sentinel Lan right now." William looked at her in confusion before he heard the horses whinny loudly as the carriage abruptly stopped. He saw Mei Lingxi smirk before she leaned toward the door and pushed it open. "Mei Lingxi." If there was ever a time to cry tears of relief, this would have been it. Luckily, William didn''t shame himself and simply stared at the glorious arrival of Lan Yin with gratitude. "Sentinel Lan," Mei Lingxi motioned to the seat next to William, "We were just talking about you." "Were you?" Lan Yin entered the carriage and closed the door behind her, "And here I thought you were nning to steal my Junior Brother." William was more than happy to make himself as small as possible, letting the two focus on each other. He was feeling much more secure in his safety now that Lan Yin was here as protection. Was it shameful? Who cares. Safetyes first. "I was simply giving Little Brother Wei a ride to the Clinic, Sentinel Lan," Mei Lingxi was calm in the face of Lan Yin''s re, "Isn''t that right?" William stiffened when she turned her attention to him. "Er, yes. That''s right." "Still not willing to call me Sister Lingxi," Mei Lingxi shook her head in amusement before saying to Lan Yin, "Your Junior Brother is overly careful. Prince Yuan offered him three picks from the Treasure Pavilion, but he insisted on asking you first. Perhaps he wanted to do the same before addressing me so familiarly." Lan Yin gave William an approving look before replying to Mei Lingxi, "As he should. Why is the Prince being so generous?" "You already know this, Sentinel Lan," Mei Lingxi said casually, "It would shame my Master if he did not offer this to your Junior Brother." William observed how Lan Yin scowled, an expression that seemed over the top of the usually well-controlled woman. "If he wishes to give such good things to outsiders for a destroyed hope, then so be it," Lan Yin said fiercely, "Junior Brother, do you wish to take a look? While the treasures might not be as good as what our Sect can offer, those will cost you Spirit Stones. This will be on Prince Yuan''s coin." He tried to see if this was a trick question, but he was no mind reader. With Lan Yin''s proclivity to be straightforward, he decided that this was truly an option he was being given. If that was the case, why pass on such an opportunity? "Then I''ll take a look, Senior Sister." "Good!" Mei Lingxi smiled widely, "However, I need something from Little Brother Wei before I take us to the Treasure Pavilion." If Lan Yin wasn''t there with him, William would have flushed a bright red as his mind went to fantasies that a boy his physical age could never imagine. It was the first time since he arrived in this world that he regretted being so young. And it was caused by a smile that Mei Lingxi made effortlessly flirty, something he was sure she didn''t even mean to. "Call me Sister Lingxi." William''s fantasies died an early, brutal death. He had forgotten that he was adorable to women, nothing else. He realized that he had already gotten friend-zoned numerous times, or was it kid-zoned¡­ whatever it was, it was depressing. He sighed before ncing at Lan Yin and saw she didn''t seem to care either way. "Sister Lingxi," William said, feeling like he had been demoted from a kid to a toddler when Mei Lingxi''s eyes sparkled at him. "I can see why you treasure him, Sentinel Lan," Mei Lingxi knocked on the wall separating them from the driver and said, "Take us to the Treasure Pavilion!" [Side Quest Added | Select 3 treasurespatible with your cultivation technique or martial skills] William nced at Mei Lingxi and Lan Yin, happy they were more interested in talking to each other tersely, at least on Lan Yin''s part, instead of paying attention to him. He looked out the window, pretending to stare at the passing streets while trying tomand the system. It might be foolish to do something that has seldom worked, but it didn''t exactly cost him anything but a second or two. He first tried to pull up a detailed view of the quest in case there was an exnation of the reward, and to his surprise, there was. Select 3 treasurespatible with your cultivation technique or martial skills [Reward: Variable | Penalty: None] William had to stop the snort of annoyance from escaping him. He supposed he shouldn''t have expected anything more. After he started to actually take in the view out the window, he let himself feel the excitement that should have already been filling him. He would be getting to pick treasures that were valued in Spirit Stones. If William was able to make the right choices, it could be the boost needed to get to level one hundred as quickly as possible. Chapter 53: Treasure Pavilion (1) Chapter 53: Treasure Pavilion (1) He thought he had seen what a packed crowd looked like at the market where Wang Xiaoling sold her goods, but clearly, he didn''t know anything. Even though he could easily overpower any mortal that wasn''t a freak like Wang Xiaoling, the thought of leaving the carriage was ufortable. Luckily, the chance of Lan Yin or Mei Lingxi joining the rabble was slim to none. William imagined it would cause a tragedy when the mortals couldn''t give them enough space to walk untouched. However, William winced in sympathy when the carriage forced itself through the packed crowd, somehow doing so without injuring anyone though there were plenty of scared faces he could see as the mortals in front of the horses tried to get out of the way. "I never did likeing to this part of the city," Lan Yin muttered before saying with a louder voice, "And I never thought that the Prince would make my Junior Brother go to the Treasure Pavilion like a mortal. I would have been d to cover the cost if he couldn''t spare a few Qi Stones for the array." "Sentinel Lan, you nder my master too much," Mei Lingxi sounded disappointed, but William thought she looked amused like always, "Little Brother Wei has been secluding himself to a small part of Xuanjing City, and my master only thought he would prefer to see the sights. After all, the Treasure Pavilion is located at the intersection of Silk Road and Phoenix Street, the busiest part of our City." William had to agree that it was an experience to see it, though with how Lin Yin scoffed disdainfully, he guessed she had other thoughts. "The Prince thinking of someone other than himself?" Lan Yin said with disbelief, "Mei Lingxi, don''t take me for a fool. Stop trying to give him credit for your ideas." "I am but my master''s humble servant," Mei Lingxi bowed slightly before standing up just as the carriage came to a stop, "Put aside your doubts, Sentinel Lan. This day is for your Junior Brother, not old grudges." William felt that it was unfair that they didn''t give the context of what they were talking about, but at least it helped him get more of an understanding of Prince Yuan. He was clearly more than the careless phnderer that he showed himself as, and it was making it likely that he was no conman. William could only hope that meant there were ways to block the system from showing urate stats after using Observe. He followed Lan Yin and Mei Lingxi out of the carriage, looking at the luxurious space with plenty of standing roompared to the roiling mass of mortals walking in every which way outside the gates. "Wee to the Treasure Pavilion, Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi took William out of his distraction, bringing his attention to the building itself. It had the traditional design of sweeping curved roofs adorned with the golden tiles that he suspected were mandatory to show off wealth with howmon it was around the City. But what set apart the Treasure Pavilion from the others was what was on the walls. They were embellished with stunning, beautiful murals depicting vastndscapes, immortal cultivators, and legendary treasures birthed into the world. At least, that was what William understood them as. "It''s¡­ amazing," William couldn''t help but say aloud, much to Mei Lingxi''s delight and Lan Yin''s annoyance. "Don''t believe the boastful murals," Lan Yinmented, "If the Treasure Pavilion has something so precious, Venerable Spirit Severing Seniors will fight each other to im it." "Ignore your Senior Sister. This is simply a good decoration, nothing else," Mei Lingxi said with a chuckle. She nodded at a greeter before motioning them to follow her. William walked up the stone steps, ncing at the statues decorating either side, trying to figure out which creature they were based on. It vaguely looked like a dragon, only if it was the ugliest one in existence. There was a thought that it was simply a poorly carved statue, but with the wealth this Treasure Pavilion apparently had, that was extremely unlikely. Mei Lingxi nodded at the men guarding the doors as they opened them for her. She led them into the building before turning around to face them a few meters past the entrance. "You may pick whatever you wish inside this building, Little Brother Wei." William nodded wide-eyed as he looked around the main floor in wonder. If he thought the exterior of the building was stunning, it was nothingpared to what he was seeing now. The spacious hall was asionally adorned with towering pirs that brought to attention the sheer height of the ceiling, where ornate chandeliers were evenly spaced. Just like the exterior, the walls were decorated with images of treasures, though instead of murals, they were on tapestries. William could see a few dozen or so people talking to attendants, and after a quick check with the system, he confirmed that they were all cultivators in varying stages. Though, most of them seemed to have a question mark for their level, which meant they were above the Qi Gathering Realm. "Unlike the murals outside, what you see on the walls here is all avable for sale," Mei Lingxi said as she walked closer to them, "I''ll be taking care of Little Brother Wei today, so feel free to ask me any questions you have." "You?" Lan Yin asked with suspicion, "Since when do you lower yourself to act as a shop attendant?" "It''s my honor to do so for Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi said innocently, "Especially when you are going to be otherwise upied." "upied?" Lan Yin repeated in confusion. "Sister Yin!" William recognized that voice. He turned in the direction where he heard it and saw Prince Yuan walking toward them with a broad smile. "And Sister Yin''s Junior Brother! Wee to the Treasure Pavilion!" "Prince Yuan," Lan Yin said stiffly, "So this is why you were so generous to my Junior Brother." "Perhaps," Prince Yuan admitted shamelessly, "If you feel the exchange isn''t worth the cost, then the exit is right there." When Lan Yin looked at William, he shrugged, telling her silently that he didn''t mind either way. The few seconds it took for Lan Yin to make her decision felt like an era, especially since William had never seen her hesitate with anything so far. "Very well," Lan Yin nodded reluctantly, "Go with Mei Lingxi and choose the treasures you desire." "Excellent," Prince Yuanughed as he held out a hand to Lan Yin, "We have much to discuss!" Lan Yin ignored the offered hand and walked past Prince Yuan, though it seemed he didn''t care one bit since he winked at William before quickly covering Lan Yin''s fast strides. "Where would you like to start, Little Brother Wei?" William took his eyes off Lan Yin and Prince Yuan to see Mei Lingxi standing far too close to him, his height putting his eye level right at her ample bust. He flushed a bright red, cursing his body''s uncontroble hormones, before looking up at her amused face. Mei Lingxi knew precisely what she was doing. "H-How about weapons?" William suggested with a shaky voice before clearing his throat, "Maybe swords first." "Oh?" Mei Lingxi raised an eyebrow, "I didn''t know you were training to be a sword cultivator." "Er, I''m not. But maybe I can find something that fits me." William just wanted something he could use to protect himself on the mission if necessary. Using his fists was working fine so far, but what was he supposed to do if someone started swinging a de at him? As for the choice of sword, it was the first thing that came to his mind. "I see," Mei Lingxi said doubtfully, "Very well, we have plenty of time, so it wouldn''t hurt to show you the avable swords." William had to stop himself from shivering when she gently touched his shoulder to lead him. He was quickly bing tired of these involuntary reactions to her. Sure, she was stunning, but it was turning into something far too exaggerated. "Most of the swords the Treasure Pavilion possesses are right there," Mei Lingxi pointed across the hall to where a few people were testing the feel of some swords in their hands. But that wasn''t what caught William''s attention. "Sister Lingxi, are those Martial Skills?" William interjected as he stared at the section full of scrolls and manuscripts, with the asional jade tablet he knew was for the high-tier techniques and skills. "They are. Would you like to browse through them first?" Mei Lingxi seemed more satisfied with his new choice. "Very much so," William didn''t hide his eagerness as he dreamed of getting a martial skill with betterpatibility. Chapter 54: Treasure Pavilion (2) Chapter 54: Treasure Pavilion (2) "Nothing?" William sighed as he put the jade tablet down. He would have thought this ce would have some good stuff, but it was even worse than the Library in the Outer Sect. Most of the manuscripts hadpatibility levels of one percent, and the few that didn''t were at zero. He didn''t even know what that represented. It was tempting to buy one and see if that meant the skill wouldn''t work after he learned it or if he couldn''t learn it at all. As for the avable jade tablets, they were slightly better than the manuscripts, havingpatibility ranging from a few percent to around five. There was a skill that was defensive in nature that William wanted, but wasting a pick on it would be foolish without looking elsewhere first. As for buying it, that was out of the question. There was no way he coulde up with two Spirit Stones. "No, Sister Lingxi," William sighed, "I don''t like any of them." "What a strange little boy you are," Mei Lingxi said with a shake of her head, "Are the martial skills avable in your Sect that much better?" "Er, I don''t know?" William said unsurely, "I haven''t been there for too long, so I can''t say for sure." That, and he wasn''t stupid enough to talk about what his Sect had to an outsider. He wasn''tpletely clueless about how things were supposed to work in this world. Talking about the manuals your Sect possessed would be near the top of the ''inadvisable'' checklist. And even if it wasn''t, what if this was some sort of honey trap? Mei Lingxi certainly was attractive enough to be part of one. "Alright, Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi rubbed his hair affectionately, "Let''s go look at some swords." William couldn''t find it in himself to keep believing the honey trap suspicion. Unless treating him like a silly kid was also a strategy in those. "What are you looking for in a sword?" Mei Lingxi asked as she waved off some attendants that were standing in the area. William was stumped. He had never touched a sword in his old world, and even when he arrived in the Tianxia Empire, it was spent learning about spirit nts, not what type of swords there were. "Do you want it to be lightweight? Maybe have a special element that was imbued during the forging?" Mei Lingxi saw the cluelessness on his face and suggested some options with a smile. "Element sounds good!" William''s eyes lit up with excitement, imagining lightning striking his enemy with every swing. Even if that was exaggerated, surely it would activate whenever he shed against another de. "Little Brother Wei¡­ no, let''s try this first," Mei Lingxi beckoned a boy that looked a few years older than William, "Hand me your sword." "Yes!" The boy gleefully pulled the sword out of its scabbard and offered it to Mei Lingxi, who took it and did the same to William. "Hold the sword and pretend that you are defending yourself." William stared at the hilt before looking at Mei Lingxi''s patient expression. He already knew this wouldn''t go well for his n to get a sword. He awkwardly grabbed the hilt, almost dropping the sword in surprise when Mei Lingxi let it go. He didn''t expect it to weigh so much. And he especially didn''t expect to be barely able to hold onto it even while using both hands. "A sword like this will be one of the lightest in the Treasure Pavilion. Since Little Brother Wei has just started cultivating, I rmend you find a mortal sword to practice before jumping to something like this." "Y-Yes, Sister Lingxi," William agreed with a strained voice until Mei Lingxi nodded at the boy to take back his sword. A puff of air was released from his mouth when he was freed from the ridiculously heavy sword. He watched with envy as the boy effortlessly handled it like it weighed nothing before walking to his previous standing spot. "How do you usually fight? Maybe I can rmend something for you." "Ah, with my fists," William said awkwardly. "I see," Mei Lingxi nodded, "Then perhaps it would be best to show you the things that will help with that. It would also add some protection until you learn the right martial skill to protect you naturally." William knew these options existed, but that didn''t mean he wanted those to be his first choices. After crushing countless Sky Hares under his heel and some under his fist, he wanted a weapon to separate him from his future killings. But he won''t deny that Mei Lingxi would know better, at least for now. "That would be good, Sister Lingxi," William agreed, though it was audibly less enthusiastic. "Don''t get caught up with swords, Little Brother Wei," Mei Lingxi rubbed his hair again, "The manliest of men use their fists to solve all their problems. Why sound so disappointed by that?" William blinked at what Mei Lingxi had said, wondering if he had heard right. Maybe her bias made that sentence leave her lips because he certainly disagreed. A cool spotless swordsman with thousands of dead Sky Hares around him was much better than a barbarian with more muscles than brains in the same spot, especially since the barbarian would be covered with the guts of those dead Sky Hares. Still, the words leaving his mouth werepletely different from what he was thinking, naturally. "Maybe you''re right, Sister Lingxi." "Of course I am!" Mei Lingxi smiled sweetly before leading him toward the stairs, "The gloves are on the second floor since they aren''t as popr." That was another negative point checked off in William''s mind for these gloves. "Less popr does not mean worse," Mei Lingxiughed, "Why not wait to see what''s there before passing judgment?" "Ah, sorry," William said sheepishly before changing the subject to something he had been wondering since the offer to pick treasures was made, "Sister Lingxi, does the Treasure Pavilion have anything like a spatial ring?" William had to stop himself from bumping into Mei Lingxi when she stopped climbing the stairs. He looked up to see her staring at him with an incredulous look. "Little Brother Wei has a lot of appetite. The Treasure Pavilion does have one spatial ring for sale, but do you think you can own it?" "Yes," William blurted out immediately before paling in fright as he realized what she implied, "I mean, no!" Mei Lingxi chuckled before reaching down to ruffle his hair again. "Some things are not for us to think of, even if they are avable. Spatial rings are things only a Nascent Soul Elder can hope to keep without losing their lives." William was quickly losing hope for the protagonist''s luck. This should be where he found the Treasure Pavilion selling something that looked like trash but was actually an immortal artifact. Perhaps it would have been better to bring Li Xinyue or Wang Xiaoling, if what he suspected about her was true. Two guards standing on either side of the entrance to the second floor bowed to them as they passed. William expected to see a simryout to the main floor, which was an open hall with one having a clear view of the whole floor, but it was the opposite. Some items were on disy in the open, but most of the second floor was cordoned off behind ss walls that seemed to have swirling mist obscuring what was behind them. The first thought that came to his mind was that this was a VIP section, and of course, his easily readable face showed what he was thinking. "Those are just extra security measures, don''t get too excited," Mei Lingxi shot down his assumption immediately, "The Treasure Pavilion does have a VIP floor, but it''s on the third level." William''s eyes gleamed with excitement as he opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Mei Lingxi interrupted him. "There is also a rule in ce that a customer may only choose one item to buy from the third floor. Still, don''t get your hopes up, Little Brother Wei. Almost everything useful for you on the VIP floor is in the same ss as a spatial ring." William didn''t let that get him down. She used the word ''almost.'' That was enough to keep his hopes up. "Before you dream too much, let''s get you something useful, shall we?" Mei Lingxi chuckled at his expression as she pressed her fingers on one of the ss walls, making it shimmer before separating like an automatic door. Chapter 55: Treasure Pavilion (3) Chapter 55: Treasure Pavilion (3) William had to admit that the first ''glove'' he saw beat out any sword he had seen on the first floor. At least, it was better in looks. It seemed like something that should belong in a futuristic society rather than a world like this. ¡°I see the Elemental Gauntlet caught your eye,¡± Mei Lingxi waved her hand to lift the sleek, metallic-looking glove out of its disy and float it toward them, ¡°For those that can bear the cost, it is a lethal tool that could act as the decider in battle. It amplifies any element of the wearer and directs it into the target.¡± William ignored the part where she praised the lethality of something to a thirteen-year-old and took the offered glove into his hands. ¡°Is it safe to put it on?¡± ¡°Usually, I would say no, but I can make an exception for you,¡± Mei Lingxi smirked, finding something amusing, making William a little suspicious. Still, William believed there should be no harm in trying on the gauntlet, which looked more like a glove. It certainly felt like one when he slipped them on. His eyes widened when it resized to be a perfect fit on his hand, blending in to make it seem like it wasn¡¯t even there. Now it definitely seemed like it should belong in some futuristic world. ¡°Now redirect your Qi to your hand and try to activate it,¡± Mei Lingxi suggested with the same look that made him suspicious. Still, it was one of the few things William could do with the Qi he possessed, so he was happy to follow her instructions. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [ERROR | Spiritual Energy Insufficient] ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Mei Lingxi chuckled when William stared at his hand in betrayal, ¡°Try to activate it.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t have enough Qi.¡± When there was no reply, he looked away from the infuriating glove to see Mei Lingxi staring at him in surprise. ¡°¡­ Did I do something, Sister Lingxi?¡± ¡°How did you know you didn¡¯t have enough Qi to use the Elemental Gauntlet? I don¡¯t think I have ever seen anything like that before in someone so young.¡± William had forgotten that this level of sensitivity was not typical in his frustration at the gauntlet. Luckily, his nk expression helped him out this time. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s how you were able to get the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s attention,¡± Mei Lingxi shook her head in exasperation, ¡°You are a fortunate one, Little Brother Wei. The Jade Healing Sect is one that many wish to join, but few ever aplish.¡± It looked to William like Mei Lingxi used to be one of the people rejected by the Sect in the past, but he didn¡¯t wish to linger on it. There would be no benefit to staying on a potentially damaging topic. Luckily, he could act like the kid with a shiny toy in his hands because, well, he was one. ¡°So I can¡¯t use this?¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s lips twitched in amusement when he lifted his hand to show what he was talking about. ¡°Not at the moment. Some Qi Gathering cultivators can use it in theter stages, but Foundation Establishment is usually the minimum requirement.¡± William sighed, expecting that answer, but was still dejected. He couldn¡¯t have the spatial ring because murder-crazy cultivators would kill him, and now it seemed he couldn¡¯t even get some of the ¡®normal¡¯ things because he was too weak. And while he could take it to use after he increased his realm, he couldn¡¯t afford to wait that long. As he pulled off the Elemental Gauntlet and handed it back to Mei Lingxi, he asked, ¡°How much does this cost to buy?¡± ¡°Fifty Spirit Stones,¡± Mei Lingxi replied as she ced it back in the disy. William¡¯s eyes bulged, suddenly reconsidering his previous thought of picking it being a waste. That was an enormous sum that he knew would be impossible for most Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. It was likely only those fromrge ns that would be able to splurge on something like an Elemental Gauntlet. ¡°Sister Lingxi, could you show me something I could use?¡± William asked tiredly. Mei Lingxiughed before rubbing his hair, much to his growing annoyance, and brought out two more items. ¡°This is called a Soulchain,¡± Mei Lingxi handed what looked like strips of cloth with designs woven into them to William before continuing, ¡°And these are Impact Boots.¡± William¡¯s other hand was now upied with sturdy leather boots. ¡°¡­ What do these do?¡± William asked with no expectations. It was hard to have any after what the gauntlet could supposedly capable of. ¡°Still so easily caught up with shy things, Little Brother Wei,¡± Mei Lingxi tutted, ¡°These might not seem impressive, but they are possibly even more useful than the Elemental Gauntlet. Try the boots on first.¡± A few secondster, William had them on and directed his Qi to his feet, hoping the system didn¡¯t say he was still too weak for it. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Cost | 20 Spiritual Energy] [Passive Effect | +10 Agility] His heart started to race at seeing thest alert. ¡°Good, you can sense this too!¡± Mei Lingxi praised, increasing William¡¯s exasperation at how easily everyone could read him, ¡°As you can guess, the Impact Boots enhance the cultivator''s agility and speed, allowing for lightning-fast kicks and agile maneuvers. But more than that, it can be a lifesaver for someone at your level. The inscriptions woven into the leather increase the quickness of the wearer simply by having it on.¡± ¡°That¡¯s amazing!¡± William eximed before looking at the strips of cloth he was holding, ¡°What about this one?¡± ¡°You know what to do. Direct your Qi to your hand,¡± Mei Lingxi suggested with a smile. William gasped when the strips of cloth came to life as the designs glowed brightly before they attached themselves to his hand, wrapping around it snugly. If not for the fact that he could see it, he would have thought his hand had nothing on it. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Cost | 10 Spiritual Energy] It was disappointing that there was no passive effect, but he could sense something strange about this Soulchain. It¡­ felt like it was somehow connected directly to his meridians, and that was more than a little terrifying. Without hesitation, William practically ripped the wraps off his hand in fear, only calming down when that alien feeling was removed. ¡°I could feel it essing my meridians!¡± William yelped as he dropped it to the floor. ¡°¡­ I should have exined after knowing your sensitivity to these things,¡± Mei Lingxi said apologetically, ¡°It¡¯s one of the specialties of the Soulchain. Every time you are able tond a strike on your opponent, it will steal the Qi of your enemy. Plus, if you are skilled enough, it could also be possible to add that stolen Qi to your own reserves!¡± William grimaced at thest part, not liking the idea of such a thing. Not only would it pollute your Qi, making it a chore to try and purify it by cultivating diligently, but he also despised the idea of taking something from another¡¯s body that should never belong to him. Perhaps it was the nightmarish way he was introduced to this world, but anything that even remotely reminded him of the savages that killed countless innocent children in front of his eyes would be anathema. ¡°I don¡¯t want this.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Mei Lingxi asked with surprise, ¡°It¡¯s one of the best choices avable to you.¡± ¡°Sister Lingxi, there¡¯s no need to try and convince me,¡± William tried to keep his voice calm and repeated, ¡°I don¡¯t want it.¡± ¡°As you wish,¡± She nodded slightly while giving him a strange look, ¡°It seems to have disturbed you¡­ How about we take a break and go to the third floor? You can see some of the greatest treasures avable in the city. It could be something to aspire to in the future.¡± William saw Mei Lingxi''s encouraging smile and returned it while sighing internally. She had gone from treating him like a silly kid to one that had been traumatized. It wasn¡¯t too far off, to be honest. At least he would be able to see a spatial ring in return. Chapter 56: Treasure Pavilion (4) Chapter 56: Treasure Pavilion (4) William was finally seeing something other than amusement on Mei Lingxi¡¯s face, and thankfully, it had nothing to do with him. ¡°It seems that my Senior is busy, Little Brother Wei,¡± Mei Lingxi sighed as she crossed her arms and tapped her forearm with her fingers, ¡°I¡¯m sure he will let us enter soon.¡± He couldn¡¯t do anything but nod his head as they waited in front of the sealed door leading to the third floor. With nothing better to do, he looked around, wondering if there was something else to check out. It was a little surprising that Mei Lingxi seemed to know exactly what he would find useful, but she could have missed something. ¡°Sister Lingxi, do you work here?¡± William asked unsurely, remembering how Lan Yin was incredulous at the idea of Mei Lingxi showing him around the Treasure Pavilion. It had made him assume she wasn¡¯t a worker, but she knew her way around far too well, so perhaps that had been wrong. ¡°Indeed,¡± Mei Lingxi confirmed, ¡°I¡¯m the manager of the first two floors of the Treasure Pavilion.¡± William uttered a soft sound in acknowledgment as everything suddenly made sense. It had been a little strange that almost everyone recognized who Mei Lingxi was. It was also strange when they followed her orders without fail, no matter how vague the orders were. Most of what he had seen were the slight motions of her hands followed by the attendants scrambling around. However, if they were familiar with her mannerisms because she was the manager, it made perfect sense. He looked down at the Impact Boots and pushed down his irrational need to activate it and figure out how it worked, but he doubted Mei Lingxi would take kindly to that. She told him to try to activate the gauntlets because it was apparent he wouldn¡¯t be able to do it. That same suggestion was missing when he put on the Impact Boots. ¡°Wait until you leave my Treasure Pavilion, Little Brother Wei,¡± Mei Lingxi could predictably tell what he was thinking, ¡°I shudder to think of the consequences I will face if you get hurt.¡± ¡°Er, don¡¯t you mean if I break something?¡± Mei Lingxiughed, ¡°If something so minor could damage anything in the Treasure Pavilion, we would have been robbed blind long ago.¡± William erased all thoughts of being impulsive and wondered why it hade into his mind in the first ce. His need for doing things that couldn¡¯t be exined by logic had mostly been erased by the time he had be an adult in his old world. It was almost as if his decision-making was regressing, and he had to fight against impulses he hadn¡¯t had for over a decade. Perhaps bing a thirteen-year-old again came with all the annoyances the age was known for. It certainly made sense why William was so easily distracted by the women he had seen, and why he wanted to do something as idiotic as activating boots that should only be used in dire situations or during training. Luckily, these impulses seemed to be minor annoyances that could be managed. William saw Mei Lingxi frown before knocking hard on the door and muttering, ¡°What is Senior Sun doing?¡± A few secondster, her expression brightened before she stepped back from the door. ¡°It seems that a guest has arrived on the third floor. Senior Sun will be able to let us through in a few minutes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± William smiled, though he was wondering if the time wouldn¡¯t have been better spent searching through what was avable on the first floor. That brought a question to the front of his mind. ¡°Why are we the only ones up here?¡± William asked, looking around the entirely empty second floor. ¡°This is a small ce, Little Brother Wei. While Xuanjing City isrge, nearly the entire poption is mortal. Some cultivating ns upy the city, but they wouldn¡¯t be enough to make this Treasure Pavilion anyrger. As for other cultivators, they only arrive to fix the arrays delivering food and other essentials for mortals when they are disrupted, or theye to the city to visit the various markets. Thetter are almost always low-level cultivators, so they are useless to us.¡± William remembered the crowd of cultivators waiting for the Qi Refining Rooms. Still, that wasn¡¯t much when the city''s poption was over fifty million. ¡°So, which city has the most cultivators?¡± William asked curiously. ¡°Qingyun City,¡± Mei Lingxi said automatically, ¡°I¡¯m actually from there.¡± William recognized that city as the one that was closest to the Jade Healing Sect. It made sense why Mei Lingxi seemed to have wanted to join the Sect when she was younger. Qingyun City was likely a significant source of the Sect¡¯s disciples. Still, this didn''t answer his question. ¡°Er, Sister Lingxi?¡± William asked sheepishly, ¡°You haven¡¯t told me why we¡¯re alone on the second floor.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t I?¡± Mei Lingxi gained a slight dusting of red on her cheeks before it quickly disappeared, ¡°The first floor has almost everything a traditional cultivator needs. The standard weapons, talismans, manuals, and the like. The second floor is more focused on unorthodox cultivation.¡± Mei Lingxi paused before carelessly waving her hand to the right of the floor, ¡°And there are some medicinal pills, though the Jade Healing Sect had a near monopoly of them in the city.¡± William didn¡¯t like the sound of following an unorthodox path. While it might not be worse, it certainly meant there weren¡¯t as many guinea pigs testing the path in front of him, so it was more likely that he would make some stupid mistake. Just as he resolved to try and find himself a teacher for the sword, the sealed door cracked open as two people exited, one which William recognized. ¡°Elder Yu!¡± William eximed in surprise before bowing, noting that it was bing natural for him to greet people in such a manner. ¡°Hm?¡± Elder Yu looked at him and said, ¡°Wei Liang? What brings you to the Treasure Pavilion?¡± William noticed that Mei Lingxi had stepped away from him and had nced at the man next to Elder Yu. [Name: Sun Jian | Level: ?] ¡°Sister Lingxi was instructed to let me pick three treasures by Prince Yuan,¡± William said truthfully before expanding when Elder Yu seemed a little displeased, ¡°Senior Sister Yin is also here with me.¡± ¡°Is she?¡± Elder Yu looked around exaggeratedly, ¡°Then why do I not see her?¡± ¡°Prince Yuan had a matter to discuss with Sentinel Lan, Elder Yu,¡± Mei Lingxi answered as she bowed deeply. Elder Yu stared at her bowing form nkly before saying, ¡°Sun Jian, do your juniors have no respect? What made this one think she could speak to me?¡± William shivered, even though he wasn¡¯t the target of those words. Perhaps it was the affectionate way Mei Lingxi referred to him, or maybe it was simply because his hormones were screaming at him to save the pretty woman. Whatever it was, he was about to open his mouth in her defense. Since Lan Yin looked up to Elder Yu, he could only imagine what thetter would do to someone she felt disrespected her. He hoped that being part of the Sect would give him some say. Thankfully, William didn¡¯t need to find out. ¡°Kneel!¡± Sun Jian barked at Mei Lingxi, who dropped to the floor immediately with a pale face, ¡°Foolish girl! To have eyes but fail to recognize Mount Tai! What a waste!¡± Sun Jian gave Elder Yu a ttering smile, ¡°Please forgive my junior, Elder Yu. I¡¯ll teach her a harsh lesson myself on when to speak. Please, pay no mind to her.¡± William would have giggled like a kid at hearing the infamous idiom being used for the first time, but he couldn¡¯t find any amusement at the moment. The silence seemed to stretch for hours, even though it was a few seconds at most. ¡°Very well,¡± Elder Yu acquiesced, ¡°Fetch Little Yin for me. I feel we have overstayed our wee.¡± Mei Lingxi immediately stood before bowing deeply and rushing off. Sun Jian did the same when he received a look from Elder Yu. Soon, the second floor was once again quiet. ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Elder Yu said slowly as she nced at him. ¡°Yes, Elder Yu!¡± William bowed, terrified by the woman after what had just happened. ¡°You are lucky I was alerted. It would be best to avoid this ce in the future. And if you muste here, avoid the third floor at all costs until someone from the Sect arrives to release you,¡± Elder Yu said solemnly, surprising him with a different warning than he expected. It felt like his emotions were being yed with as his fear was suddenly reced with confused gratitude. Chapter 57: Elder Yus Concern Chapter 57: Elder Yu''s Concern William did his best not to move a muscle as he stood silently beside Elder Yu. After she told him to avoid the third floor, it seemed she had lost all interest in acknowledging his existence. That was perfectly fine with him. The less the terrifying Head Elder of the Outer Court paid attention to him, the better. However, the few minutes of silence allowed him tozily browse through his stat screen, and he was stuck looking at one line in particr. Select 3 treasurespatible with your cultivation technique or martial skills This quest would likely fail due to Elder Yu''s mood unless picking one treasure would get him partial credit. William knew he should be more thankful that he was stopped before going to the third floor, even if the danger was still unknown, but when would an opportunity like thise along? Especially at the level William was at. Being the weakest of cultivators, yet being able to pick treasures that should have been out of reach was an opportunity that would gnaw at his heart to miss. When Sun Jian and Mei Lingxi returned, with Lan Yin following them, William was still frantically thinking of how to grab that gauntlet and one of the jade tokens on the first floor without putting himself in a bind. It had made perfect sense to be selective before, but he wished he had grabbed whatever seemed impressive just to pass the quest. ¡°Little Yin, what did I say about wandering about in these mortal cities?¡± ¡°Forgive me, Elder Yu,¡± Lan Yin bowed her head till she was facing the floor. ¡°¡­ You will leave for The Garden tonight,¡± Elder Yu eventually ordered before turning her attention to the two uneasy cultivators. ¡°Did you lose Prince Yuan on the way?¡± ¡°My Master was displeased with the interruption, Elder Yu,¡± Mei Lingxi said in a wavering voice, ¡°He returned to his residence.¡± There was a brief silence where it seemed to William that everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see if Elder Yu would take offense. Well, that was incorrect. Lan Yin seemed like she couldn''t care less about what would happen. ¡°I see,¡± Elder Yu replied mildly, ¡°So, he lures two juniors from my Sect, spits on my face by ignoring me, and expects that his name will protect him?¡± The sound of knees hitting the floor echoed as Sun Jian and Mei Lingxi started to plead for forgiveness. The ovepping voices blended together as William began to fidget in agitation, though why he didn¡¯t have a clue. It wasn¡¯t until Lan Yin shot him a stern look that he was able to stop. ¡°Enough,¡± Elder Yu ordered, ¡°Since the esteemed Prince Yuan is so lofty, my Jade Healing Sect cannot afford to have any dealings with him. It¡¯s time for Elder Huang to close the Clinic and leave the city!¡± William¡¯s eyes widened at the sudden turn of events. With the stunned silence of the two kneeling cultivators, their feelings seemed to be simr. ¡°Come, Little Yin!¡± Elder Yu¡¯s robes billowed as she walked away, leaving William to stare after her in distress. He looked at Mei Lingxi, who smiled slightly when she met his gaze before shaking her head. He had no idea what she was trying to tell him, and when Lan Yin pulled him along to follow Elder Yu, it would likely stay that way. William silently wished his quest rewards farewell as they entered a room with a familiar array. There were no words exchanged between anyone. Elder Yu immediately activated the array to take them away from the Treasure Pavilion. A brief momentter, they arrived inside the Jade Healing Clinic, and William observed how Lan Yin¡¯s expression loosened minutely. ¡°That was the correct thing to do, Little Yin. It would have been better to decline the invitation in the first ce, but this was eptable.¡± ¡°Thank you, Elder Yu.¡± William knew he was out of the loop as Lan Yin gave Elder Yu a short bow. ¡°But what I said still stands. You will leave this city tonight. There are too many distracting factors for it to be a good cultivation environment.¡± After Lan Yin reluctantly nodded, Elder Yu smiled slightly and said, ¡°Go. I still have some things to say to Wei Liang.¡± William stood in ce stiffly when the door closed, leaving him alone with Elder Yu. ¡°I see you have been diligently cultivating,¡± Elder Yu said with praise, ¡°You must have spent all your time to get to this level. Even then, very impressive.¡± William wanted to correct that assumption but wondered if it was too boastful. While Elder Yu didn¡¯t seem the type, wasn¡¯t itmon for older cultivators to use people as furnaces? Though he had no real idea what that was. ¡°Was I incorrect?¡± William figured if Mei Lingxi could read him like a book, Elder Yu could definitely do the same. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like Lan Yin wouldn¡¯t tell her if asked. ¡°I only went to the Qi Refining Rooms to practice my Martial Skills, Elder Yu,¡± William hoped he was right about her, ¡°I never actually cultivated.¡± William¡¯s eyes were on the floor, so when Elder Yu said nothing for nearly a minute, he felt an impending sense of doom. Perhaps it would have been better to shut his mouth and reveal this when witnesses were around. ¡°You¡­ were hovering between life and death,¡± Elder Yu said softly, making William look up at her. For someone who seemed unaffected by nearly everything, it looked like Elder Yu had been shown unbelievable riches. The odd part was how easily William could see that, likely because she was actually that shocked. ¡°What does Elder Yu mean by that?¡± ¡°The Treasure Pavilion is owned by the Tianxia Empire¡¯s Imperial Family. It is well known that the cost of entering the third floor is to have your divination read. A cost that most are d to pay since it could be the chance to be supported by heaven.¡± William shivered when Elder Yu¡¯s eyes focused on him like she was trying to read his soul. ¡°A talent such as you, one that I suspect is unrivaled under the heavens, will not be missed by them. However, you live or die under the whims of the Emperor.¡± That he doubted very much, though he was thrilled Elder Yu thought so highly of him. If anything, they might see him as trash, just like Elder Yu must have when she had to test him before entering the Sect. However, since this seemed like a good thing, William was in no rush to correct Elder Yu¡¯s assumption. While he might have a trash talent in cultivating, that could be made up by the system he possessed. It was almost like he was a protagonist in a novel, except he was terrified of everything instead of going around killing people in revenge. ¡°That is a risk I will not stop you from taking, but I must inform you that while the current Emperor jealously collects talents, there are signs that the most outstanding disappear in suspicious circumstances. Do with this information what you will.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Yu,¡± William sped his hands and bowed, ¡°I wish to stay in the Sect.¡± ¡°Good child!¡± William stiffened when he felt a smooth hand gently rub his hair. He was starting to suspect that this really might be amon thing. At the very least, Wang Xiaoling and Li Xinyue had no interest in joining in on the trend. ¡°When Little Yin told me you were being brought to that ce, I rushed here from the Main Sect. It seems that Little Yin¡¯s worry was not ced with someone ungrateful! Do I have your promise that you will not willingly go to the Treasure Pavilion?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± William nodded firmly. ¡°Good!¡± Elder Yu smiled brightly, ¡°With this Clinic closing, I want you to finish your preparations for the mission quickly.¡± William sped his hands together and nodded in agreement, ignoring the alerts he had received until Elder Yu was done talking to him. Luckily, that didn¡¯t take long. ¡°Go,¡± Elder Yu chuckled, ¡°You don¡¯t want to keep talking to an old woman like me.¡± William bowed and left the room, thinking it was wrong to have that face and call oneself an old woman. No matter. He could finally look at the alerts. [Side Quest Failed | Select 3 treasurespatible with your cultivation technique or martial skills] Make that an alert. And a disappointing one at that. And the very least, William got himself some boots that significantly increased his agility at no cost. Chapter 58: Preparations Chapter 58: Preparations Lan Yin had apanied him to the Qi Refining Rooms as ast gift before she was to leave tonight. Though, he suspected it had more to do with Prince Yuan and the Treasure Pavilion, not that he had any proof. Nheless, her help was crucial in allowing William to quickly get closer to the level he wanted before he set out of the city into possible danger. But a significant issue was that the training couldn¡¯tst for long since his Spiritual Energy was pathetically small. After twelve Qi-infused strikes, it had been exhausted to nothing. And since William needed around thirty minutes to recover enough Spiritual Energy for each attack, he reluctantly left the ce with Lan Yin, cursing himself for not having used more stat points on his Spirit attribute. That would be rectified immediately, now that he was back in The Golden Lotus, right after he consumed some of the spirit fruits he had taken from the Clinic. William didn¡¯t blink as he idly chewed on the Lightning Berry. However, he did have the asional urge to flinch, expecting a shock to run through his body, but that was all it was, an expectation. Even though he was only in the first level of Qi Gathering, it was already beyond obvious that the spirit fruits had a far less noticeable effect on his body. Even after forgetting that the Lightning Berries no longer shocked him due to their decreased effectiveness, the benefits they gave him were reduced significantly. When William was still a mortal only days ago, each Lightning Berry gave him a point for his Stamina and Agility attributes. That was no longer the case. It only contributed to one attribute and with only one point per berry. The saving grace here was that it seemed to be allocated to the lowest attribute, so every berry he had eaten so far had been added to his Stamina. [+1 Stamina] William grimaced and rubbed his stomach, slightly bloated from the eight Lightning Berries he had eaten. He had been worried about the impurity that would rise after eating so many spirit fruits. However, eating enough for that to be a problem wouldn¡¯t be possible unless he forced himself to choke down more berries. He nced at the small pile of Lightning Berries and Blood Oranges and almost hurled at the thought of having to eat more. That pretty much decided that it was enough for the day. Besides, it wasn¡¯t like he needed to leave the city tomorrow. There would be more than enough time to bring his attributes to a level he would prefer. Stamina: 18 (15) That was far better than before, though he still had no real idea if it was viable in a fight since he hadn¡¯t been in one. The n to ask Ren Bo for a spar didn¡¯t exactly work out since Mei Lingxi kidnapped him early in the morning. It was something William would try again tomorrow. Still, before he went to sleep, he would bump his Spirit attribute before there was a chance he could regret it again. [+13 Spirit] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 15% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy: 120/120 (20% per Hour)] William closed his eyes when he felt the rush of Qi released from his dantian. A brief thought entered his mind before he had to focus on concentrating the Qi into his lung meridian. How did the Qi randomly appear when he increased the Spirit attribute? But that question was quickly thrown to the side when he was forced to guide the Qi to where he needed it to go. William had only done this a few times in the past, but he was confident enough that there would be no issues as long as the process hadn¡¯t changed. He guided the river of silvery Qi through the pathways in his body before reaching the lung meridian into which he had been pouring all the Qi. This time would be no different. He could sense the tiny yet bright speck of concentrated Qi that would be getting a massive infusion. William subconsciously took a deep breath as the speck absorbed the offered Qi ravenously. At the rate it took all the Qi, he started to wonder if his other principal meridians were destined to stay dry. Of course, something changed just as that thought appeared in his mind. The speck in his lung meridian had be slightly brighter than before, enough that William didn¡¯t have to wonder if he was imagining things. Especially when it pulsed. Hismand over the Qi was broken briefly, but it had luckily dwindled enough to a point where it didn¡¯t cause any bacsh. He reasserted his will on the scattered Qi and tried to push it back into the lung meridian, only for the same thing to happen again. The speck of light pulsed, expelling the Qi that William was trying to add. He was prepared for it this time and quickly redirected it to another principal meridian nearby. The Qi was quickly epted by the heart meridian. However, with the minuscule amount that was remaining, it wasn¡¯t enough to form the concentrated speck of light simr to what was in the lung meridian. The only thing it did was make the previously dry meridian gain a slightly silvery fog that seemed to fill the space thinly. William circted his Qi just like he would have if he was cultivating, nervously waiting for something to go wrong, but luckily, nothing happened after nearly an hour of constantly cycling his Qi through the pathways. He slowly exhaled as he opened his eyes, visibly confused about what had happened. His cultivation technique clearly mentioned that the principal meridian must be filled to the brim with Qi before moving on to the next. However, that didn¡¯t match what he sensed in his body. The sheer amount of empty space William could sense in the lung meridian suggested that even when his Spirit attribute was over a hundred, the Qi he would have wouldn¡¯t be enough to fill it. Elder Yu had already left Xuanjing City, so there was nobody he could ask. Lan Yang, Lan Yin¡¯s brother, who would arrive tomorrow, was also a possibility, but William didn¡¯t hold much hope there. He was at the same level as Lan Yin, and she had no knowledge of his technique whatsoever. William slowly stood up from his seated position on the floor, carefully checking the condition of his body since he still didn¡¯t trust what his senses were telling him. What he feared most wasn¡¯t the physical condition he was in. In fact, William would be strangely happy if he happened to cough up blood that would take away a significant portion of his health. At least that would mean it wasn¡¯t likely that his soul damage was ying a role in the strangeness happening with his principal meridians. William¡¯s mind kept bringing up the fact that he didn¡¯t have Daoist Chen¡¯s mark anymore, almost like some sort of masochistic taunt. Reminding himself that the next time he visited the void, it would be permanent. Just that thought itself was almost enough to drive William mad with fear. He could feel his heart rate speeding up and quickly distracted himself with his status screen. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 17 Experience: 232/2125 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Health: 1000/1000 Spiritual Energy: 120/120 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 28 (24) Strength: 20 (17) Stamina: 18 (15) Agility: 20 (17) + 10 Luck: 30 (26) Points: 0 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 15% Attribute Reduction William''s mood lifted slightly when he saw the slight increase in every stat. The two percentage point reduction in his soul damage effect was evident with the increased numbers across the board, even though it was only one point. He kept that in his mind as he shrugged off his robes and copsed on the bed, trying to keep ahold of the happy feeling of seeing his stats increase while he attempted to lull himself to sleep. Chapter 59: First Spar Chapter 59: First Spar William grunted as he fought through the pain to thrust his open palm at his sparring partner. He didn¡¯t even blink an eye at the crackling thunder that followed his attack, knowing it was more of an annoyance than a feature. He must have had a screw in his head loose at being excited to hear that sound when he first practiced his skills. All it did was announce to everyone that he had used his Qi to attack. Of course, that only mattered if his enemy was quick enough to dodge the attack and counter. It wasn¡¯t even worth mentioning if the enemy was far stronger. The issue William was presently having was that his current enemy qualified for both those unwee traits. ¡°Better, Wei Liang!¡± [-100 HP] William groaned as he gained another bruise on his already battered body. When he asked Ren Bo to act as a sparring partner, he didn¡¯t expect Elder Huang to interject and suggest that Li Xinyue step in. She was supposedly lowering her fighting level to the second stage of Qi Gathering, but William couldn¡¯t believe that. He wouldn¡¯t believe that. He was getting demolished far too easily, and this was exacerbated by Li Xinyue often mentioning that she wasn¡¯t skilled at all in fighting. It was beyond discouraging. Health: 570/1000 Spiritual Energy: 25/120 (20% per Hour) There was just enough Spiritual Energy left to use his boots inbination with a Qi-infused kick. He preferred not to use something like that for the first time in the middle of a spar. Still, he was literally being beaten by a girl he suspected didn¡¯t even know how much power she was putting behind her attacks. It was time for desperate measures. The other choice was more unsessful attacks and more bruises added to his body. William wanted tond at least on strike on Li Xinyue. A far cry from his thoughts at the beginning of the spar when he was hesitant to attack her. He red at the innocent-looking Li Xinyue and prepared to activate the Impact Boots. However, the moment he did, it felt like he had been crunched by a trashpactor. [-200 HP] William¡¯s pain tolerance level had be so high that even the feeling of his body, organs and all, beingpressed to cause an excruciating level of pain did nothing to break his concentration. The sheer speed heunched toward Li Xinyue was well worth the pain in his mind. The floor literally exploded from the force the boots allowed him to propel off it. Even with all of this, William wasser focused on his goal. Landing a strike on Li Xinyue. The initial n of using a Qi-infused kick had to be discarded since he was flying head-first into her, so naturally, William pulled back his arm to use his palm. It was all the same to him, so long as the end goal was reached. Everything happened in a split second, but it felt like the world was moving frame-by-frame for William. He saw Li Xinyue¡¯s eyes widen slightly when he exploded off the floor to fly at her. He saw the slow narrowing of her eyes as she focused on his iing palm, and best of all, he knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to block him. However, he was still mindful of where hended his attack. It would be tragic if Li Xinyue reacted in anger and identally turned him into a red smear on the walls. William grinned when his palm met her shoulder even as she tried to dodge it, the thunder soon exploding out his hand and the force of the attack ruffling Li Xinyue¡¯s robes. It did absolutely nothing to actually damage her robes or leave a mark on her skin, but this was more than enough. [-50 HP] He wheezed in pain as he wasunched away from Li Xinyue. She seemed to have involuntarily kicked him away from her but thankfully held back her strength at thest moment. William¡¯s bodynded on the floor with a meaty thud as he slid until he hit a wall, moaning weakly as he coughed up blood. He was out of Spiritual Energy, lost almost seventy percent of his health, and waspletely depleted of Stamina to the point where he couldn¡¯t lift his head. He was still delighted. ¡°H-Ha!¡± William sputtered through blood-stained lips as he stared at the ceiling with a grin, ¡°I finally got you!¡± ¡°So you did! Congrattions, Wei Liang!¡± The stupidly cheery tone Li Xinyue used when she replied to William killed all the sense of aplishment he felt. Luckily, his mood was saved just in time, making him remember just why he went to such lengths tond a hit on her. [Side Quest Completed | Land a hit on Li Xinyue] [+2000 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points added] While he could only dream about the bonus he would have gotten fornding multiple hits on Li Xinyue, this wasn¡¯t so bad. Besides, he didn¡¯t think it would be this hard toplete when he epted the quest. If William knew that Li Xinyue would fight at a much higher level than the second stage of Qi Gathering, there was no chance he would have taken a quest that had a penalty of ¡®A possibility of Qi deviation.¡¯ As that fight continued without himnding a hit, William imagined the horrid RNG making aeback, disying an activation number, then ending his life because of randomness. Besides, he questioned how the system knew that would be the penalty. Qi deviations were only supposed to happen when a cultivator took a wrong path on their cultivation, or in the most extreme cases, some type of emotional reaction that quite literally changed their whole worldview. William was confident neither of those would happen if he didn¡¯tnd a hit on Li Xinyue. Thankfully, he would never have to find out. Instead, he would enjoy the level-up he had gotten from the torturous spar. ¡°You fight with recklessness.¡± He blinked to clear his eyes, staring up at Elder Huang as he looked down at him with approval. ¡°Lan Yin told me you prefer to use your fists, and now I can see why. Impressive determination, Junior Liang.¡± William would have bowed in thanks, but he was too tired to do much of anything. Ultimately, he smiled and said, ¡°Thank you, Elder Huang. Could I be moved to a bed? I don¡¯t think I can walk at the moment.¡± Elder Huang chuckled and lifted him with Qi. He brought William out of the demolished training room andmented, ¡°This might be a useful partnership you have with young Ren Bo. With your recklessness, I sense his abilities will increase in leaps and bounds.¡± ¡°¡­ I¡¯m happy for Brother Ren.¡± ¡°Elder Yu certainly knew the symbiotic rtionship you both would have,¡± Elder Huang chuckled at William¡¯s dry tone, ¡°I can sense that spar with Li Xinyue has made you stronger, though how much I can¡¯t confidently say. This will be a painful process, but you will appreciate it in the end.¡± That wasn¡¯t exactly how it worked, but William could see why Elder Huang thought getting beaten up boosted his strength. The aftermath of the two bandits, the shenanigans at The Garden with the Sky Hares, and now Li Xinyue. All ended with him badly injured, and all with him getting stronger at a surprising rate. He stifled the moan of relief when he wasid on the soft bed as Elder Huang was joined by Ren Bo. ¡°There¡¯s no time to slowly heal Wei Liang¡¯s wounds, so rid his body of the impurities,¡± Elder Huang told Ren Bo, ¡°It¡¯ll allow you to use a Vitality Pill without causing adverse effects. ¡°Yes, Elder Huang!¡± William nced at Ren Bo when Elder Huang left the room, sensing something was wrong. ¡°Bother Wei?¡± Ren Bo asked casually as he readied the needles carefully. ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°You were with Goddess Li in that room for a long time.¡± William wanted to kick the kid where it hurt. He would have dly switched ces if that had been a choice. ¡°I saw that her robes were ruffled too.¡± He sighed and closed his eyes, not caring about the pain Ren Bo would cause in his pettiness. There were far more worrisome things to think about. The biggest worry was the Clinic officially closing in two days. Apparently, this was an action often taken when someone from the Imperial Family insulted the Sect''s dignity. A token show of discontent that was acknowledged by the Empire as long as the closure wasn¡¯t permanent. It all sounded to William like a pointless petition that a leader would hem and haw at before tossing it to the side. Still, it was happening, which meant he would have to be fully prepared to leave very soon. On top of that weighing on his mind, Wang Xiaoling was still missing with half of the spirit fruits, and William doubted he would see her before it was time to leave. He flinched exaggeratedly when Ren Bo plunged in his first needle. Even if he didn''t think much about the level of pain involved with Ren Bo''s pettiness, there was no reason to make it worse by not reacting. Chapter 60: Getting Scammed Chapter 60: Getting Scammed William was sprawled on the bed, beyond sick with having to repeatedly scarf down the same spirit fruit for the second day in a row. He had been able to eat ten Lightning Berries today, but that would be it until his Impurity had reduced to afortable level. Impurity: Stage 1 (90%) 9 Days Remaining It wouldn¡¯t be aplete disaster for him to go to stage two. Still, he wanted some breathing space for an emergency Vitality Pill if necessary in the near future. After all, the time required for his body to naturally filter out the impurities at stage two would be exponentially increased. Unfortunately, he suspected that the Lightning Berries would soon stop having any sort of effect on his attributes. It was both a good and bad thing. Good in that he would be forced to eat another spirit fruit, and bad in that he would need to buy that spirit fruit since Wang Xiaoling had taken most that were high-quality to sell. Hopefully, the efficiency of Lightning Berries wouldst for at least twelve more. Stamina: 24 (20) Agility: 24 (20) + 10 That would be just enough for William to max those two attributes, but since when did something happen as he wished? He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the next Lightning Berry he ate did nothing. He stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, willing himself to move and get thest thing to do on his list over with. With a groan that sounded like he was in worse pain than when Li Xinyue was knocking him around, he got off the bed, feeling more like a normal human than he ever did since he arrived in this world. William supposed that thezy feeling after being bloated by overeating was the same no matter where. He sat cross-legged on the floor and took a few breaths until his annoyance at his bloatedness was washed away and calm returned. [+2 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Spiritual Energy: 130/130 (20% per Hour)] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 14% Attribute Reduction] His lips formed a slight smile at the alerts before it quickly dropped off when he felt Qi getting released from his dantian. It was guided through the pathways, and as it neared the lung meridian, William thought of trying to lead the Qi there. However, like it was reacting to his intentions, the bright speck in that principal meridian pulsed as if warning him not to try. He debated for the briefest moments on doing it anyway, but with the pulse increasing in intensity, he left it alone and continued to guide the Qi to his heart meridian. It was eagerly absorbed, and he could easily sense that the thin, silvery fog inside seemed slightly denser. Still, it hadn¡¯t formed the concentrated speck of Qi that the lung meridian possessed. William exhaled and opened his eyes, mood significantly lifted as he stared at his changed status screen. Spiritual Energy: 130/130 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 30 (26) Strength: 20 (17) Stamina: 24 (21) Agility: 24 (21) + 10 Luck: 30 (26) Points: 3 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 14% Attribute Reduction Plus, he was at level eighteen, so the cap of his attributes at thirty would be lifted soon enough. In fact, the thought of having another training session with Li Xinyue was bing rather attractive. However, if the possible penalty was Qi deviation again, he would do without it. As for the three remaining unused stat points, there was no need to assign them to anything. William intended on using spirit fruits to raise Stamina and Agility to the attribute cap of thirty and save the points for the next level. With everything done for today and knowing tomorrow would likely be another long day of bloodying himself, William was more than happy to recharge with a good night¡¯s rest. Even if there was no physical benefit to such a rest, it was still good for his stressed mental state. ¡°Wei Liang! Open up!¡± William almost stumbled in shock as he stood up when he heard Wang Xiaoling. He had given up the thought of meeting her again before leaving the city and had nned to see if there was any way to store the remaining spirit fruits in the Clinic without them spoiling. William almost ran through the door in his hurry, unintentionally using the new speed he was capable of. He opened it to see Wang Xiaoling looking happier than he had ever seen her before. ¡°Here you go, brat!¡± He blinked at the stack of bank notes shoved into his face before taking the offered money. With banks existing in the world, he should have assumed that there would be pieces of paper representingrge amounts of coin. Under Wang Xiaoling¡¯s strangely bright smile, William quickly counted out the stack given to him. ¡°Six thousand Gold?¡± William asked with surprise, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say all the spirit fruits were worth around eight thousand? What about your cut?¡± ¡°This is what you get for trusting the future number-one merchant! A service that far exceeds your expectations!¡± ¡°¡­ Right,¡± William drawled, dimming the bright smile on Wang Xiaoling¡¯s face. ¡°What¡¯s with that expression? Shouldn¡¯t you be thanking me?¡± ¡°¡­ Thank you.¡± She huffed and pushed him aside to enter the room, making William¡¯s eyes twitch after he checked her level. It was still at level three, and trying to use Observe and its more expensive counterpart showed the same baffling alerts. [The skill Observe is not avable on target] [Spiritual Energy insufficient for Detailed Observe on target] It was exactly as before, and thest time he tried to use Detailed Observe, his Spiritual Energy was nearly a fourth of what it currently was. There could be plenty of reasons why this could be the case, but they would all be pure spection. Though, one thing was sure. William had to make sure to stay in Wang Xiaoling¡¯s good graces. It was already something he had in the back of his mind, but it would now rule his interactions with her. ¡°You¡¯re amazing, Sister Xiaoling!¡± William gushed after he closed the door behind him, ¡°Does that mean you¡¯ll get the same amount with the other half?¡± ¡°¡­ Why¡¯re you being strange again?¡± ¡°What do you mean,¡± William asked before pointing at himself in confusion, ¡°How am I being strange?¡± Wang Xiaoling stared at him for a few seconds silently with narrowed eyes, making William think that he overdid his bootlicking. ¡°Well, it¡¯s good you know this!¡± Wang Xiaolingughed happily, ¡°I have connections that¡¯ll let me sell everything at a great price!¡± William remembered how Wang Xiaoling said she had no connections when they first met, theplete opposite of what she now imed. He supposed everything she told him was suspect, even her origins of being kicked out of her n. ¡°It¡¯s good that you returned today, Sister Xiaoling. You can take the rest of the spirit fruits before I leave the city.¡± ¡°The attendant at the Clinic told me it would close in two days. That¡¯s why I rushed here.¡± It took a moment for William to realize that she was talking about Li Xinyue. ¡°Anyway, I have a once-in-a-lifetime offer for you!¡± He was suddenly reminded of the sleazy timeshare salespeople he had encountered in the past life. ¡°I¡¯m starting an official Merchant House of the Tianxia Empire. The first step to making myself the number one trader in the world!¡± Wang Xiaoling eximed with sparkling eyes, ¡°Since you were such a great help, I¡¯m allowing you to be my only investor!¡± William wondered if this was why she didn¡¯t try to skim the profits from the sales of the spirit fruits. Still, his instincts were screaming at him to say no instantly, but he kept in mind the alerts he saw after trying to use Observe on her. ¡°Wow! How much did you need from me, Sister Xiaoling?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not much, really. I thought about the amount I¡¯m putting in and how much I¡¯ll need from you to make it work, and ites out to around ten thousand Gold.¡± William immediately knew what she was going for. If the rest of the spirit fruits sold for approximately the same amount of Gold, he would end with just over what she asked. ¡°That¡¯s a lot.¡± ¡°I know,¡± Wang Xiaoling agreed, ¡°But it¡¯ll be worth it. Besides, what do you need all that Gold for right now? If you invest it in my Merchant House, you will never have to think of money in the future!¡± William agreed with part of that. He certainly didn¡¯t need Gold for anything and doubted if he would in the future. It was Qi Stones that interested him. If Wang Xiaoling was actually telling the truth, then this might indeed be a ¡®once in a lifetime opportunity,¡¯ as she said. However, with how she couldn¡¯t help but greedily stare at the bank notes in his hands, notes that she had just handed him minutes ago, William was leaning toward this being a scam. Still, he would stay on her good side, even if it meant he would have to forget about the original intentions with this Gold. The workers at The Garden who encountered a disaster in the form of Lan Yin wouldn¡¯t be forgotten. In fact, William promised himself that he would see to it that they would be given even more riches than the Gold he had to give to Wang Xiaoling instead. They were currently safe in The Garden as long as they hadn¡¯t broken the rules of that ce. However, he still needed to gain some sort of influence in the world he was still unfamiliar with. Even if that influence came in the form of the strange and suspicious Wang Xiaoling. ¡°Alright, Sister Xiaoling,¡± William agreed with a smile, ¡°Could you take the rest of the Gold you need from the spirit fruits that haven¡¯t been sold yet?¡± ¡°That was the n!¡± Wang Xiaoling¡¯s smile was so broad that her eyes were partially closed, ¡°They should sell enough to give you around five thousand Gold, so you can give me five right now, and that will be enough.¡± A few minutester, William stood alone in his room, holding a thousand Gold in banknotes, feeling like an idiot. ¡°Well, at least I got something from the spirit fruits,¡± William muttered as he stared at the notes before his eyes grew wide. He ran out of the room, almost cracking the door at the force it swung open, and chased Wang Xiaoling. He had forgotten about the side quest that needed a payment from her to be consideredplete. Chapter 61: New Trainer Chapter 61: New Trainer ¡°Why was it that Lan Yang couldn¡¯te?¡± ¡°Something about a shipping route under threat,¡± Li Xinyue replied as she stared at the array in boredom. William wanted to ask more about these shipping routes that were casually mentioned, but she seemed to be in a horrible mood for some reason. Perhaps the reality of leaving the city where her n lived was finally hitting her. Whatever it was, he didn¡¯t want to exacerbate it since he wanted to get in another sparring session before they had to separate tomorrow. Especially since he was so close to reaching the second level of Qi Gathering. He let Li Xinyue be and joined her in staring at the array. An Inner Disciple was supposed to arrive to rece the busy Lan Yang, though he wasn¡¯t sure why. It wasn¡¯t needed since they would be moving out of the city. There was a wishful hope that he would have protection on the mission, but William remembered Elder Yu¡¯s words. She made it beyond clear that he and Ren Bo would be alone, and she didn¡¯t seem to be one that would lie. William exhaled softly and looked back at the alerts he got yesterday night after Wang Xiaoling reluctantly gave him two Silver as payment for helping her in the market. [Side Quest Completed | Help Wang Xiaoling sell spirit fruits: +25 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Sell 50 Gold worth of spirit fruits: +50 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Gain Insight into Dao while selling spirit fruit: +4000 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] He remembered how that second-tostst alert had made him wander back to his room with a lost look. It seemed like a gift that fell on his head¡­ again, but after thinking about it for some time, he decided it was well deserved. After all, that insight he had gained in the Dao of Perception had nearly made his soul unravel, enough for it to require an intervention by an expert in the Dao Seeking Realm. Plus, it also made William wonder what that alert meant. If it was taken at face value, it could be understood as his insight having never left his mind¡­ or was it his soul? It was likely thetter since Daoist Chen had to seal it away because of his weak soul. However, that was beside the point. The important thing was that the insight William had gained would likely be avable to him whenever that block Daoist Chen put on his soul faded away. It should be something that excited him, and it truly did, but the experience points he had gained because of this outshined it. Maybe it was because William didn¡¯t understand what it truly meant to have insight into Dao, which was true, or perhaps it was because he was bing a numbers fanatic with the system being a constantpanion, which was also true. Still, he didn¡¯t think it was a problem at the moment. William pulled up the cultivation submenu to prove it to himself. Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Cultivation Technique: Horizon¡¯s Seeker Martial Skills (3) Max Level: 19 Max Attribute: 30 Impurity: Stage 1 (80%) 8 Days Remaining Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 20 2. Eligible for Level 20 Those limits wouldn¡¯t be holding him back for much longer. Level: 19 Experience: 1932/2375 ¡°Looks like someone ising.¡± William looked away from the beautiful numbers bringing his mood up to see the array filled with a mist of silvery Qi. It would be his first time seeing someone arrive through the array. A familiar figure stood in the center of the array in less time than it took to blink his eyes. However, that wasn¡¯t what William was focused on. He wasn¡¯t sure if his eyesight had been tricked by the bright sh that apanied the teleportation, but he thought he had seen the space rip apart, revealing an inky void that almost reminded him of the ce Daoist Chen saved him from. William shuddered in fear before he forced himself to pay attention to the present. Li Xinyue was already greeting the disciple who had arrived. ¡°And it¡¯s the little brother from before! Senior Sister Lan told me that you were epted! Congrattions!¡± ¡°Thank you, Senior Brother Qin,¡± William bowed his head in thanks. He was the only one that called Lan Yin ''Senior Sister,'' so with Qin Yu referring to her as the same, William assumed that the older boy was also on the Sentinel path. He nced at Qin Yu¡¯s sleeve and saw that the second circle was almost filled to the brim but not quite to the level of Lan Yin¡¯s, meaning he was in theter stages of Foundation Establishment. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Junior Brother!¡± Qin Yu sped William¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Even though Senior Brother Lan couldn¡¯te, I¡¯ll whip you into shape in no time!¡± ¡°Li Xinyue, when is the consummate time that you will have to leave the city tomorrow?¡± William had to resist burying his face in his hands. He had forgotten that Qin Yu had the odd quirk of switching a word with somethingpletely different. From the affronted look on Li Xinyue¡¯s face, she seemed unaware of it. ¡°Senior Brother Qin, I think you meant approximate time, right?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I said,¡± Qin Yu replied with a confused look before asking Li Xinyue, ¡°So? When is it?¡± ¡°¡­ There¡¯s no set time, Senior Qin. Master told me we could leave as early orte as necessary.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Qin Yu beamed, ¡°Then I will take Junior Brother to the city outskirts so he can practice with those.¡± William and Li Xinyue¡¯s eyes followed where Qin Yu was pointing and stared at the leather boots on his feet. ¡°They are rather ugly if I say so myself, but they were free from what Senior Sister Lan mentioned,¡± Qin Yumented with a shrug. William did a double take when he saw Li Xinyue nodding in agreement beside him. When she saw him looking at her, she replied with an eerily simr shrug he just saw from Qin Yu. ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s head out right now!¡± Qin Yu said with a clenched fist, as if about to do something courageous, ¡°Li Xinyue, why don¡¯t youe with us? After what I¡¯ll put Junior Brother through the next few days, we''ll need healing.¡± ¡°I... can¡¯t,¡± Li Xinyue struggled to continue till her eyes lit up, ¡°Elder Yu sent a junior from the Sect to act as Wei Liang¡¯s healer. I¡¯ll go get him!¡± William mentally congratted Li Xinyue for knocking out two things at once. She wouldn¡¯t have to be away from her books to help heal him, and on top of that, she got rid of the annoyance that was Ren Bo. At the very least, William was happy that Ren Bo would return to a normal, albeit highly talented, healer without Li Xinyue¡¯s presence around him. That would mean mostly pain-free, and annoyance-free healing for the next few days. As for knowing that Qin Yu intended to train him hard enough that it would require a healer on standby? William weed it. Call him a masochist, but whatever would get him to the next level would be desired. ¡°So that was Li Xinyue¡­ much younger than I had thought.¡± ¡°Ah, I suppose she is, Senior Brother.¡± ¡°I can see why you have your eyes on her. She is enormous!¡± William should have immediately denied that he was interested in that sort of thing with anyone, let alone Li Xinyue, but he was stuck wondering what word Qin Yu meant to say. It took him a good few seconds before hended on a reasonable guess. ¡°She is gorgeous?¡± William asked slowly. ¡°Do you not think so?¡± Qin Yu asked with furrowed brows, ¡°I suppose you are still too young to really know things. Just wait a few more years, Junior Brother.¡± William nodded while mentally rolling his eyes. If that was the word Qin Yu used to describe gorgeous women, he doubted the guy would ever have a partner in this life. Especially since most female cultivators seemed to be vain enough to make an effort to keep a youthful appearance. ¡°Though, I have to say I¡¯m a little disappointed. I have always heard Li Xinyue was a genius, but she seemed to have trouble understanding me.¡± William coughed to hide theugh that escaped him. He supposed that was one way to look at it. Chapter 62: Learning How to Attack Chapter 62: Learning How to Attack ¡°Junior Brother, your striking power is terrible. With your mastery over the skills, it should be enough to seriously injure a Qi Gathering cultivator at the peak of the fifth level. However, I sense that you are only capable of doing so to someone at the third level, but no higher.¡± William supposed that was something positive, which had been missing in the past seven hours he had been made to throw his attacks at Qin Yu. After all, it was like throwing punches at a pillow. Anything he tried was effortlessly negated by Qin Yu, which made sense considering the gaps in their realms. ¡°The other martial skills in the Outer Court¡¯s Library seemed even worse. Either they¡¯re notpatible with me, or it doesn¡¯t fit my cultivation technique.¡± ¡°I suppose it might be either of them,¡± Qin Yu mumbled as he stared at William, as if that would unlock the mystery, ¡°Senior Sister did mention this to me, but it was hard to believe. The three skills you picked are things even the talentless arepatible with. After all, they are the most basic skills in the Sect.¡± William already had a hunch that was the case when Lan Yin seemed ufortable with his refusal to pick more martial skills. Honestly, he wished he did. If the weak skills he had selected had this much power, even though thepatibility wasughable, it might have been worth trying to learn the shier ones he hade across at the Library. ¡°Maybe you¡¯ll have better luck with the Inner Court¡¯s Library, but your chance to visit is too far in the future to matter. However, all is not lost! The more you be familiar with martial skills, the more likely you will know how to modify them to suit your needs.¡± ¡°Really?¡± William finally felt his mood rise, ¡°When do you think I can do that?¡± ¡°Who knows,¡± Qin Yu shrugged, ¡°Maybe in a few days, maybe never. It depends on how well you condescend the martial skill.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William''s mind quickly reced ''condescend'' with the correct word,prehend. It was almost bing second nature at this point. ¡°Is there a way I can speed that up?¡± ¡°You¡¯re already doing it. Why did you think I was making you constantly use your martial skills? Did you not notice how it has be almost effortless for you to use?¡± That fact was hard not to notice. William¡¯s goal of wanting to use Qi-infused attacks without pausing for preparation had been surpassed by a ridiculous margin. The Qi-infused kicks, palms, and stomps had be almost instantaneous, to a point where he didn¡¯t need to actively guide his Qi to the required area on his body for an attack. It moved where it needed to be as if it was a natural action. ¡°Is that why we haven¡¯t focused on the boots?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the point of using external objects if you haven¡¯t mastered what coulde from within your body? Speaking of which, you should have recovered enough to start practice on the Impact Boots, yes?¡± Spiritual Energy: 110/130 (20% per Hour) ¡°Almost,¡± William nodded, ¡°Just under an hour until I¡¯m fully recovered.¡± ¡°Hmm, get Ren Bo to help you again. There¡¯s no time to wait if we want to ensure you know how to use those boots correctly.¡± William grimaced as he nced to where Ren Bo was enjoying himself. They might be in the middle of nowhere, to the point it took nearly an hour of William sprinting at full speed to keep up with Qin Yu¡¯s pace, but that didn¡¯t mean Ren Bo didn¡¯t have hisforts. The boy had practically set up a luxurious retreat that he pulled out of his storage pouch, which had simr, yet worse, capabilities of a spatial ring. That wasn¡¯t the only negative point of storage pouches since they were well known to have limited lifespans and, worse than that, could sometimes destroy what was stored inside. Still, William would have loved to have one as his own, but it cost over ten Spirit Stones in the Sect catalog. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes, Senior Brother.¡± William covered the distance between their training spot and Ren Bo¡¯s retreat in a few seconds, a stupid grin forming on his lips at how fast he could move. ¡°Brother Ren, I need your help again.¡± Ren Bo was reclining on a bed that looked better than what he slept on in The Golden Lotus. William supposed that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise since he wasparing a bed for mortals versus one made for cultivators. He had nced at the prices of what Ren Bo casually pulled out of the storage pouch and wondered if he would also have that kind of wealth soon. Perhaps when Lan Yin said the Jade Healing Sect was wealthy, she also meant the disciples within the Sect, no matter how low the realm. ¡°Spiritual energy or your stamina?¡± Ren Bo asked absently while focusing on the book he held over his face. ¡°The former.¡± Ren Bo sighed and put the book on the bed while reaching for the needles. ¡°Third time already, not including when I helped you recover stamina.¡± William shrugged, not being able to do much about it. It wasn¡¯t his fault Qin Yu had made him sprint at max speed to get here. And that he seemed to be insistent on working him to the bone. ¡°It doesn¡¯t take you long to help anyway,¡± Williammented as hey on the bed after Ren Bo moved off it. ¡°It doesn¡¯t, but you keep interrupting my reading.¡± William felt like all the tension in his body was wiped away when Ren Bo expertly ced the needles around his body. He would never say it out loud, but he looked forward to these brief rxation sessions between the constant training. Ren Bo again showed why the Sect valued him with how easily he encouraged William¡¯s Qi to somehow circte faster to promote faster recovery of Spiritual Energy. Without any women around, it was apparent why Ren Bo was so skilled. Not only was he supremely talented, but he was also a diligent studier, though he seemed to want to be in ridiculous luxury while doing so. Not that William wasining. After all, they would be traveling together on the mission, and he had hopes that this luxury would be shared. ¡°Done,¡± Ren Bo dered as he quickly removed the needles around ten minutester, ¡°Try not toe back so soon, Brother Wei.¡± William nced at his full Spiritual Energy and grunted in agreement as he got off the bed. A few secondster, he was back next to Qin Yu, who was tapping one of the few trees that existed in these vast grassy fields. ¡°So, Elder Huang told me how you used those boots in the spar with Li Xinyue,¡± Qin Yu patted the tree, seemingly satisfied with something, ¡°It is surprising you didn¡¯t end up with broken legs. Before we head back, let¡¯s make sure you won¡¯t do something so stupid again.¡± ¡°Er, alright¡­ so what am I going to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve used something like Impact Boots before, and it¡¯s generally rmended that you be in theter levels of the Qi Gathering Realm before using them,¡± Qin Yuughed at the resigned expression that appeared on William¡¯s face before giving him hope, ¡°But there is a way around it, though it is a pain to learn at the start. Use your Qi to reinforce your body to handle the strain.¡± That sounded simple enough, but William had never used his Qi for two things simultaneously. ¡°Ren Bo!¡± Qin Yu yelled at the top of his lungs, ¡°Get over here!¡± And that definitely wasn''t a good sign that William would need his healer so close by. ¡°Alright, Junior Brother, everything is set,¡± Qin Yu patted the tree again, ¡°This tree is conveniently as sturdy as the average cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Gathering. When youbine the use of the Impact Boots and one of your martial skills, it will easily destroy this tree. Only if you do it perfectly, of course.¡± William waited for Qin Yu to continue, but the guy simply stayed next to the tree and patted it while smiling at him. ¡°What will happen if I don¡¯t do it perfectly?¡± ¡°Well,¡± Qin Yu pointed at a grumpy Ren Bo, ¡°He will have to spend the next hour fixing your broken body before you can try again. Crashing against this tree isn¡¯t rmended, Junior Brother. However, I have found pain to be the best posttor!¡± Sometimes William thought Qin Yu was saying the wrong words just to annoy him. He had gone for quite a while before switching motivator with posttor. However, Qin Yu would be surprised if he thought that pain would be something that discouraged him. ¡°Then let¡¯s start immediately, Senior Brother.¡± Chapter 63: Not As Helpless, Again Chapter 63: Not As Helpless, Again [-50 HP] ¡°Fuck!¡± William cursed loudly as he failed for the third time, but it was more in surprise than the pain of having his fingers broken. He really thought he had the process down after testing it beforehand. ¡°You have quite a crass mouth, Junior Brother. Were you one of those pitiful street urchins that wander mortal cities?¡± William ignored Qin Yu and hopped gingerly on his foot before realizing it was just a phantom pain from when he sprained it during his second attempt. He sheepishly walked to an increasingly irritated Ren Bo and showed him the mangled fingers, looking inward at his Qi while the fingers were set back in ce correctly. He had been able to use the Impact Boots without feeling like he was destroying his own body from the sheer speed that it allowed him to ess. However, the issue now was using martial skills. William was annoyed at himself that something he had done in the heat of battle with Li Xinyue was now impossible for some iprehensible reason. [+50 HP] ¡°Thank you, Brother Ren,¡± William said gratefully, getting a grunt in return. He counted that as a win since it looked like Ren Bo wanted to cause more damage to him instead. ¡°You almost have it, Junior Brother. Why not give it a try again?¡± ¡°Try again? Is there no other advice you can give me?¡± William asked as he turned toward Qin Yu. To be fair, the guy did help significantly with the basics at the start, but since then, the only thing said was, ''Try again.'' It wasn¡¯t what William wanted to hear after he had practically snapped his leg in two when he tried to kick the tree the first time. He had been too confident with his sess when he had easily activated the boots without all the detriments. William''s speed when he attacked the tree with his right foot caused a catastrophe. Even though he was almost desensitized to pain at this point, the bone that stuck out of his thigh almost made him faint in shock purely at the gruesome sight. Luckily, Ren Bo was around to fix him up in less than thirty minutes. The second try involved no broken bones, but there were plenty of muscle tears and a sprained ankle. As for the third try, the fingers had just been fixed. ¡°What else did you expect?¡± Qin Yu shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s not like I can control your Qi for you. The only thing that can help you now is repetition.¡± William grumbled as he moved to stand around five meters away from the tree, which was still in pristine condition. He remembered the tree he punched in the forbidden area of The Garden and how that formed an imprint of his fist in the tree when he was a mere mortal. What did this tree feed on to be so much stronger? It was in the middle of nowhere, making it all the more unbelievable. He supposed it didn¡¯t matter since he would murder it to bits. He got into the horse stance, or some variation of it since he didn¡¯t exactly know what a horse stance was exactly, and took a slow breath. William had no idea what he was doing wrong, but Qin Yu repeatedly telling him to try again with no other suggestions surely meant he was on the right track. In all fairness, every try did end in less severe injuries to himself. When William started to exhale, he pushed off the ground and activated the boots. His Qi was spread evenly throughout his body, with just enough concentrated at his feet to keep the Impact Boots active as he rocketed toward the tree. A crater was left behind on the ground as William suddenly found himself inches from the tree. Thankfully, the past three failures helped. He had to keep the Qi evenly spread while concentrating enough at his feet for the boots, and now, a third point needed some concentrated Qi. William grunted as his palm made contact with the tree¡¯s trunk, half expecting to break another bone. Instead, he heard the delightful sound of thunder exploding out of his hand, shockwaves rippling into the trunk and instantly turning it into mulch. He had a wide grin as splinters exploded out the opposite side of the trunk, and the tree started to wobble unsteadily. ¡°Finally! I thought we¡¯d have to wait here forever!¡± William ignored Ren Bo¡¯s happy shouts and jumped away, this time without wasting Spiritual Energy on the boots. ¡°Not bad, Junior Brother,¡± Qin Yu said with approval as the tree finally crashed to the ground with a crash almost as loud as the thunder emitted from William¡¯s attack, ¡°Let me see you do that a few more times, and we can call this a sess.¡± Spiritual Energy: 56/130 (20% per Hour) William nced at the amount of Spiritual Energy he had remaining and nodded. Each attack,bined with the Impact Boots, would take twenty-five Spiritual Energy. He had just enough for two more. ¡°I want you to try different distances. One close and one furtherpared to where you stood from that tree. And I will be your target. Let¡¯s start!¡± ¡°Ah, you won¡¯t try to attack me, will you?¡± ¡°Attack you?¡± Qin Yu repeated with augh, ¡°I would rather not kill you by sacrament.¡± This time, William couldn¡¯t understand which word Qin Yu meant to use. ¡°Sacrament?¡± ¡°You know, by mistake. Junior Brother, don¡¯t stoop to the level of the others. You¡¯re one of the few people intelligent enough to understand me.¡± ident, that was the word Qin Yu meant to use. William sighed and said, ¡°So distance. Where should I start first, Senior Brother?¡± ¡°Whichever you want.¡± Then further it was. William figured he would have an easier time with it since he would have even more time to focus his Qi, though that extra time could be measured in fractions of a second. He got in the same stance before repeating the same actions he had made against the tree. There was the briefest moment of uncertainty since this was an actual person he was attacking instead of a random tree. However, it was quickly erased from his mind. Qin Yu was a Foundation Establishment cultivator. This wouldn¡¯t even tickle him. William¡¯s foot connected with Qin Yu¡¯s outstretched forearm. The following p of thunder and ripples that shredded the tree trunk did nothing other than make Qin Yu¡¯s robes flutter slightly. ¡°Excellent! Though, I suggest you leap higher to stomp on your target from above if they are significantly stronger than you. The chance of you dying is still high, but you will at least leave a scratch as evidence of your existence.¡± William grunted when hended heavily on his feet and sarcastically said, ¡°Thank you for the advice, Senior Brother.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only what I should do,¡± Qin Yu replied brightly, ¡°Now, the next attack!¡± This one he was more nervous about. Using the Impact Boots at this range was nonsensical, but perhaps a sudden burst of quickness would be enough to let him catch a stronger cultivator by surprise. William propelled off the ground again with confidence, causing a depression to appear less than a meter away from Qin Yu, and thrust his palm at him fiercely. [-50 HP] ¡°Gah!¡± William yelled when the bones in his hand broke in multiple ces. He dropped to the ground at Qin Yu¡¯s feet and grimaced before quickly pushing the pain back to see his so-called Senior Brother chortling happily. ¡°You¡¯re a funny one, Junior Brother! I can¡¯t believe you just tried that!¡± William used his unbroken hand to push himself back to his feet and re at Qin Yu. ¡°I did it because you told me to!¡± ¡°So? Those boots aren¡¯t meant to be used at such close range. Let it be a lesson so you won¡¯t make such a ridiculous mistake in a real fight. On the bright side, you didn¡¯t break your arm like I expected.¡± ¡°Great,¡± William grimaced, ¡°Are we done?¡± Ren Bo was already beside him, quickly working to heal the hand, likely so they could leave the ce and head back to the Clinic. ¡°We are,¡± Qin Yu nodded, smiling, ¡°You¡¯re a fast learner, Junior Brother.¡± William murmured a quiet thanks for hispliment and for the fact that they would be returning. He didn¡¯t mind experiencing pain, but even he had a point where enough was enough. Qin Yu¡¯s training style seemed to be based on the belief that pain was the best motivator to seed, and William couldn¡¯t disagree due to how quickly he had gotten used to the Qi-attacks. Still, he wanted a nice bed to sleep off the mental exhaustion instead of dealing with more suffering. [+50 HP] After Ren Bo quickly packed his makeshift luxury hotel room, they ran back to Xuanjing City at full speed. Overall, it was a good day, but William was disappointed that he didn¡¯t receive any side quest for the training session as he did for the spar with Li Xinyue. There was a chance it might have been lumped into the side quest for visiting the Clinic, so some hope remained for the sweet, sweet experience points. Chapter 64: Nothing Was Lost Chapter 64: Nothing Was Lost William watched Wang Xiaoling gleefully order her newly hired helpers to load a wagon with spirit fruits. He wanted to question if she was doing the right thing since the efficiency of the fruits would decay if not transported correctly, but he ended up deciding not to bother since she had already been sessful with the first batch. Besides, William found that he didn¡¯t really care all too much. Wang Xiaoling had made him hand over his share in the profits for an ¡®investment,¡¯ so it was highly likely that he would see none of the Gold from the sale. He felt his stomach turn when the Blood Oranges were carried out, remembering the seven he had eatenst night before the impurity in his body had risen enough to make him stop. Impurity: Stage 1 (95%) 9 Days Remaining After William had returned to the cityte yesterday evening, he had gone straight to The Golden Lotus, intending to copse on the bed and sleep until it was a requirement to be at the Clinic. Fortunately, when he saw the remaining spirit fruits in his room, a rather obvious realization appeared in his mind. The spirit fruits currently giving him attribute points would likely be worthless after his cultivation reached the second level of Qi Gathering. After all, the same spirit fruits he was currently consuming had given him double the benefits when he was a mortal. It was expected that it would get drastically worse when he reached the next level. Not receiving experience points for the training session with Qin Yu turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Spirit: 30 (26) Strength: 27 (23) Stamina: 24 (21) Agility: 24 (21) + 10 Luck: 30 (26) Points: 8 William thought it was a shame that he couldn''t max all his attributes before leveling up, but he wasn¡¯t willing to postpone that to wait for a perfect time. Not when reaching the second level of Qi Gathering would get him a step closer to the point when his soul would be perfected. Attributes were important, but his peace of mind was even more so. ¡°Wei Liang! Why are you holding onto those? Put it with the rest!¡± ¡°These are the spirit fruits I picked for myself, Sister Xiaoling.¡± ¡°For you?¡± Wang Xiaoling frowned as she stormed to him and searched his basket, ¡°Are you going to pay me for these? Do you know how much Gold I can get for them?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t pay,¡± William replied tly, ¡°I suppose I could take back the second batch and sell them myself since I don¡¯t have enough money.¡± Wang Xiaoling burst out with fakeughter as she quickly returned to the filled wagon. The workers she had hired had just finished loading it with the spirit fruits, so she jumped on and pulled the horse''s reins. ¡°Consider those a gift from me. Goodbye, brat!¡± William was reminded of the cartoon thieves he remembered watching as a kid. It was likely that the next time he saw Wang Xiaoling, she would have unfortunately failed in her ambition to form a Merchant House. He shook his head and walked into the Clinic, the calm inside sharply contrasting the almost market-like feel outside its door. Then again, that might have just been because of Wang Xiaoling being herself. However, the reason for the calm inside the Clinic was worse than that, and it was because of a woman he didn¡¯t expect to meet again, at least, not this soon. ¡°Little Brother Wei!¡± William stared at Mei Lingxi¡¯s distracting presence for a few seconds before looking at Qin Yu standing beside her. It was strange, feeling jealousy rise within him while also being amused that the jealousy existed in the first ce. It showed a true disconnect between his emotions and his logical thinking. ¡°Sister Lingxi,¡± William greeted with a wary smile, ¡°Did youe to see us off?¡± ¡°Of course! I couldn¡¯t let you leave without seeing your adorable face again!¡± William was proud that his smile didn¡¯t falter when Qin Yu started tough silently. ¡°¡­ That¡¯s great. I¡¯m sorry you got into trouble for helping me, Sister Lingxi.¡± William figured that would be what a clueless kid who had a crush on the older girl would say. While the people around him could easily read his emotions, one thing he was sure of was that they all thought he was an actual thirteen-year-old. If Daoist Chen thought so, he would expect everyone else to also be fooled. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t me you, Little Brother,¡± Mei Lingxi opened a box that he just realized she was holding, ¡°In fact, I wanted to give you a parting gift.¡± William¡¯s breath hitched when he saw a familiar glove carefully pulled out. ¡°I know you liked this greatly, so my Prince insisted that I gift the Elemental Gauntlet to you,¡± Mei Lingxi moved close, ¡°You still have a third pick to make, soe by the Treasure Pce the next time you¡¯re in the city. I¡¯ll be the one to show you around again.¡± With a ruffle of his hair, Mei Lingxi ced the box in William¡¯s hands and casually strolled out of the Clinic, leaving him to stare after her in shock. This had to be the most tant lure to return to the Treasure Pavilion that could have possibly been given. ¡°Senior Sister Lan mentioned that she feared you were obsessed with mortal Gold. However, I think you might have an even more dangerous obsession, Junior Brother.¡± William looked away from the box to give Qin Yu an unamused stare. ¡°Where are Sister Li and Elder Huang?¡± ¡°They¡¯re storing thest few items in the back before leaving,¡± Qin Yu replied, ¡°And Ren Bo is helping.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± William nodded before asking, ¡°Was there anything else she said to you?¡± ¡°You mean your Sister Lingxi?¡± Qin Yu teased before bing more serious, ¡°You can ept that gift, but I¡¯m sure you know what not to do?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± William nodded, never having intended to visit the Treasure Pce. ¡°Good, then that¡¯s all that matters. Beauty leads to disaster, Junior Brother, and it shouldn¡¯t be the most important thing to look at in a Dao Partner.¡± ¡°Ah, right,¡± William replied awkwardly, ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to remember that.¡± ¡°What am I saying,¡± Qin Yu chuckled, ¡°Telling a kid about Dao Partners. Anyway, Elder Yu gave me something to pass on to you if you performed beyond my expectations yesterday.¡± William blinked when he was offered a thin chain with a pendant made out of a pitch-ck stone hanging off it. ¡°Besides, I can¡¯t allow someone outside the Sect to give you something like that without outdoing it, could I? I would be ashamed to call myself your Senior Brother.¡± His first thought was that he was being given something simr to a spatial ring simply by looking at the stone, which he immediately pushed away since Elder Yu would have known that it would just put a target on his back. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Put it on and find out for yourself.¡± William took the ne from Qin Yu¡¯s hands and slipped it around his neck, shivering slightly when the cool stone touched his skin. With how all the spirit artifacts worked so far, he used his Qi to try and activate it, expecting the system to start calcting the cost of use. Instead, his Qi allowed him to sense a small space in the ck stone, around a quarter the size of the side room where the spirit fruits had been stored. ¡°What is this?!¡± William gasped in shock. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? It¡¯s a ne with a spatial stone. Elder Yu has made it undetectable to any cultivator below the Spirit Severing Realm. That way, you won¡¯t have to worry about a poor Nascent Soul cultivator getting greedy thoughts.¡± After losing his chance in the Treasure Pavilion, William had thought it would be quite some time before he would have such an opportunity again. He never thought that simply impressing Qin Yu would be enough to get him an item simr to a spatial ring. That brought another question to his mind. Why did Qin Yu hand it over with such little hesitation? ¡°Why are you looking at me so suspiciously?¡± ¡°Nothing, Senior Brother. Do you know how I can use this?¡± ¡°Ah, it¡¯s simple!¡± Qin Yu took the box Mei Lingxi ced in William¡¯s hands before making it disappear, ¡°Wrap your Qi around what you want to be stored inside the space. And when you want to take it out, do the same.¡± William blinked in surprise when the box was returned to him. He followed Qin Yu''s instructions, easily pulling the box and the spirit fruits he was carrying in his basket into the spatial stone. ¡°How did you do that?¡± William wondered out loud. Qin Yu pulled on the ne hidden under his robes and revealed a simr pendant. ¡°Did you think you were the only one that had one?¡± William knew it should have been expected with how casual Qin Yu was with the spirit stone. Especially with the disappearing act that he was able to do, but still, it was hard to reconcile something supposedly rare in the hands of low-level cultivators. ¡°Does everyone in the Sect have them?¡± William immediately remembered that Ren Bo didn¡¯t, answering his own question. ¡°Just the disciples that Elder Yu values,¡± Qin Yu corrected, ¡°Anyway, keep this a secret. Even from other disciples of the Sect.¡± ¡°Yes, Senior Brother.¡± ¡°Good! Go say your farewell to Li Xinyue. It could be some time before you can see her again.¡± Chapter 65: Ren Bo Is an Idiot Chapter 65: Ren Bo Is an Idiot Plenty of things made little sense to William at the moment. He wasn¡¯t thinking about the multiple people that came to the doors at thest minute only to be turned away. Apparently, refusing service for the nobles in the city was also a tradition when closing a branch. Purely to incite displeasure against the ruling Prince and his family, which Prince Yuan was a part of. He wasn¡¯t even thinking about why he hadn¡¯t received the repeatable side quest reward for visiting the Jade Healing Clinic, which was still listed as active in the system though the Clinic had closed for the foreseeable future. No, William was thinking about how Elder Yu and Lan Yin made a big deal of staying away from the Treasure Pce but left him and Ren Bo alone in the city. He wasn¡¯t worried that he would suddenly lose his mind and rush off to see Mei Lingxi, but wouldn¡¯t it be easy for the Prince to force a small cultivator like him to do his bidding? William had thought that was why Lan Yin escorted him to the Qi Refining rooms after the ordeal at the Treasure Pce. Apparently, he was wrong with that assumption. On top of that, there was now something around his neck that a Nascent Soul realm cultivator would desire. Just another worry that William had to consider. ¡°You look constipated. Don¡¯t ask me to fix that for you, Brother Wei.¡± William shot Ren Bo an annoyed nce before saying, ¡°I¡¯m not. So where is this Xiao Yuan Vige?¡± ¡°¡­ Did you not look at a map of the Empire?¡± ¡°You saw what I was doing every day. I barely had enough time to eat!¡± William defended himself, even though it was mostly because he hadpletely forgotten about it. ¡°Goddess Lan would be very disappointed, Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo tutted, ¡°It¡¯s not that far from the city. If we exhaust ourselves, it should take around a day to reach the vige. Of course, that would be silly, so let¡¯s say around three days.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William nodded, ¡°Not too bad. So, are we going to hire a carriage? Maybe join a caravan that¡¯s going in the same direction?¡± When Ren Bo looked at him like he was an idiot, William went back over his words and wondered what he said that deserved that reaction. ¡°Why would you want to waste so much time? It¡¯ll take nearly a month of mind-numbing travel with either of your options! Did you secretly want to be a mercenary, Brother Wei?¡± ¡°Then how are we going to get there?¡± William was honestly just thinking of themon methods he remembered reading about in novels. Something he should remember never to mention again after he heard what Ren Bo said. ¡°My Spirit Boat, obviously,¡± Ren Bo still had that incredulous look on his face, though the same now appeared on William¡¯s. One of the first things he had looked up in the catalog was the cost of buying a spirit boat from the Sect. After seeing the price in the four figures¡­ in Spirit Stones, he immediately mmed the booklet shut. William already knew that Ren Bo was valuable to the Sect, but he didn¡¯t think it was at this level. At the very least, the mystery of why everyone casually left them alone in the city was exined. There must be a secret protector following Ren Bo, even though that directly contradicted what Elder Yu ordered. Perhaps that was only for show so they think the mission was truly dangerous. ¡°Then I suppose we should get going, Brother Ren.¡± ¡°Are you sure? I don¡¯t mind if you want to stare at the Clinic for a bit more. I can still smell Goddess Li¡¯s flowery scent in the air.¡± William shuddered in disgust and stepped away from Ren Bo, briefly forgetting how creepy the kid could get. It was a caricature-like perversion that really shouldn¡¯t exist in real people. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± William crushed Ren Bo¡¯s fantasies when he pointed behind them, ¡°I think you¡¯re smelling the flowers thatdy is selling over there.¡± ¡°¡­ Fine, let¡¯s go, Brother Wei. There¡¯s no time to waste.¡± William followed him while chuckling asionally at Ren Bo¡¯s frustration. The walk to the exit was a trip down memoryne since he hadn¡¯t visited these parts of the city since he arrived in this world. He had either gone deeper toward the center or used the array to leave the city entirely. ¡°So many people¡­¡± ¡°And?¡± William asked as he leisurely followed the flow of people heading to the gate, ¡°What about the people?¡± ¡°Too many, Brother Wei. It feels like everything is packed as tight as possible.¡± William could understand that point of view since the Sect grounds were beyond spacious, but this was nothingpared to the concrete jungles he knew of. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure howrge the city was, but he knew enough that mortal inhabitants from one end would never see the opposite in their lives. Not that they wouldn¡¯t want to, but navigating the winding roads would take well over a few weeks, which they simply couldn''t afford. He was thankful that almost everything cultivators needed was within the same section of the city, so there was no need to deal with the same issues. After all, even if he was a cultivator, it wasn¡¯t like he could fly above the city to reach his destination faster. Even he was limited by the slowness of the mortals. William chuckled at Ren Bo¡¯s reaction when it seemed like the mortals became even more numerous. He looked around and vaguely remembered how the buildings appeared less ornate the closer to the grand archway. He supposed it was an area with people who had less wealth, so it made sense when the number of mortals increased. ¡°Brother Wei, look! There are goddesses even among mortals!¡± He flinched in surprise when Ren Bo grabbed his shoulder and roughly shook him while tantly pointing at a girl uninterestedly looking out her pnquin. When the girl seemed to look at them, almost as if in response to Ren Bo¡¯s excited yell, William activated his system¡¯s feature. No mortal would be able to hear that. [Name: Princess Jin | Level: 34] William cursed softly and grabbed Ren Bo¡¯s arm before pulling him toward the gate at a faster pace. ¡°Let go of me!¡± Ren Bo yelled while struggling, but William was happy to see that he couldn¡¯t get free. At least that meant he was stronger than someone for once. He reminded himself to use Observe to get urate stats on Ren Bo. ¡°That girl is a princess, Brother Ren,¡± William whispered as he tried to weave through the crowd without seeming like he was in a rush, ¡°Don¡¯t bring trouble on us just when we are about to leave.¡± ¡°Princess?¡± Ren Bo repeated with a dumb smile, ¡°No wonder she¡¯s a goddess. Let me talk to her, Brother Wei! She is the one for me!¡± William¡¯s eye twitched as he resisted the urge to knock the kid out. He could barely keep his cool as he imagined being discovered by the Imperial Family and disappearing under unfortunate circumstances. In his panic, he had forgotten that he was a trash talent, with only the system letting him appear as a genius. ¡°Your Goddess Lan told me to avoid them. Do you want to do something she advised against?¡± William thought it worked when Ren Bo silently let himself be dragged toward the quickly nearing archway. Until it suddenly changed. ¡°No! Goddess Lan must be mistaken. The Goddess Princess must be tr-¡± Ren Bo tried to scratch at William¡¯s hand covering his mouth, but it was ineffective due to him being too weak. Once again, William reveled at finally being stronger than someone. However, the looks they were getting from those around them significantly diminished that feeling. ¡°It¡¯s alright!¡± William shouted to the mortals pointing at him, ¡°My friend is a cultivator, you see. And he has these outbursts once in a while due to his cultivation.¡± That didn¡¯t work at all, but since they were close to the gates, he didn¡¯t really care. William didn¡¯t know Ren Bo was this much of a liability. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he was just a kid and that he had healed him numerous times, no matter how questionable it was, William would have left Ren Bo behind to deal with this mess himself. He was thinking about doing that anyway if he was honest with himself. The damned pnquin was slowly moving after them, and it sounded like someone called them to stop. William looked at the distance between them and the gates, then at the princess following them. Even if he miraculously pulled Ren Bo to the gates sessfully, it wasn¡¯t like he could fight the guards if they were ordered to stop them. Well, William technically could, but the only thing that would aplish was getting the attention of the cultivators guarding the city. Even now, he remembered the ominous feeling from the dragon statue when he entered the city. He did not want to get on the wrong side of whoever was watching through that. With a sigh, William released Ren Bo. ¡°Goddess Princess! I¡¯ming for you!¡± William would haveughed at the phrasing if he wasn¡¯t walking away from this disaster as fast as he could. Chapter 66: Princess Jin Chapter 66: Princess Jin ¡°Good day, sirs,¡± William winced internally as he walked past the gate guards. That didn¡¯t sound like what a thirteen-year-old would say. Luckily, most of the guards ignored him as they kept watch over the iing popce. The most significant reaction was a nce and a grunt. William would take that. The tension in his body was lessened with every step he took through the archway. A part of him genuinely felt terrible about leaving Ren Bo behind. Still, he could handle only so much stupidity before he was forced to cast off the burden. Ren Bo had gone well beyond that point with what he had done. Besides, it was likely that there was a protector that was watching over the perverted kid. If William¡¯s knowledge about these types of things were reality, it could be possible that he would be used as fodder to help Ren Bo escape if danger actually struck. Of course, he recognized that the spatial stone hanging off his neck signified that he might be considered even more critical to the Sect than the kid, but there was no way he would bet his life on that. William''s long exhale when he walked out of the shadows of the grand archway was exhrating. He recognized a few problems that would need to be rectified immediately. And first and foremost, he had to find a map that would let him know where Xiao Yuan Vige was. The long line of merchants waiting to enter the city would likely have that for him. ¡°Little friend, could you wait for a moment?¡± William froze in his tracks, making a few mortals curse when they bumped into him on their way into the city. Being called a ¡®little friend¡¯ wasn¡¯t good news, but at the very least, it wasn¡¯t ¡®Junior.¡¯ Still, whoever spoke to him was a higher-level cultivator, likely in the Core Formation realm at minimum. The Foundation Establishment cultivators generally called him ¡®little brother¡¯ or other such nonsense. He looked around for anyone noteworthy, but all he could see were mortals due to being too short to look over them. ¡°I have made an agreement with your Sect¡¯s Elder Zhiqing to allow my family¡¯s junior to apany you on this mission. Treat it as a way for her to gain experience with the world.¡± William caught something on the edge of his vision and nced up to see someone standing on top of the grand archway, but before he could use the system to see who it was, the figure disappeared. For one to have the guts to do such a thing, it was almost assured that it was a Core Formation cultivator or likely higher. He was fortunate the spatial stone was undetectable. He had no idea who this Elder Zhiqing was, and neither did anyone from the Sect mention that name, so he did the only thing that soothed his mind at the moment. me that stupid kid, Ren Bo. His status in William¡¯s mind was quickly reaching an irritant of the level simr to a Sky Hare. ¡°Brother Wei! Why did you run away!¡± The sea of mortals blocking his vision parted to reveal Ren Bo walking towards him with a happy smile and a nicely shaped bruise on his cheek that looked like it would purple beautifully. Of course, that was only if Ren Bo didn¡¯t heal himself. William wasn¡¯t paying attention to him anyway, but the girl that apanied him with a scowl on her face. ¡°So you¡¯re alive,¡± William stated nkly as he avoided looking at the princess, ¡°Do you know someone called Elder Zhiqing in our Sect?¡± ¡°Elder Zhiqing?¡± Ren Bo repeated, ¡°He¡¯s an Inner Court Elder. Why did you ask, Brother Wei?¡± ¡°I was just informed by a Senior that we will have someoneing along with us for the mission, and Elder Zhiqing allowed it.¡± William hoped the person the Senior mentioned wasn¡¯t the princess staring at him like he offended her. It was likely that it was, but he hoped, for once, that something went to his liking. ¡°That¡¯s great! Goddess Princess, we don¡¯t have to convince Brother Wei!¡± William ignored Ren Bo, nodded to the girl, and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to deal with him. Are you sure this is the best idea? I can promise that he won¡¯t get better.¡± ¡°If he tries anything, I¡¯ll cut off what makes him a boy.¡± It was said in a tone so cold that William should have been scared for his fellow Sect disciple, but with what had happened, he felt the opposite. ¡°And I¡¯ll dly help you. Still, are you sure this is alright?¡± William held the princess¡¯s stare to show his seriousness, which seemed to amuse her. With a small smile, she said, ¡°At least you aren¡¯t as stupid to try and touch me like this idiot did.¡± ¡°Touch you?¡± William asked, taken aback by the im, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°He tried to grab my hand,¡± Princess Jin sneered, ¡°So I taught him a lesson.¡± Even though he was being talked about negatively, Ren Bo continued to stare at the princess unblinkingly, making William snort in disgust. There went his hopes of having apetent partner. Plus, Princess Jin would make it nearly impossible to use the spatial stone freely. Since William¡¯s soft tries to make the princess back out of her own didn¡¯t work, he would have to deal with her presence the best he could. It wasn¡¯t like he could go against what a supposed Elder of the Sect agreed with another high-level cultivator of the Empire. ¡°This thing is called Ren Bo,¡± Princess Jin pointed at the mentioned Ren Bo, ¡°But I still don¡¯t know your name. Who are you?¡± William¡¯s lips twitched as he replied, ¡°Wei Liang. And how may I address you?¡± ¡°Good manners,¡± She said with a nod before proudly saying, ¡°I am Princess Jin!¡± William took the chance when she wasn¡¯t paying attention to use Observe. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Princess Jin Age: 14 Level: 34 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (3rd Level) Health: 1200/1200 Spiritual Energy: 230/230 Spirit: 46 Strength: 38 Stamina: 40 Agility: 45 He didn¡¯t understand why her name was shown as Princess Jin instead of her full name. Come to think of it, he realized that Prince Yuan was the same. Perhaps it was customary for the Imperial Family in the Empire to use their title instead of an actual name. Other than that, William was relieved he hadn¡¯t met another monster disguised in the package of a cute girl like Li Xinyue. Though, he supposed adorable would fit the description better since Princess Jin was only fourteen. If William had a death wish, he would be tempted to pull a Wang Mei and tease the girl, but it would likely result in losing his hands. ¡°So, Princess Jin, why do you want toe with us?¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be fun!¡± She perked up, ¡°I never left Xuanjing City before. Grandfather always refused to let me, but when I asked this time, he said yes!¡± ¡°Oh¡­ great,¡± William replied with a strained smile, ¡°I hope we can work well together.¡± Princess Jin stared at him before squealing loudly and rubbing his head, ¡°You look so cute when you try to act like an adult!¡± William sighed as his expression fell when he saw Ren Bo scowl in the corner of his eyes. This was still a disaster even if he ignored the humiliation of being stared at by the numerous mortals, guards and civilians alike. He would have to deal with Ren Bo¡¯s stupid jealousy for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it was time to start using the strength he had just gained to pound into Ren Bo''s head that he was the leader. Princess Jin was here just for fun, so she likely wouldn¡¯t care. He didn¡¯t foresee too many issues. The challenge was to do it in a way that didn¡¯t sour Ren Bo¡¯s view of him. Of course, if William couldn¡¯t find a way to make that happen, he would take the loss of the rtionship in return for never having to experience the nonsense he just did due to Ren Bo. After Princess Jin backed away from him, William tried to straighten his hair back into something respectable and asked, ¡°Brother Ren, shall we depart?¡± Ren Bo grunted in agreement and walked off to the side, away from the crowd, before a spirit boat appeared out of nowhere. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo stressed before smiling at their newpanion, ¡°Goddess Princess.¡± Interlude: Yu Yanhua Makes a Deal Interlude: Yu Yanhua Makes a Deal Yu Yanhua watched till the spirit boat had left her sight before finally turning away. ¡°I hope this is satisfactory, Daoist Yu.¡± ¡°It is.¡± ¡°Then I hope that the Jade Healing Sect will find it agreeable to reverse their decision.¡± ¡°Make no mistake,¡± Yu Yanhua red, ¡°This is solely under my purview. The gall your grandson had to insult me in such a manner. He was courting death, but I spared him simply for the name that he carried.¡± She paid no mind to the impotent look he was giving her. A pathetic cultivator such as the Prince beside her deserved no respect. She could throw a pebble into a crowd of mortals and hit someone with more talent than the so-called Nascent Soul realm Prince that ruled Xuanjing City. If a talented Core Formation cultivator could climb realms to kill a Nascent Soul cultivator, then thetter didn¡¯t deserve such prestige in the first ce. ¡°Is Mei Lingxi in service to you or that gnat, Prince Yuan?¡± ¡°¡­ I am unaware of who that is, Daoist Yu.¡± ¡°Good, then she isn¡¯t in service to you. Send her to me without any harm. I may have use for her.¡± ¡°¡­ Very well.¡± Yu Yanhua nodded slightly, making the man let out an audibly relieved sigh. It was his good luck that she was forced to stay her hand. More than speaking to the sorry excuse of a Nascent Soul cultivator, Yu Yanhua hated that she was forced to close the Clinic right when it was most necessary. However, the public nature of Prince Yuan¡¯s boldness forced her hand. There could be no missteps where Wei Liang was involved at this point. If it was necessary to threaten the closure of the Clinic, whether it truly happened or not, then so be it. On the other hand, if Yu Yanhua did nothing after the insult to her person, it could be possible for some bored Imperial with nothing better to do to get curious and sniff around for conspiracy. Thankfully, the perpetually fearful Prince that ruled Xuanjing City was quick to beg for forgiveness. And she had been quick to suggest that Wei Liang and Ren Bo gain a royalpanion on this mission, which would convenientlye with the added protection of some Core Formation cultivators. Yu Yanhua knew she might be pushing it by inviting such a close observation of Wei Liang by the Imperial Family, even if this was an offshoot branch instead of the main line. However, this would be the best time to do it. They already showed interest after Yu Yanhua had personally arrived to ensure Wei Liang wouldn¡¯t get near the third floor. Sure, she had tried to pass it off as anger at that servant of Prince Yuan¡¯s, Mei Lingxi, but the suspicion hadn¡¯t been entirely erased. Since that was the case, she would rather have the observation happen on her terms. And most importantly, have it done when Wei Liang would show the least amount of his potential. Yu Yanhua considered contacting Wei Liang personally to warn him to hide his talent. However, after considering his personality, that thought was quickly thrown out. He was far too naive to the intentions of the people around him. She feared that warning him of the Imperial Family¡¯s intentions after the Treasure Pavilion incident was already too much for the innocent boy. ¡°May I ask why Daoist Zhiqing wanted my family¡¯s junior to go on this mission?¡± Yu Yanhua found it admirable that this question was asked, especially since she could feel the fear emanating from the Prince. At the very least, it meant that Princess Jin was someone this pathetic cultivator truly cherished. She could even see why. Reaching the third level of Qi Gathering at such a young age was no small feat. If no idents befell the girl, she would quickly make a name for herself in the Empire. Perhaps even get moved into the main line of the Imperial Family. ¡°You know our Sect rules forbid protection of disciples on missions. Elder Zhiqing has an eye on Ren Bo, so this is a loophole to keep him safe.¡± ¡°I see,¡± He nodded, ¡°That relieves me. And it seemed that young Ren Bo was taken with my granddaughter. Perhaps this could have unforeseen benefits.¡± Yu Yanhua hummed in agreement, satisfied that the Prince¡¯s attention was on Ren Bo. ¡°What about the other matter we discussed?¡± ¡°My grandson has his own will, Daoist Yu. There is not much I can do to keep him from your disciple. Besides, why should we meddle in the affairs of our juniors? It will be a learning experience for them.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Yu Yanhua raised her brow, not expecting pushback at something she considered a minor topic, ¡°And what if I can¡¯t promise that I will stay my hand the next time Prince Yuan court¡¯s death?¡± ¡°That matter will soon be out of my hands,¡± He replied helplessly, ¡°My grandson has been called to the capital to meet with the Crown Prince. It will be them you¡¯ll have to answer to.¡± Yu Yanhua paused in surprise for a moment before chuckling. ¡°Very well, it seems that he has escaped consequence again. Do remember that such fools are not long for the world, Fellow Daoist.¡± She looked away after the Prince nodded slightly in eptance, though it was filled with hidden displeasure. ¡°It¡¯s time for me to leave. Farewell,¡± Yu Yanhua said casually before leaving without waiting for an answer. It wasn¡¯t like her to be as abrasive as she acted with Xuanjing City¡¯s Prince. Perhaps the insolence Prince Yuan showed her weighed on her mind more than she realized. She appeared in front of the Clinic, entering without revealing herself to the mortals moring for someone inside to help with their mdies. A standard show made by a city¡¯s rulers to demonstrate to the popce how cruel the Jade Healing Sect was to abandon a clinic. Not that it ever worked. After a quick use of the teleportation array, Yu Yanhua stepped out of the receiving hall at the Inner Court and nodded to the guards. The surroundings blurred before she found herself before the door to the Sect Master¡¯s chambers. A few secondster, she was let in to see a grim-faced Sect Master Guan Feng. He held a finger up as he activated the privacy arrays and said, ¡°Elder Zhiqing was hereining about Ren Bo being sent on that mission.¡± ¡°So nothing surprising?¡± ¡°Yes, I suppose so,¡± Guan Feng rolled his eyes, ¡°Of all the people to choose, it had to be that boy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s better to hide Wei Liang next to a star. I don¡¯t see anything wrong with this n, Sect Master.¡± ¡°Hmm, yes,¡± Guan Feng cleared his throat, ¡°So, you dealt with Xuanjing City?¡± ¡°The Clinic should be reopened within a month. However, it seems Prince Yuan has caught the attention of the Crown Prince.¡± ¡°This is known,¡± Guan Feng waved his hand, ¡°It is unfortunate for him to go to the capital with his habits. He possesses talent but not the intellect to unleash it fully. I suspect he will be dead within the year.¡± ¡°What if he is able to seed?¡± ¡°That is to be worried about if it ever happens. Besides, as long as the main line isn¡¯t touched, the Imperial Family will not pay much attention to a small cultivator disappearing.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sect Master,¡± Yu Yanhua nodded gratefully before staring at him silently. ¡°¡­ And I¡¯ll turn a blind eye if you need to step in. I don¡¯t have to tell you to dispose of all witnesses if necessary, do I?¡± ¡°No, Sect Master,¡± Yu Yanhua chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m not sure you understand what I¡¯m saying, Yu Yanhua. Do whatever you must to hide Wei Liang''s capabilities if you suspect too much was revealed. Even if everyone but Wei Liang has to be disposed of.¡± ¡°¡­ I understand.¡± Chapter 67: A Normal Trip Chapter 67: A Normal Trip ¡°So, how much longer can we keep flying?¡± ¡°My answer is the same as it was when you asked a moment ago, Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo replied with an irritated tone. ¡°Still, it could have changed, right?¡± William smirked when Ren Bo ignored him. Was it childish of him to annoy the kid on purpose? Yes, it was, but he had to do something to break the awkwardness that filled the spirit boat. Since the moment they had left Xuanjing City, William had been the focus of two intense stares with very different intentions. It started out with Ren Bo staring at the Princess while she, in turn, stared at William like he was a plush doll. However, the kid saw that and switched from staring at the girl to ring at him. It was too much like a middle school drama than William would like. All this had done was reiterate that Ren Bo must be taught that he couldn¡¯t get away with his nonsense. As soon as the spirit boat ran out of energy and they stopped flying, he intended to show the kid who was boss. As for how? That was still up for debate. Until then, annoying him would have to do. Besides, it was also a way to lessen the rage that was still inside him from what Ren Bo had done. The issue was what to do for the next three hours. And how to keep Princess Jin away from him so he wouldn¡¯t have to endure more forced coddling. [Side Quest Completed | Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (3 visits): +30 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Train with Qin Yu: +100 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Impress Qin Yu with your improvement: +2000 XP] William blinked in surprise at the alerts. He wasn¡¯t sure why the side quest waspleted now, but he didn''t pay it too much mind and kept track of the alerts while staring at Ren Bo, mainly to ignore the increasing desire in Princess Jin¡¯s eyes. He didn¡¯t want to identally encourage her to treat him like a doll. The decreased experience points he was getting for the repeatable side quest was disappointing but expected with his much higher level. It would be a broken cheat if he could still get fifty experience points for each visit. The following alerts were what William hoped would happen after he didn¡¯t receive a side quest activation before his training with Qin Yu. There were some possibilities for the reason he didn¡¯t get a quest alert, but the one he thought most likely was the penalty. Training with Qin Yu could be epted automatically since nothing would happen if he failed, but with Li Xinyue, there was a penalty to consider. After the third alert showed a reward of two thousand experience points, William expected the bittersweet moment he would get the level-up alert. It would finally mean he was in the second level of Qi Gathering. Still, it woulde along with the decreased efficiency of spirit fruits. Unfortunately, he would need to start using pills that would contribute to impurity at a much greater level. William''s thoughts about his future pill-popping and the positives and negatives they would have over stuffing spirit fruits disappeared when the expected alert for the level-up never came. He pulled up his experience point count, wondering if he had misremembered how close he was. Experience: 4062/2375 He couldn¡¯t help but stare nkly at the blue text. This had obviously never happened before, and he wasn¡¯t sure what to do now. Level: 19 And that confirmed that William was still at level neen. Not that it helped other than that. ¡°Wei Liang? Are you alright?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± William blinked and looked up to see Princess Jin edging closer, ¡°I¡¯m fine. I guess I must be more tired than I realized.¡± ¡°How about we stop at the Red Forest? It¡¯s the closest ce that would be rtively safe.¡± ¡°If that¡¯s what the Goddess wants, then that¡¯s what I shall do!¡± Ren Bo interjected loudly, much to Princess Jin¡¯s obvious displeasure. William didn¡¯t particrly care where they stopped and was d they annoyed each other for silence to return in the spirit boat. Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level) Cultivation Technique: Horizon¡¯s Seeker Martial Skills (3) Max Level: 19 Max Attribute: 30 Impurity: Stage 1 (95%) 9 Days Remaining Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 20 2. Eligible for Level 20 Nothing there had changed either. With the easy route that William had taken to change from being a mortal to a Qi Gathering cultivator, he had assumed the same would happen between minor levels of a cultivation realm. While that assumption had been false, the saving grace was that his experience points were not lost due to whatever block he was experiencing. An average cultivator that didn¡¯t have ess to the system would have to, well, cultivate to get to the next minor realm. Perhaps that was the case with him too? It was undoubtedly the first thing that William was going to try. In fact, William was tempted to do so right now, but the slight shaking of the spirit boat as it cut through the air might cause a disaster. This was obviously inferiorpared to Lan Yin''s spirit boat. ¡°This Red Forest, how far are we away from it?¡± ¡°I would guess within an hour at this speed,¡± Princess Jin replied before Ren Bo could say something. William nodded before closing his eyes, trying to see if he could sense something that needed to be done with his Qi Pathways. No more Qi could be added since he already had the max Spirit attribute. Still, his cultivation technique might have some answers he had somehow missed. Before William could look over the manual imprinted into his mind, the spirit boat shook enough to make him tense up to stay upright. It was good that he didn¡¯t rush to try and cultivate. ¡°Brother Wei!¡± William¡¯s eyes flew open as he tried to grab the sides of the spirit boat. He was being lifted out of his seat, and with the rmed look on Ren Bo and Princess Jin¡¯s faces, adding to the fact that they were in the same predicament as him, they didn¡¯t expect this. ¡°What¡¯s happening?!¡± William yelled as he tried to keep a firm grip when it felt like someone was pulling on his feet as the sound of swirling wind started to pick up. His legs began rising above his body, making him panic even more. If he fell out of the spirit boat, it would be certain death by stter. ¡°Look up!¡± William could feel his grip slipping and had no intention of looking away. His legs were so high above his body that he was forced upside down, and he was terrified that trying to look up would make him lose his focus on staying inside the spirit boat. However, the shocked gasps he heard from the other two changed his mind. Ensuring he had a death grip, William carefully turned his face toward the sky to see what had caused them to gasp, making his heart skip a beat. Hovering above them were three vortexes made from what seemed to be Qi, though it was in a form that was so dense that it seemed they would rip through his body at the thickness. Each vortex seemed to be focusing on one person. It made William think it had to be targeted, though he couldn¡¯t imagine what level someone must be to cause these phenomena. The suction force seemed to get significantly stronger with every second that passed. It made it obvious that unless the vortexes suddenly disappeared, they were destined to be pulled out of the spirit boat. ¡°Ren Bo! What the hell is this thing?!¡± William yelled as he tried to hug the seat he had been using. For whatever reason, the spirit boat was unaffected by the vortexes, and it was hisst lifeline. ¡°We have to let go!¡± Princess Jin shouted back, ¡°They won¡¯t disappear until they get their target!¡± ¡°Let go?¡± William asked incredulously, finally securing his arms around the seat tightly, ¡°Are you crazy?!¡± ¡°We¡¯ll probably be safe, Wei Liang! If you dy, you might get hurt! Let¡¯s meet up if we can wherever this leads us!¡± ¡°Goddess Princess, wait for me!¡± William gaped at the two idiots when they stopped trying to fight the suction force and flew into the mouth of their respective vortexes. As Princess Jin said, they disappeared as soon as they got their targets. That didn¡¯t mean he would rush to follow their moronic actions. No, he did not intend to leave his death to chance when he hadn¡¯t exhausted every option possible, even if that option was clinging onto his seat for dear life. William was determined to ride this out until he was either unconscious or his arms were ripped out. But under no circumstance would he let go of his own vition. It was a mistake to think that. As if the vortex heard William¡¯s thoughts, the spirit boat started to creak for the first time in distress. It was lucky that it was built with such sturdy material to stay whole under the vortex and because the seat hadn¡¯t been crushed under his increasingly fighting grip. Once again, William¡¯s thoughts were the downfall. Out of everything on the spirit boat, one thing broke off with a sharp crack. The seat he was holding on to. William yelled in fear as he was sucked up with a speed that was exponentially greater than what Ren Bo or Princess Jin experienced. He kept screaming as he neared the mouth of the vortex, thoughts of the empty void starting to be the only thing left in his mind. Chapter 68: This Isn鈥檛 Tanxia Anymore Chapter 68: This Isn¡¯t Tanxia Anymore William groaned as he shifted, trying to move away from the thing poking into his spine. But that was the least of his concerns at the moment. His head felt like someone was slowly driving hot nails into every part of his skull. Even though William wanted to bash his head into a wall so he would fall unconscious, he was beyond d to be in the worst pain he had felt in either of his lives. It meant that he wasn¡¯t floating endlessly in the void. The worst torture was better than that hell. William gritted his teeth and cracked open his eyes before yelping at the blinding light. He didn¡¯t know how long he struggled to see, but it was far too long to be reasonable. It was good that he seemed to be in a ce that didn¡¯t have anything that wanted to hurt¡­ or eat him. With a still throbbing headache, William stared at the thick branches above him, slowly looking down to see that he was lying on an even thicker branch. He sat up carefully, wondering how long he had been here as he looked past the edge, eyes widening at the distance to the ground from where he was. While it might not kill him with his strengthened body, it would bring him close to it. Speaking of which, the damage he had taken getting to wherever he was might have reduced his health significantly, so the jump might actually kill him. Health: 1000/1000 William frowned after checking his health. He shouldn¡¯t be unhappy that he was in his peak state, but what the system said didn¡¯t make much sense. It felt like his body had been through the blender, making him suspect that the system was being fooled somehow. If it happened with Prince Yuan, why not with this? Before thinking too far, he checked for any alerts he might have gotten while unconscious. [User entering spatial storm] [System Error | Attempting to Reboot] [System Online | Reboot Sessful] William wasn¡¯t sure what to think of that. A spatial storm sounded like something he should only encounter if he was fighting a god-level being. Not something that a useless cultivator like him should experience. He could barely fight an upgraded Sky Hare, let alone a damned spatial storm. He froze, pausing the internal cursing when a deep growl rumbled from below. He moved as quietly as he could to peek over the edge to see a small ck animal he hadn¡¯t noticed with his first look at the ground. William felt he should have gotten a pass for his distraction since the distance was far higher than a ten-story building. No matter. He was definitely paying attention now. That small ck animal was only that size because of how far it was from him. If William was right next to it, there was no doubt that it would dwarf him. [Name: Draebern | Level: 54] It took William far longer to read that than he would have liked due to the distance. Still, his mood didn''t improve once he understood the blue text. Ignoring that this spirit beast''s name had the word Drae in it, which he was pretty sure was rted to Dragons, and Bern, which was clearly rted to bears, the level of the creature guaranteed a swift death at best and a gruesome one at worst. William quickly backed away from the edge with his heart racing in fear. One thing he knew about bears from his past life was that they could climb trees. And since this thing was some sort of abomination between a dragon and a bear, if the name was anything to go by, it might even be able to fly like that Sky Hare. He could hear it growling once in a while as he frantically looked around to see if there could be something that could be of help close by. There wasn¡¯t. William''s only other choice was to hope that throwing his low-level spirit fruits would distract the Draebern long enough to escape. Again, not a great idea, and one that will likely end up with him dead. He stayed frozen like a statue, hoping that would somehow help with his current predicament. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t have to wait too long until the Draebern¡¯s growls faded. He didn¡¯t know if it was still there or if it had walked away. William peeked over the edge and sighed in relief when he didn¡¯t see the spirit beast. He pulled back and sat upright against the trunk as he touched his ne, happy to feel that the spatial stone was still with him. It stored enough spirit fruits and pills to get him through weeks of sustenance or catastrophic injuries. With monsters like that Draebern walking around casually, those spirit fruits might be better used to increase his attributes instead of treating it like food. He could forage, hunt, or, if absolutely necessary, act like a vulture and eat leftover kills to feed himself. Besides, he needed to figure out how to get to the second level of Qi Gathering as soon as possible. However, it was unfortunate that his Impurity levels would be raised to stage two. Still manageable, but that was the limit he could ept. At stage three, William¡¯s cultivation would be halted for months, even with the help of healers from the Sect. He nced at the system to see exactly where his impurity level was, and his jaw dropped. Impurity: None William clearly remembered that it had previously shown that he needed nine days to get rid of the impurity naturally. He didn¡¯t even know how it was possible for him to be unconscious for that long without dying. Just because he was a cultivator didn¡¯t mean the need for food had been reduced. That wouldn¡¯t be a benefit till the next realm. He didn¡¯t even feel a pang of hunger. William¡¯s pulled a Blood orange from the spatial stone and looked at it. This could either give him a ¡®Spirit nt Addict¡¯ trait along with a point added to his Strength attribute, or just thetter with no negatives. [+1 Strength] He absentmindedly licked his fingers while waiting for another alert that never came. Hell, at this point, did it even matter? Going from stage two impurity to stage three needed a prodigious amount of spirit fruit or a fistful of constantly popping pills. The ten or so spirit fruits he would force down needed no concern. Or so William told himself. [+1 Strength] [+1 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] That went as expected. However, he had more doubts about the next spirit fruit. The Lightning Berries which should stop being effective at any moment. [+1 Stamina] [+1 Agility] [+1 Stamina] [+1 Agility] [+1 Stamina] [+1 Agility] [+1 Stamina] [Max Stamina Reached] [+1 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] William shook his head after he easily scarfed down eleven spirit fruits with no issue. A far cry from his reluctance after feeling slightly bloated in that cozy hotel room. Being put in a spot wherefort was worth less than nothing did marvelous things to someone¡¯s determination. More important than that, he was able to max his attributes with little issue. All that needed to happen was a spatial storm that would take him to a ce he couldn¡¯t recognize while also knocking him out for nine days or more, conveniently allowing him to gobble up all the spirit fruits. ¡­ William didn¡¯t think the spatial storm was worth these benefits. Especially since there were things called fucking Draeberns strolling around. Impurity: Stage 1 (55%) 5 days remaining He nodded after ncing at the impurity level. It would let him take two Vitality Restoration Pills without taking him to the next stage. At least that was some sort of backup. William looked around before peeking at the ground again to ensure there weren¡¯t random spirit beasts waiting to ambush him. Since he had apparently been on this branch for more than a week while unconscious, and hade out of it uneaten, a few more hours while he figured out how to get to the second level of Qi Gathering would be fine. He took deep breaths, getting into the correct state of mind before closing his eyes and turning his senses inward to his Qi pathways. The first thing he would try is to simply cultivate. William felt that would do the trick since that was all normal cultivators needed to do. Sure, there could be bottlenecks, but he could clearly see the two requirements to break through. Requirements that he already met. Chapter 69: Cultivation Progress Chapter 69: Cultivation Progress William was in a zen state. He really should be trying to figure out how to get to the second stage of Qi Gathering, but the initial hour of trying brought up an alert that made him want to be a cultivation maniac. Or, in other words, a shut-in. William continuously circted his Qi, unsure and uncaring of how long it had been since he started. He could sense that the process was bing easier and easier with every cycle around his pathways. It was strangely enjoyable to feel the small aplishment he was making with his Qi. Of course, not as enjoyable as getting experience points and seeing all the numbers increase, but very close. If there was a lesson to be learned from this, it was that dumping his stat points into Spirit was not as magical as he thought. Sure, it was still broken as hell, but not to the extent that he had been thinking. William wondered how other cultivators would react if they could hear his thoughts. He could be reasonably confident that they would make Li Xinyue¡¯s pummeling look tame after they were done with him. His brows furrowed when his Qi slowed down slightly as the stray thoughts took him out of the zen state. Luckily, he was able to sense the pathways expand just as he was distracted. William wouldn¡¯t say he could sense the pathways berger or anything like that, but it seemed¡­ shinier? He couldn''t exin it well, but it seemed to have gained a previously missing luster. That change was immediately followed by a burst of alerts that he couldn¡¯t have tried to ignore if his life depended on it. [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (2nd Level) [New upgrade requirements avable] [Cultivate in a Qi dense environment for 4 hours: +16 XP] Thest alert was the reason for his zen state. Whatever this ce was, it apparently qualified for the prestigious description of ¡®Qi dense.¡¯ When cultivating, it gave him four times the amount he was getting in the Outer Sect¡¯s Qi refining room. Getting nearly a hundred experience points for a day of cultivating made it actually worth the effort. However, he knew it wouldn¡¯t be wise to sit in the same spot to cultivate, no matter how safe it seemed. If something like that Draebern existed, it would make sense that some bird with an equally high level also existed. William had long since opened his eyes, studying each of the changes in the menu carefully. Level: 20 Experience: 1687/2500 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (2nd Level) Health: 1100/1100 Spiritual Energy: 130/130 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 30 (26) Strength: 30 (26) Stamina: 30 (26) Agility: 30 (26) + 10 Luck: 30 (26) Points: 13 However, what concerned him the most was the new attribute limits. Max Level: 29 Max Attribute: 40 William had already expected this, but with Li Xinyue''s attributes, he hoped his assumption had been wrong. On the bright side, he had reason to suspect that his soul damage was still working behind the scenes to nerf how strong he could be. If William did nothing but increase his level diligently, he would reach his max attribute naturally. That meant either his talent was so trash that this was his personal limit, or something was holding him back. Of those two options, William would much rather assume that thetter was true. The other option was simply too depressing. As he tried to reassure himself, William caught sight of something that surprised him. Impurity: Stage 1 (33%) 3 days remaining He was under the impression that the amount of impurity a cultivator could take would be more or less stable until the next major realm. In his case, it would be Foundation Establishment. After a moment of confusion, he pulled out another Lightning Berry and popped it into his mouth, observing the Impurity status. William had no expectation of actually gaining anything from the spirit fruit. Still, he certainly didn¡¯t expect zero change in impurity. It was at thirty-three percent before, and it was the same after. That meant the Lightning Berry now had such little effect on his body that it was useless. With a shake of his head, William put it aside, not wanting to waste any more spirit fruit on meaningless tests. Even if they were useless to him personally in terms of making him more powerful, they could still act as regr food if necessary. Besides, instead of worrying over something minor, he could do the one thing necessary before finally exploring this ce. Max his Spirit attribute immediately. [+10 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 12% Attribute Reduction] William felt the rush of Qi released from his dantian, and he was more than used to the routine that followed the action increasing his Spirit attribute. This time, he didn¡¯t even bother to try and add the Qi to his blocked-off Lung Meridian, but it pulsed in warning anyway as the Qi passed it. He ignored it and let the Heart Meridian absorb everything avable, his mood lifting when he sensed the Qi inside the meridian gathering to the center before everything was quicklypressed into a familiar speck. William was strangely reminded of a star being born, or at least how they showed the animation in the shows that he used to watch. Of course, the speck might be the most pathetic star in existence with its dimness, but he would work to make it shine brighter. He exhaled slowly as he opened his eyes, realizing that even the process of guiding his Qi had been more straightforward in this environment. However, now that William¡¯s mind wasn¡¯t in a haze called zen state, he started to feel as if he had stepped into a ce he might never leave. There were things in cultivation worlds that were like pocket dimensions, cracks in the world, mystic realms, whatever name it was called by. They all had the same premise. Whoever could enter would find innumerable treasures as long as one could survive the danger within. All very exciting when William was reading the novels. In fact, it might have been his favorite part, but like most that he experienced in this world, it terrified him. As it should. The first thing he saw after waking up from a nine-day, at minimum, longa was something called a damned Draebern. What kind of name is that in the first ce? And if it was named true, didn¡¯t that mean a dragon had somehow mated with a lower status beast? William thought dragons were supposed to be prideful in a world like this. Not sexual degenerates¡­ unless they also had humanoid forms? He shook his head as his thoughts started to veer off into an area he had no desire to think about. The first thing William needed to do was try and find out what this ce was. Then if there was a way out of here. The forest was a strange ce. The tree tops blocked out the sky, but somehow, the sunlight shone brightly on the ground, as if all the leaves did was magnify the sunlight. Plus, the trees themselves were reasonably spaced out, as they were all nted carefully to avoid interfering with each other. Considering what William suspected this ce to be, that might be precisely the reason behind the orderliness. He looked in every direction, seeing much of the same. It was as if someone gotzy and copy pasted the surroundings. There was no way in hell that he would climb down the tree and get eaten alive by whatever the hells called this forest home, so one option was left. William looked up, finding that even though he already had to be ten stories high at minimum, it seemed like there was more than double that height to reach the tree top. Then again, he was guessing since massive branches blocked most of his vision when he looked straight up. However, since all the trees seemed to look the same, the neighboring trees could be used as a reference. Luckily, those massive branches that blocked his vision could also be used as tforms to quickly climb to the top. William bent his knee slightly and jumped, almost yelping in shock when he rocketed up, nearly ramming his head into a branch several meters higher. Luckily he had mped his mouth shut to keep quiet, able to avoid alerting anything living close by that food was avable. Thea must have put his control over his body out of calibration for a bit, but it was quickly fixed. William made quick work of climbing the rest of the way up, being surprisingly stealthy with his light steps, before he found himself bncing himself carefully on a small protrusion on the tree¡¯s trunk. William held on tightly as he warily reached his other hand into the thick nket of leaves above him, waiting for something terrible to happen. When his fingers weren¡¯t ripped off, he mentally wished himself luck and pulled himself up. Chapter 70: Everything is Green Chapter 70: Everything is Green William thought he had grabbed onto something solid, but after he lifted himself into the thick nket of leaves, he saw that all his hand was resting on were the leaves themselves. His grip on the tree¡¯s trunk tightened exponentially in fear of falling through. He wrapped his arms around the trunk and reached out with his foot to lightly step on the floor made of leaves, frowning when it felt like it was solid. He dug his fingers into the grooves of the trunk to ensure it wouldn¡¯t slip before using all of his strength to stomp his foot in the same spot. There was a dull thump from the footnding firmly on the tightly packed leaves, but other than that, nothing happened. William couldn¡¯t even see an imprint of his boot on the leafy floor. He had no idea how this was possible when that was almost the exact spot where he had climbed into this area. In fact, most of these leaves had nothing supporting them underneath. No thick branches, and now that William thought about it, the leaf floor seemed to just... exist. As if it was separate from the trees themselves. And speaking of the area, he had been too fascinated with how the leaves acted like a solid tform to pay much attention to his surroundings. Something that infuriated William while also making him wonder when it would bite him in the ass. He shook his head and focused on examining the surroundings. Much like the forest below, it was surprisingly well-lit, considering there was a ceiling made of leaves that looked identical to the floor. Or was it not surprising because of the simrity? Either way, it would take another climb of twenty-ish meters to reach the ceiling, but he was in no rush to do so. William noticed that all the trees he had seen below were also here, with their trunks extending past the leafy ceiling. However, there wasn¡¯t much present other than that. Compared to the forest floor, this ce was¡­ dead. Other than the sounds William caused himself by moving his hands on the trunk or his feet stepping on the leaves, it was utterly silent. William swore that he could hear his own heart beating if he paid close enough attention, and it was starting to beat faster. He tried to shake off the sudden nerves before realizing he might be stuck in this ce. If a full-powered stomp did nothing to mark the leafy floor, there was almost no hope of returning to the forest. There was the option to use his Impact Boots, but even if it did work, all it would aplish was falling to his death. Before his thoughts could spiral out of control even more, William tried something simple before falling into the rising panic. He simply attempted to retrace his steps with the way he climbed up. William didn¡¯t see how it could work since the spot where he stomped his foot was only inches away from the trunk. However, his eyes grew wide when his foot sank into the leaves. William didn¡¯t stop to wonder why and carefully climbed down, a broad smile on his face when his whole body was out of that leafy hell. He let go of the trunk and jumped onto a tform-like branch before letting out a strained chuckle. Whatever that ce was, William thought he would rather deal with that Draebern thing instead of having to hear his own panicked thoughts magnified. As silly as it sounded, it heavily reminded him of the void once he stopped being distracted by the floor and took in the surroundings. He wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his palm and sat down, intending to rx and perhaps get some cultivation in, when he heard a faint, scratching sound that seemed to be getting louder steadily. The panic that had finally been subsiding suddenly returned with a vengeance. William inched closer to the edge of the tform-like branch and peeked, pulling back immediately before he was discovered. That damned Draebern had returned. And it was pawing at the branch that had been his bed when he was in a possiblea. William didn¡¯t dare to dawdle with his next decision. He immediately reversed his belief that he would rather deal with the monster than go back up. William climbed up into the green leaves that covered the forest as quickly as possible while trying to avoid catching the Draebern¡¯s attention. He had been sorely mistaken about how massive the beast was when he had previously seen it, and there was no doubt that it could eat him in one bite. Thankfully the sound of the monster¡¯s scratching and sniffing was muted the instant his entire body was above the leaves. This time, instead of panicking, William was happy to hear his heart beating rapidly. That meant he was still alive. After all, what was a little panic in the face of being eaten alive in one bite? William clung to the trunk for a few seconds as he took another look around, wondering if he should try his luck and stay here for a day or so until the Draebern left. Only then realizing that there was no reason that it couldn¡¯t follow him up here. He crushed his fear and finally let go of the tree trunk acting as his lifeline, carefully stepping on the floor with no safety. William exhaled when he didn¡¯t fall to his death. Still, he didn¡¯t linger long due to that relief. He had to get away from this spot. Before that, he used his nails to leave the deepest cut possible, which ended up being a tiny scratch. Still, that should be enough for him to tell this tree apart from others. William¡¯s first few steps were slow, wary of experiencing a sudden free fall, but when that never happened, the slow steps quickly changed into sprinting. Though, it wasn¡¯t quite an all-out sprint. He was still trying to be mindful of new dangers that might be hidden in this strange ce. Surprisingly, to William¡¯s happiness, there was no danger to be seen. Just an endless green floor, a simr ceiling, and the massive tree trunks that acted like pirs with significant gaps in between. The only thing that apanied William was the sound of his own breathing, the slight movement of his feetnding on the leaves, and his rapidly beating heart. It felt like his thoughts were repeating to fill in theplete silence. He didn¡¯t stop until he could sense the fatigue creeping up on him. He moved to the closest tree trunk to lean on and rest. William took deep breaths, trying to keep it as silent as possible while staring in the general direction he ran from. If that thing followed him up, there was no way it could move about silent enough that he couldn¡¯t detect it. Not with how quiet this ce was. When William could hear nothing that suggested danger was nearby, that should have been enough to finally let his mind rest. However, something was niggling in the back of his mind, warning him that this ce still wasn¡¯t as safe as it seemed. Maybe it was his already present uneasiness at the eerie quiet, but he was quick to ept that feeling and listen to his impulse. William could either climb back down to the forest or see what could be beyond the leafy ceiling. Both were simr risks since he had no idea what was waiting for him on either side. He wanted to wait until he recovered most of his stamina, but he thought he caught the slightest of movements in the distance. It wasn¡¯t the Draebern, that he was sure of since the movement came from one of the tree trunks in the distance. William thought it looked a little greener in colorpared to the dark brown trees that seemed far moremon. Still, at this distance, it could simply be the color of the green leaves that made up the floor and the ceiling tricking his eyes. That didn¡¯t mean William would stay here and hope he was right that it was a trick. He immediately tried to climb down to the forest, but cursed loudly in sheer panic when his feet met a solid floor. He tried a couple more times to see if there was another spot that would allow him to leave, but they all had the same result. Since climbing down wasn¡¯t an option, William would see if he would have better luck climbing up. All he knew was that there was no way he would be staying here. Perhaps he could find a better environment to rx until enough time passed. Chapter 71: Plums Chapter 71: Plums William half expected that he would be blocked again, but to his relief, that didn¡¯t happen. His first thought as he pulled himself up was being thankful that there wasn¡¯t another ceiling made of leaves. The second was that the sky was white. Not that it was covered in white clouds, but the entire sky was just a nk, in white. William couldn¡¯t see a sun anywhere as a light source, which was likely why he could stare directly at the white sky without straining his eyes. That didn¡¯t mean he wanted to continue looking. There was something unnerving about the nkness above him for someone used to a soft blue. Even a leaf ceiling might be preferred over it. On the bright side, the trees on this level finally looked normal. They were no longer pirs of wood shooting upward into ayer of thick leaves but actual trees that existed in the typical sizes he had seen in the Tianxia Empire. Some even had something that looked like spirit fruits hanging off the branches. Of course, William had to remind himself that what he saw was like the tip of an iceberg. This was only a fraction of the actual size of these trees. It was apparent that he was no longer in the Tianxia Empire and that the spatial storm had brought him to another dimension, or so William hoped. These ces generally had some sort of time limit before the people inside were kicked out. Of course, this was going by his ¡®expert¡¯ knowledge from his past life. It would be fantastic if he could find Princess Jin since she likely knew something with the way she readily gave into the vortex. Still, considering howrge this ce seemed to be, finding her would be a miracle. As for Ren Bo¡­ the less said about him, the better. Besides, while the kid wasn¡¯t as strong as him, William knew he had a far greater chance of surviving this ce if his storage pouch survived the journey. In fact, William could see the annoying brat rxing in luxury while waiting for this ce to kick them out. Or it could also be possible that the girl-crazy kid would be killed by Princess Jin. It was a coin flip in his mind. William smiled as the wind blew softly, taking his mind off the irritant. It only added to his liking of the ce. It seemed safe at first nce and wasn¡¯t dead like the level below. Besides, the floor was made of green leaves. He could almost trick himself into believing it was simply grass. As for why William thought it was safe, the system came into y with that. Even if he couldn¡¯t see a spirit beast hiding from him, the blue text identifying it would be hard to miss. It wouldn¡¯t have mattered if he could read what it said, but the simple fact it was there signified a spirit beast existed. William scanned the closest tree with spirit fruits again for any sign of blue text as he carefully made his way over, more than ready to activate his boots to run away at full speed¡­ unless the spirit beast was near his level. Then it would be fighting time. Fortunately, there was no need for that paranoia as nothing happened. William was staring at the shimmering, emerald-green fruits casually hanging off the branches like they weremon apples. He had read about these in the books Li Xinyue provided him. Dragonheart Plums, they were called. Something that could only be nurtured with the resources of a sect the size of the Jade Healing Sect, but even then, it would number in the low double digits every few years. This single tree seemed to have more than that ready for the picking. However, that wasn¡¯t what William was shocked about. He looked away from the fruits above his head and peered at the trees surrounding him as far as his eyes could see. While every tree didn¡¯t have Dragonheart Plums hanging off its branches, there were plenty that did. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to say that a conservative estimate of the number of fruits would be in the thousands. It was¡­ convenient. And at the same time, terrifying. Someone owned this realm. Everything was set up like a private garden, just like The Garden owned by the Jade Healing Sect, except on a much more massive scale and with ridiculously rare spirit nts, if the Dragonheart Plum was anything to go by. Something even seemed to block the spirit beasts from the forest floor from entering this area. If someone was trying to protect their harvest, it certainly made sense why it was set up like this. Though that did bring up questions about why he was let through. Perhaps William got insanely lucky with finding one of the few entrances, and then finding another to reach the top level. He chuckled to himself at that thought. His Luck wasn¡¯t high enough for something so fortunate to happen. Maybe when it was at Li Xinyue¡¯s level, it might be possible. William licked his lips as he looked back to the Dragonheart Plums hanging above him. He wasn¡¯t very hungry with all the fruits he had stuffed himself with, but he would dly bloat himself to eat one of the Plums. They were each the size of William¡¯s head, and the soft pulse emanating from the center indicated how ripe it was. If he remembered correctly, the pulse came from the golden core of the Plum, and it was usually visible when the fruit was cut. The fact that he could see it at this distance told of the centuries that had passed without anything in this realm being harvested, or at least the Plums on this specific tree. William wasn¡¯t worried whether the Dragonheart Plum would be effective enough to improve his attributes. He was worried about how much his Impurity would increase. Impurity: Stage 1 (33%) 3 days remaining While it seemed low, there was no doubt that eating just one of the Dragonheart Plums would make the Impurity shoot well into stage two. In fact, it would be overkill for his current level, though it would instantly max all his attributes except for Luck. The convenience factor was high, but the consequence would be reduced experience points for weeks at minimum. Without knowing how long he would stay in this dimension, he risked it possiblysting for the entire duration. William supposed that was something to worry about after getting some Dragonheart Plums. He would rather have it just in case. He looked around, once again checking if he was the only living thing in the area before hopping lightly. The next second, he jumped high enough to reach a deep groove on the trunk a few meters above the ground. It was still incredible to William that he could do this purely with his physical power. With a silly smile, he quickly climbed the tree to reach the branches within a few seconds. Not long after, he crawled on a branch to reach the Dragonheart Plums. However, when William tried to pluck them, he discovered a problem. It refused to be plucked, no matter how hard William pulled. He hesitated for a moment before pointing his palm at the stem. If he couldn''t pluck it, he would attack it until it broke off. William thrust his palm with wisps of Qi flowing off it, fully expecting to lose some health when his attack was stopped by the stubborn stem. However, his palm sliced through the stem cleanly. William was lucky he didn¡¯t let his surprise distract him from catching the Dragonheart Plum. His free hand quickly grabbed it, and the fruit was immediately pulled into his spatial stone, storing it securely before his attention moved to the other Dragonheart Plums on the branch. William wouldn¡¯t be greedy. He would only take all the spirit fruits on this individual tree. That alone would be more than twenty treasure-quality fruits that would make any cultivator salivate. A small cultivator like William himself would be more than satisfied. Besides, it would hopefully show his non-greediness if the owners of this dimension were keeping an eye on it. ¡­ Who was he kidding? William knew it likely wouldn¡¯t matter if he took one tree¡¯s worth or the entire dimension¡¯s. If Lan Yin, a cultivator from a kind sect, killed a mortal like an ant for being presumptuous, whoever owned this dimension would do the same to him. The only hope was that this little thievery went unnoticed. William spent the next few minutes quickly harvesting all the Dragonheart Plums he could see on the tree, storing each one into his spatial stone with a growing smile. He should have known things were too easy. When thest one was about to be sliced off, a problem revealed itself. ¡°Leave thest one on the tree.¡± William¡¯s heart sank as he realized how fucked he was if the one who spoke was hostile. Spiritual Energy: 15/175 (20% per Hour) He had plucked thirty-two Dragonheart Plums, making him use up five Spiritual Energy with each fruit. He didn¡¯t even have enough to activate his Impact Boots for a possible escape if necessary. Chapter 72: Even That Is Green Chapter 72: Even That Is Green ¡°That¡¯s quite a waste of those Dragonheart Plums.¡± William¡¯s eyes were darting around frantically as he tried to find the person talking to him. However, no matter where he looked, there was nobody to be seen. ¡°I understand that humans are known for their greed, but this is the first time I have seen one of you destroying everything without making use of it in some way.¡± William kept searching for who was speaking but was rmed enough to spare some of his focus to check inside the spatial stone. As the voice imed, the Dragonheart Plums were indeed losing the steady, bright pulsing that signaled how effective they would be. ¡°Still not taking them out? They are still salvageable.¡± He agreed with the voice, but it wasn¡¯t like there was a n to keep the Plums on this branch. They would fall to the floor and be even more ruined. The stem keeping them attached to the tree was ridiculously strong, but the fruit itself was beyond delicate. ¡°Senior, can I climb down?¡± ¡°Senior?¡± The voice sounded amused, ¡°Where was this respect when you were stealing the Dragonheart Plums?¡± Sweat dripped down William¡¯s face as he wondered if he could somehow stall for ten minutes. That would be long enough to recover enough Spiritual Energy to activate his Impact Boots. Of course, that was only a stray thought he did not intend to follow through with. If Qin Yu, who was in thete stages of Foundation Establishment, could easily deal with William while the boots were activated, trying it with whoever was speaking to him would beughable. ¡°Little human, I gave you a pass with the stolen fruits, but don¡¯t think I will let you take more to rece what you are wasting. Take them out now.¡± William immediately emptied his spatial stone of all the Dragonheart Plums, courageously, or stupidly, grabbing two in his arms while watching the rest fall to the leaf floor with an aching heart. However, the expected impact of the falling fruits never came to be. His eyes widened in shock when they cleanly fell through the floor and disappeared. ¡°Hmm, it¡¯s been a while since I tasted these. If only you didn¡¯t store them in that low-quality stone.¡± If William wasn¡¯t sure what realm this¡­ spirit beast? He wasn¡¯t too sure, but the voice had been calling him ¡®human,¡¯ which a fellow human generally wouldn¡¯t do. Anyway, the exact realm was still unknown, but with how casually his spatial stone was pretty much called trash, it was a good bet that Nascent Soul would be the floor. ¡°I apologize, Senior,¡± William said as he stayed put on the branch, doing a fantastic job of bncing himself while he felt certain doom in the near future. He was still trying to frantically think of a way to get out of this alive. ¡°Why are you still up there? Jump down. There is nothing else on the tree for you to steal.¡± ¡°If Senior doesn¡¯t mind, I would like to stay here a little longer.¡± William didn¡¯t have an intention of being eaten like the Dragonheart Plums he threw to the floor, thank you very much. ¡°I was not giving you a choice.¡± He yelped when he felt the familiar feeling of his body being controlled by someone stronger than him. William made a quick decision in the desperation of the belief that he was about to die. What was the point of keeping his Impurity in stage one? As he was pulled toward the leaf floor with surprising speed, William gobbled up the massive, head-sized Dragonheart Fruit with a quickness that wouldn¡¯t have been possible if his life wasn¡¯t at stake. [+10 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] [+10 Stamina] [Max Stamina Reached] [+10 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] [Impurity Status Modified] Impurity: Stage 2 (1%) 17 Hours Remaining [Trait Added | Spirit nt Addict - XP Gain Decreased (10%)] William would marvel at the massive increasester, but first, he needed to try and get back control of his body, as unlikely as it was. The best way to do that was by surprise, and it only made sense to make his attempt with everything used up, including his unused stat points. [+3 Luck] His Impact Boots were still unusable since they couldn¡¯t be activated, so all his hopes rested on his physical abilities. ¡°Oh? You¡¯ve gotten a little stronger. I was under the impression it took humans hours to digest these.¡± And those hopes immediately died in their infancy when William¡¯s struggles did nothing to change his situation. He hadn¡¯t expected it to, but when his feet started to sink into the formerly solid leaf floor with no resistance, he didn¡¯t care much about logic. William¡¯s vision briefly went ck before he found himself back in the familiar level he had left not long ago. Of course, he wasn¡¯t bothered by the identical leaf floor and ceiling this time. Nor was he looking at the numerous pir-like tree trunks spread evenly as far as the eye could see. [Name: ? | Level: ?] No, William was staring in shock at what might be thergest snake he would ever see in his life. He flinched when a forked tongue flitted out to taste the air in front of him before disappearing. ¡°Interesting. You are not of my Master¡¯s Sect. How did youe to this shard?¡± William was still trying toprehend how he missed seeing a snake that was hundreds of feet in length. Its body, with scales that were a mesmerizing shade of deep green, was intertwined between the trees, so even that might be an underestimation. ¡°I was brought here by a spatial storm, Senior. I did not try to seek entrance.¡± ¡°Hm, spatial storm? I see.¡± William knew that rting human expression to a snake should be impossible. Still, he thought that it sounded a little worried. Speaking of which, he didn¡¯t know how it was talking to him. It wasn¡¯t like the mouth moved to form any words. ¡°Since you have given me tribute, and those Plums are generally worthless to my Master, I will forgive your transgression of trespassing into his personal garden. If you wish to visit again, bring me something of worth, and you might have another chance.¡± [Side Quest Avable | Find Tribute Satisfactory to the Serpent] [Reward: ess the personal garden of this shard¡¯s master] [Penalty: ?] [ept: Y/N] William¡¯s heart, finally starting to calm from its previous panicked beating, started to pick up speed again. ¡°Thank you for your mercy, Senior!¡± William bowed without shame, happy that he hadn¡¯t been instantly killed. ¡°Hm, it¡¯s time for you to leave. Your presence pollutes the surroundings.¡± William gasped when he was dropped through the leaf floor, his first thought being that the snake decided to kill him anyway. Thankfully, that wasn¡¯t the case. He only dropped a few meters before hended safely on a wide branch. He looked up, staring at where the massive snake should be past the leaf ceiling above him, and shuddered at how lucky he had been. Perhaps it should have been obvious that the only reason the spirit beasts from the forest floor didn¡¯t dare to enter that level was that peak-tier predator calling that ce home. However, William had been blinded by the idea of safety, and when he reached the personal garden, in greed. Speaking of what should be obvious, there was something William had to do before greed overtook him again. [Side Quest Rejected] That side quest had an unknown penalty, and that was without considering that he had to find something a snake at that high of a realm found satisfactory. No matter how William looked at it, he was more likely to find death in the process, and if he somehow survived, but whatever he found was trash in the snake¡¯s eyes, death could still be the result. However, the stupidity of wandering into a precious garden dide with great benefits, and he wasn¡¯t thinking about the Dragonheart Plum clutched in his arms. Spirit: 40 (35) Strength: 40 (35) Stamina: 40 (35) Agility: 40 (35) + 10 Luck: 33 (29) Points: 0 William had just entered the second level of Qi Gathering, and he had already maxed out most of his stats. After just two more level-ups, Luck would follow. In addition, reducing the effectiveness of the Dragonheart Plums by storing them in the spatial stone was a blessing in disguise. Impurity: Stage 2 (1%) 17 Hours Remaining The Impurity would have been much higher than that if the Plum he had eaten was at full strength. All he needed to do now was wait a little less than a day for the recently gained negative trait to disappear. William intended to stay in this spot until it did. There was no reason to rush and lose out on potential experience points that could be gained. Chapter 73: Running Around Chapter 73: Running Around [Impurity Reduced] [Trait Removed | Spirit nt Addict] William was sitting cross-legged on the same branch that he had been dropped on by the snake. In fact, he hadn¡¯t moved an inch since he had be fully immersed in cultivating instead of simply using it to gain experience. He slowly opened his eyes, with his breaths still deep and steady, just like when he had repeatedly circted his Qi through his pathways. It was a state that would be very familiar to him in the future. William had been diligently cultivating without a break for over seventeen hours, which revealed to him how effective it had been in substituting sleep and even warding off hunger. That wasn¡¯t normal. While cultivating was known to lessen mortal needs, it wasn¡¯t to this extent in the Qi Gathering realm. In the end, he put the me on the dimension he was in, or rather, the ¡®shard,¡¯ as the snake called it. William nced at the alert logs to see the number of experience points he had gained from cultivation. [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment: +68 XP] [Trait Activated | -7 XP] That didn¡¯t sound like much, and it certainly wasn¡¯t enough for him to seclude himself like a hermit and cultivate in solitude. Still, if it was possible to rece sleep with this, it would be fantastic. Experience: 1748/2500 It would take over a week of constant cultivation to get enough experience points to level up. William tilted his head in thought as he actually considered it. If he really wanted to keep himself safe, it would be best to take this route. There were more than enough spirit fruits to sustain him for weeks, and he felt the spirit beasts wouldn''te near him with the snake above him. ¡­ Then again, that same snake did want William to bring back something interesting as tribute. Perhaps it would be safer not to stay here. He stood up while patting off his robes, wondering what to do next. Without that bear to screw with his thoughts from overwhelming fear, William recognized something that should be true. With how freely that spirit beast was moving about the forest and how carelessly it made noise, it suggested that it had nothing to fear, as if it was the apex predator. Unless that was simply William¡¯s hopeful wishes. Assuming that was true, walking the forest floor wouldn¡¯t be aplete disaster as long as he paid attention to that beast. Or he could leap from one branch to another like a monkey, hopefully without overshooting and falling to his death. William didn¡¯t take long before deciding not to do something he had never tried. He could already see the inglorious death by tripping if he tried to jump around with attributes he wasn¡¯t used to. Unfortunately, he would likely have to leave the Dragonheart Plum behind. While it was beyond precious, there wasn¡¯t much use he could get from it since the attributes it could affect were all maxed out. The most it could do was act as sustenance, which would be disastrous to his Impurity levels, so that was out of the question. He thought of storing it in his spatial stone, no matter the degradation that would ur, but the chance of the snake still watching stopped that n from going further. It might get angry that he was once again wasting the Plum. After some hesitation, William said, ¡°Senior, I won¡¯t be able to carry the Dragonheart Plum with me. You seem to have enj-¡± He cut himself off when the Plum floated toward the leaf ceiling above before disappearing through it. With a mental pat on the back for not making a rushed mistake, he nodded at where he thought the snake was and walked to the edge of the wide branch. Nothing seemed to be waiting for a delicious meal to fall from the sky, so that was a positive. William moved closer to the tree trunk to make the jumps to the branches below more predictable. The distance between each branch had to be around fifteen feet, but he made quick work of them. After thirty or so jumps, Williamnded softly on the forest floor, looking around warily to ensure the beast wouldn¡¯t pop out of a nearby bush. It was impossible, of course, mainly since the spirit beast was far too massive to hide anywhere, but better to be foolishly paranoid than cluelessly killed. Besides figuring out if anything was hiding nearby, William recognized how bare this forest was regarding anything valuable. While most spirit fruits would be useless to him, not all were so sensitive that they weren¡¯t storable in his spatial stone. That had been his n, but he didn¡¯t expect it to fail before he could even try. Then again, it made sense on second thought. If the paradise he somehow wandered into was the personal garden of the owner of this dimension, these trees were the primary source of what was being grown. Why would any nutrients be left on the forest floor for anything else to grow? William sighed in resignation at the thought of not being able to gain any free stat points in the form of spirit nts. Since that probably wouldn¡¯t be possible, it was time to hunt. Not that beast that could swallow him in one bite, but something that was more his style. Perhaps a lovely little Sky Hare would reappear, offering itself as a sacrifice. William would be d to go on another killing spree if he could find them again, especially since he now knew that none could be left alive for his own safety. Of course, he wouldn¡¯t be lucky enough to find the bunny-shaped experience points, so he would settle for some deer or a sloth, and if not those, perhaps some friendly sheep. Those were nice hopes to have as William trekked through the seemingly endless forest. He kept an ear out for possible dangers, but after hours of walking endlessly through the simr sights of spaced-out trees and sparse bushes in between, it got to a point where he almost wished for something exciting to happen. Moreover, William started worrying that this entire dimension was simply this nd forest. It wasn¡¯t enough to leave the depths of his mind to be something he focused on, mainly since the snake did imply that it was possible to find something that could impress it down here. He sighed and picked up his running speed, but not enough to deplete his Stamina. He wondered if there was a status for how much stamina he was consuming since he was currently going by an approximation of how his body felt. William darted past a few trees with the barest hint of his focus on the system, expecting to hear an alert of the new information added, just like it did with Spiritual Energy, but unfortunately, he was destined to be disappointed when nothing happened. He put that aside and continued to run as fast as he could without being careless before stopping when he finally felt his Stamina deplete faster than it recovered. While William wasn¡¯t sure how long it had been since he had tried to run his way out of the forest, he knew countless miles had been covered since the start. But it seemed to William like he had made no progress. For the life of him, he couldn¡¯t tell if he was in a different spot since everything looked the same. The trees, the bushes, the endless forest as far as the eye could see, it was all as if he was running in circles. William¡¯s breath hitched in realization at thest thought. He had seen arrays in use and knew it was versatile beyond imagination. So it wouldn¡¯t be too much of a shock if he actually was running around in circles. Maybe he had fallen into one the moment hended on the forest floor? That possibility made William¡¯s heart chill. If this was an illusion he was stuck in, he was basically a sitting duck for anything wanting to snack on him. ¡­ It might also be why it seemed like the forest was utterly dead. While William didn¡¯t expect the situation with the scarcity of spirit nts to change, he certainly expected some encounters with spirit beasts. The issue now was that William had zero clue of how to get himself out of this mess¡­ if his assumption of being stuck in an array was true in the first ce. Chapter 74: Death Inches Away Chapter 74: Death Inches Away A Lightning Berry dropped to the ground before William walked away, slowly picking up speed until it reached the manageable sprint that he was in previously. He was heading in an almost straight line from the berry, something he was being doubly sure of by focusing on the direction he was running. William knew nothing about how to break out of arrays other than his superficial knowledge from reading novels in his old world. The extent of that knowledge was things like Qi sensing, mental fortitude, and other vague nonsense. William understood that the people writing those novels didn¡¯t bother to go into details, and for the rare ones that did, he skipped over them to get to the action scenes. Something he dearly regretted at the moment, especially since he saw something familiar on the ground. William slowed to a stop and stared at the Lightning Berry mocking him by reappearing. This made his guess of being stuck in an illusion array a reality. Before he bumbled around and tried the vague tricks he recalled reading in the old world, there was one more direction to try. Up. There was a chance that the trap might only be effective if he was on the forest floor. William made a light jump, reaching the lowest branch easily before following it with two more jumps in quick session, easily covering around fifty feet in length. Or so he thought until he nced down. He was still on the branch closest to the forest floor, as if he hadn¡¯t made the following jumps at all. William wondered what this looked like from outside the array. He could feel that he was using up some stamina when running or jumping, so it could be possible he was doing all his actions in one spot like an idiot. Or something worse, like the array being able to affect his mind into thinking he¡¯s been tiring himself. William froze, feeling that there was something he was missing. It was just at the edge of his thoughts but frustratingly far enough that he couldn¡¯t grasp it. However, what he did get was a sharp pain shooting through his head. Now he knew something was wrong. Headaches, while beyond annoying, couldn¡¯t hurt to the point where the world went a little blurry. At least, not anymore after he had be the punching bag of this world. Of course, it might be possible that William had just gained some sort of brain damage due to the array keeping it from his sight. Still, if that was the case, this was already the end, so he didn¡¯t worry about it. Besides, William felt that he might cause himself some brain damage since trying to think about what he forgot only increased the pain he was feeling in his head. Not that it deterred him since more pain meant he was on the right track, at least in his mind. William flinched when it felt like the headache had increased to a new level before frowning when something warm trickled down his nose. He touched his lips before ncing at his finger, seeing blood covering the tips. William could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest before he eventually copsed on his knees, legs buckling under thebination of the ever-increasing pain and loss of strength. But even with that, William finally remembered what he was forgetting, mainly due to the nosebleed. The blood should have been apanied by a loss of health, but the system didn¡¯t show him an alert. It meant whatever was happening was part of the illusion. However, what that truly meant didn¡¯t register in William¡¯s pain-filled mind as he tried to pull up the system logs. [h???e?????a????l?????t????h???:????? ????1?????2????] The moment he looked at the unreadable message, the world literally shattered like ss around him. It was strange, feeling the mind-bending pain disappear instantly as if it had never existed, but that wasn¡¯t a focus for William. He was more concerned about the world that suddenly came into being around him. There had been plenty of times when fear was the only thing William could feel. The worst instance he could think of was when that higher leveled Sky Hare was snarling at him mere feet away. However, the current situation easily set a new level. [Name: Draebern | Level: 54] The beast was right next to William, and while it was moving around like it was disoriented, it was big enough that every step it took as it wobbled around lightly shook the ground. It must have been a miracle that he hadn¡¯t been crushed under its foot. Being this close to the beast let William see that the Draebern indeed was some odd dragon-bear mix. It had dark red fur with tiny spikes that seemed to increase and decrease in size with each breath, while the underside of the beast was covered with pale yellow scales that protected what should have been its weak spot. The Draebern looked indestructible to a weak cultivator like himself, and he made sure to avoid getting in the way of its stumbling steps, but not too far, because of another thing that added to this already deadly situation. He wanted to stay rtively close to this deadly spirit beast. Surrounding William, or the Draebern, on all sides were diminutive creatures resembling a sleek, shadowy canine with luminescent, yellow eyes. Their fur was as dark as the deepest ck, seemingly absorbing all the light around them and likely making them almost impossible to track in the dark. Luckily for William, it seemed like this dimension would always be filled with sufficient light. In the time he had been here, the night never made an appearance. [Name: Shadowpack Hunter | Level: 23] There were far too many to count. All William knew was that he would get ripped apart by these things if he strayed too far from the Draebern. Every time he stepped too far away, a few pairs of glowing eyes moved from the massive spirit beast to him, waiting for a chance to pounce. He needed to escape, and the first thing to do was use Observe on one of these things. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Shadowpack Hunter Level: 23 Cultivation: Immature Beast (Level 2) Health: 983/1100 Spiritual Energy: 70/105 Spirit: 21 Strength: 25 Stamina: 24 Agility: 36 William noticed the reduced health and spiritual energy, suggesting that these Shadowpack Hunters might have had a fight with the Draebern. It could also be possible that these things might have pushed the Draebern into the trap. The thought of the massive spirit beast wandering into it was ridiculous unless it wasn¡¯t native to this forest. He sidestepped again to avoid the stumbling Draebern and took out a Lightning Berry from his spatial stone before throwing it past the mass of Shadowpack Hunters, hoping he could see some of them distracted by it. Unfortunately, none of them batted an eye and continued to stare intently at the Draebern. William knew he couldn¡¯t continue to depend on deterrence to keep his life, especially since it wouldn¡¯t stay as calm as this forever. Since they were watching the Draebern closely, it meant they were waiting for the right time to attack. He had no intention of being in the middle of that. He nced up and noticed the branch closest to the forest floor had been ripped off the tree. It had been intact before William had fallen into the illusion, so again, he wondered how he hadn¡¯t gotten injured in the fight that obviously happened around him. William gauged the distance of the next closest branch and immediately realized that he needed to use his Impact Boots. With his Agility a little higher than the Shadowpack Hunter he used Observe on, he wanted to rely on his natural physical skills to escape, mainly because he was terrified that in the aftermath of using the Boots, the crater he would leave behind would take the Draebern out of the illusion. Apparently, it was a risk he would have to take. If everything worked out, perhaps he could even act like a vulture and take out whoever was weakened in the aftermath of the fight. William kept an eye on the Draebern as he activated his Impact Boots and jumped. The ground trembled as he left behind a small crater, rocketing well past the branch he aimed for. He heard a hair-raising roar echo through the forest as the Draebern was indeed taken out of the illusion. Still, as much as he wished to observe what was happening when the Shadowpack Hunters started yipping in panic, he was frantically trying to find which branch he could grab ahold of so he wouldn''t fall right back into that fight below. Chapter 75: Unexpected Winner Chapter 75: Unexpected Winner William grunted as he threw a Qi-infused palm at the underside of the branch he was flying towards. It was either that or smack into the branch face first. If he survived this day, he would definitely remember how much of a boost the Impact Boots now gave him. He winced when his palm broke through the wood and lodged itself in the branch. The sudden jarring stop rattled his body, but the goal was aplished. He was no longer flying recklessly with little control. William was surprised to see that he didn¡¯t lose any health, but he sure as hell felt that his hand was throbbing in dull pain. Luckily, he could look to the system if he should care about it. The decision was that he shouldn¡¯t care. The problem now was that he was hanging precariously with only his embedded palm keeping him from falling back into the snarls and yips that were constantly being let out below him. Though, it was far fainter than William expected. He looked down, eyes widening at the sheer distance between him and the forest floor. The massive Draebern was back to being the tiny dot it was when he first saw it when he woke up. Of course, now that he knew it was covered with dark red fur, his eyes could see the hints of that color. Even at this distance, William shuddered at the rage he could hear in the Draebern¡¯s roars as it flung the attackers away. The Shadowpack Hunters didn¡¯t seem to be deterred by the destruction they were facing. However, he had to admit it was impossible to see them entirely. William knew they hadn¡¯t run away in fear because of the plentiful pairs of luminescent yellow eyes that moved ever closer to the Draebern every second. He even tracked the ones that had beenunched far away by an attack, but they seemed to rejoin the pack a few secondster. William shook his head, trying to ignore the brawl and get his feet on top of the branch instead of dangling in the air. Then he could worry about what to do about that fight he inadvertently started. He kept his palm spread to keep it lodged inside as he easily moved his body close to the branch while trying to use the grooves to grip it with his free hand. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could grab that he trusted to release his lodged hand. William didn¡¯t want to waste his Spiritual Energy, but he supposed saving his own life couldn¡¯t be called a waste. He thrust his free palm with Qi surrounding it, embedding it deep enough into the branch to be confident enough to pull out the other. With how wide the branch was, William had to repeat it three times before he was able to reach the end and firmly grip the top edge. With a little grunt, he pulled himself up and sighed in relief when his feet were back on firm ground¡­ well, on a firm tform-sized branch, but it was the same thing, really. William nced up, surprised that he was already halfway to the leaf ceiling. If he could jump this high, though it was with some external boost, he wondered how far of a drop he could just walk off casually. Of course, it wasn¡¯t anything he was going to try at the moment, but definitely something he needed to figure out to know the limits of his body. He flinched when the Draebern let out a roar that was louder than any of the others before, and this one seemed to be for a different reason. It still sounded savage, but a sort of desperation was added to it. William frowned as he looked over the edge. He had no idea why he thought he could understand the beast''s emotions simply by the roars it let out. However, his eyes widened in shock at what he saw. The Draebern was utterly covered in Shadowpack Hunters. As in, William couldn¡¯t see that hint of red fur anymore. All he could tell was that the Draebern wastched on by so many Shadowpack Hunters that the deep ck fur of the canine-like beasts massed together enough that it seemed to darken the light around them. William winced when the Draebern roared again, but he could tell it was significantly weaker this time. He observed the movement of the Shadowpack Hunter-covered Draebern slow before finallying to a standstill. He could barely believe what had happened, even though he was a witness to the entire thing. The Draebern seemed as invincible as can be up close, but it was taken down by a pack of far weaker beasts. William stared in fascination at the shifting mass of pitch-ck fur before stiffening in fear with countless glowing yellow eyes suddenly appearing. They seemed to all be staring right at him. His first instinct was to duck out of view, but with how seamlessly they seemed to work together to take down the Draebern, losing sight of these things might be the worst possible thing to do. He remembered the agility of the one Shadowpack Hunter he had Observed and was confident he could escape if he had enough of a head start. William knew that his escape route would involve jumping between branches, the exact thing he wanted to avoid, but that risk was better to take than get eaten alive like that Draebern did. He and the Shadowpack Hunter continued to have the staring contest with hundreds of feet between them, seemingly determined not to be the one that blinked first. William brought his Spiritual Energy levels in front of him to check what he had left. Spiritual Energy: 131/175 (20% per Hour) He had used fifty Spiritual Energy in the process to get on this branch, so he could tell the approximate time that passed by how Spiritual Energy was recovered. William quickly figured out that it was only ten minutes. Those glowy-eyed things killed that Draebern in ten minutes. Ten minutes. William shuddered again as he began forming an escape n. This staring contest reminded him of what the Shadowpack Hunters did with the Draebern when it was stuck in the illusion array. If the next step was simr, then they would soon be attacking, though how that was possible with the distance between them, he didn¡¯t know. Nheless, William strained all his senses to pay attention to his surroundings while taking quick nces at the distance of the branches to the other trees. As long as he didn¡¯t be careless, he should be able to easily cover the distance with his natural physical ability without using Spiritual Energy. The most important thing was to get as close to the leaf ceiling as possible. If worse came to worse, he would take his chances with the seemingly amicable snake guarding the personal garden of this dimension¡¯s master. William¡¯s ears twitched when he heard something that didn¡¯t sound like the normal sounds the forest had made so far. It was like the world moved in slow motion as he cracked the branch under his feet with the force he used to push away. Right where his head previously was, a Shadowpack Hunter flew by with ws outstretched. Its glowing yellow stared right at him as it bared its teeth. William already saw it was up here alone, either as the lone distraction or for something else. Either way, he wouldn¡¯t let it go by with its life intact. With a bloodthirsty grin that was out of ce on William¡¯s usually neutral face, heunched an attack without a thought of holding back, wanting to slice through the beast, bisecting it for daring to attack him. The Qi-infused palmnded sessfully on its soft stomach, making the Shadowpack Hunter let out a pained squeal as it wasunched by the force of William¡¯s attack. It mmed into the opposite tree before falling a few hundred feet and crashing on a branch near the forest floor. [+450 XP] The experience points were good to get, but William was more concerned about how the Shadowpack Hunter didn¡¯t die immediately after his attack. From what Qin Yu told him, his attacks were strong enough to take down things above level thirty. That concern was chased out of his mind when he nced back at where the Hunters had massed. They were gone. The only thing left seemed to be the skeletal remains of the Draebern, the flesh stripped off cleanly to thest piece. William¡¯s heart started to thunder in his chest as he immediately made to follow his escape n. Without hesitation, he ran to the edge of the branch and jumped. Chapter 76: Running for His Life Chapter 76: Running for His Life William''s heart skipped a beat when hended far too close to the edge of the branch he aimed for. However, he didn¡¯t slow down. He immediately jumped again, this time correcting the amount of force he put into it. The escape n worked as intended and far more smoothly than Wim ever expected. He tried to travel in a straight line, hoping to find an exit from the forest. Still, rather than depending on what might need a miracle, he slowly worked to make his backup n possible. Every few jumps, he climbed higher and higher till he was as close as could be to the leaf ceiling. William felt that he must have been jumping at the ridiculous pace for well over ten minutes, enough to the point where it was bing almost as easy as breathing. It allowed him to have thoughts other than focusing on not falling to his death. Spiritual Energy: 138/175 (20% per Hour) He almost tripped over his feet in surprise, nearly falling to his death after the self-praise when he saw that he had recovered twelve Spiritual Energy. Almost twenty minutes had passed since he started to flee. That should mean William was safe from the chasing Shadowpack Hunters unless they somehow had better maneuverability on the treetops than he did, which would simply be unfair. Still, it wasn¡¯t anything that he would say was impossible, especially since he had seen what they were capable of. Plus, the fact that the lone Shadowpack Hunter he killed had somehow climbed the tree surprised him. He still didn¡¯t know how that had happened. William¡¯s confidence in navigating from branch to branch without disaster falling on him grew enough to nce around, making sure there weren¡¯t any signs of glowing yellow eyes on his tail. There weren¡¯t. It could be possible that the things had given up the chase, and it might even be wise for William to slow the pace to be more careful about his surroundings. After all, what was there to suggest that spirit beasts only lived on the forest floor? Still, he would take his chances instead of risking possible capture followed by having his flesh ripped apart. The hope was the presence of the snake''s domain so close would deter most spirit beasts from getting close. William continued to flee at the same pace, looking more and more at the surroundings at possible danger instead of focusing on the act of fleeing itself. It was an unexpected boon that he would dly take. Moving this quickly while barely paying attention to his actions could be helpful in a fight. He didn¡¯t linger on the thought of stopping until he felt his stamina starting to be exhausted. While he did slow down considerably, almost to a walking pace, taking leisurely jumps to the next branch, he still had no intention of taking a break. And it was no longer solely because of his fear of the Shadowpack Hunters. In fact, William was confident he should be safe from them unless they could use Spiritual Energy to supplement their inferior Stamina. Of course, this assumed they all had simr stats to the only spirit beast he had used Observe on. Nheless, Shadowpack Hunters were no longer the encouragement for William¡¯s insistence to keep moving. In the far distance, almost at the edge of what he could make with his eyes, there was a change in the usual forest scenery. Instead of the tree trunks that seemed to be endlessly appearing at the limits of his vision, William saw something that he almost thought was a trick of the light. He wanted to speed up but recognized that he needed to conserve Stamina for any emergencies that popped up. Namely, if those Shadowpack Hunters somehow caught up to him. Besides, reaching the area he was eying wouldn¡¯t take much more than thirty minutes at this pace. The closer William got, the more obvious that the forest came to an abrupt end. However, whaty beyond the tree line confused him more than anything. It immediately went from a forest of trees that boggles the mind to sandy dunes taller than most mountains. If this was in the real world, William would have wondered how something like this was possible since it shouldn¡¯t be able to exist naturally. However, this dimension was likely made artificially, the sheer ridiculousness of which just registering in his mind. Williamnded softly on the branch of thest tree before the start of the desert. And that was quite the literal description. He looked down at the ground and saw the green forest floor immediately turn into sand, as if someone had drawn a line and dered it to be that way. In fact, for all he knew, that might be exactly how it happened. William hesitated to climb down the tree, mainly because he would be easy pickings for anything stronger than him with nowhere to hide in the desert. He wanted to wait and see if he was still being chased before deciding his next move. With the tness of the desert before the sand dunes towered on the horizon, it would take him well over an hour to cover the distance at a full sprint. Not only was that foolish to do, but it was also impossible. William¡¯s stamina was still closer to empty than full from his constant jumping. He leaned against the tree trunk, intending to rx as his stamina recovered. The more he stared into the endless desert, the worse the idea of leaving the forest became. All William could see was sand, with more sand waiting in the distance after trekking through the sand. With it being a desert, he supposed that made sense, but that only made him want to avoid the ce altogether. While the forest was dangerous, at the very least, there were spirit beasts that he could hunt for experience points, likely some spirit nts that could be more beneficial for higher cultivation, and most importantly, it didn¡¯t have endless sand everywhere. William figured the one thing that didn¡¯t seem to exist was the dry heat a desert was known for. It likely wouldn¡¯t do much to affect him since he was no longer mortal. Still, he was trying to think of positives along with the endless bashing he was putting on this sandy hell. Unfortunately, it was the only thing he could think of. William¡¯s mental whining was broken when he heard a faint sound below, making him turn his focus to it. The sight made him add a second positive to the desert. There didn¡¯t seem to be any Shadowpack Hunters to chase him relentlessly. A couple trees away, on a branch that was a few levels below where William was currently standing, there was a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring directly at him. It seemed to be alone, but he wasn¡¯t going to wait around and see if it would soon be joined by the whole pack. William firmed his resolve and bent his knees slightly, intending to take his chances with the snake instead of trying to run away again. It was already a miracle that he hadn¡¯t met a situation that would have meant death on his way to the forest''s edge. He had seen plenty of spirit beasts that looked up to observe his frantic escape from the forest floor, some of which looked even more ferocious than the Draebern. While they made no move to take action against the first human they likely had seen in a long time, he wasn¡¯t about to test his luck again. William jumped and reached the leaf ceiling easily, not minding the angry growls from where the Shadowpack Hunter stood. In fact, it sounded like the growl came from multiple Hunters, not that he looked to check. He was only focused on getting himself into the snake¡¯s domain. Well, that was the n until he was blocked from entering. William immediately dropped back to the branch, shoved away the crushing panic rising, and plotted his next n. He had hoped that he would still have ess, but it was likely that the snake had taken it away. William¡¯s eyes darted at the branches in reach and tried to see which would be the best to take until he realized a few secondster that the growling had stopped. He frowned at the Shadowpack Hunter, now joined by a few friends, as it silently stared at him. To test the theory forming in his mind, he jumped again, quickly reaching the leaf ceiling and almost instantly making the growlse back with a vengeance. William didn¡¯t intend on trying to enter the next level, so when he started to fall back down, he kept his eyes on the Hunters. The growls lessened as he dropped closer to the branch before disappearing when hended. ¡°Looks like you don¡¯t want me to go up,¡± William muttered to himself. That¡¯s what he thought until he saw the multiple pairs of yellow eyes move up and down in unison. ¡°Can I go back in there?¡± William was pointing into the forest, and when he saw the yellow eyes move side to side, it was confirmed they knew what he was saying. That didn¡¯tfort him, especially when it seemed that the whole pack had caught up. The branch the Hunters were standing on seemed like a ck void. Understanding human speech meant that these Shadowpack Hunters were far more intelligent than he gave them credit for. Instead of facing a pack of mindless beasts, it was beasts with human-like intelligence. No wonder the Draebern fell so quickly to them. William hesitated before pointing at the desert silently, already knowing the answer. The yellow eyes moved up and down. Chapter 77: To Cross the Line, or Not? Chapter 77: To Cross the Line, or Not? William wasn¡¯t happy. That was understating it, but without making himself sound like thergest coward to ever exist, the best way he could describe his feelings was ¡®unhappy.¡¯ ¡°How about apromise? I¡¯ll stay on this branch and won¡¯t move an inch.¡± The growls that started immediately told William that this wouldn¡¯t be an option he could consider. He supposed he could always do as the Hunters wanted and head out into the desert. While his Stamina had recovered and he was at his peak state, the insistence of these things with him leaving the forest was highly suspicious. William was thinking of the Shadowpack Hunter he had killed. If they were as intelligent as he suspected, he wouldn¡¯t put it beyond them to decide that a fate worse than death would be the price for the killing. After all, it wasn¡¯t like the whole pack could feast on his body like they did with the Draebern. He was far too small for them to get any satisfaction from his flesh. At least, that was his thinking. In all of the previous times that William had encountered some type of decision he had to make, he had always chosen the path that would give him the best option of living, or if his life wasn¡¯t at stake, try to side with whichever would make his life easier. It wasn¡¯t so easy this time around. If William tried to stay, then it would result in death by Shadowpack Hunter. If he headed off into the desert, there was a chance for continued life, but he still didn¡¯t have much hope. He eyed the yellow eyes again and realized something. They refused to move any closer to him. It could be possible that this was another situation where they were waiting for a perfect moment to attack him, but with how opposed they were to his presence in the forest, that patience should have been exhausted when it seemed like he was about to escape into the snake¡¯s domain. ¡°I¡¯m going to stay right here,¡± William said with a shrug, trying to seem rxed with his decision. Though with spirit beasts known to have better senses, it wouldn¡¯t surprise him if they could hear his heart beating rapidly in his chest. William finally saw the Shadowpack Hunters do something other than simply stare at him. However, this somehow made him even more nervous. They turned to stare at each other for a few seconds before seeming toe to an agreement. He stiffened when the eyes were back on him. Almost by instinct, William jumped, just in time to see sharp teeth snap shut where his legs previously were. It was a testament to the harsh training he was put through that his following reaction was not to gape in shock but to try and turn the Shadowpack Hunter into meat paste. A pained yip was heard from the spirit beast¡¯s mouth when William¡¯s foot smashed into its back. He could feel the bones crack from his attack, but with the beast still not dead, William didn¡¯t hesitate to use his other foot to finish the job. [+450 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William¡¯s attacksunched the Shadowpack Hunter off the branch, its limp body flying far enough tond in the desert. That was until he saw something that might be why the pack seemed reluctant toe close to him. The dead body of the Hunter disintegrated into nothingness under William¡¯s astonished gaze. He quickly nced at the ground and saw it was around the same ce where the forest turned into a desert. William turned his attention back to the pack as his feetnded on the branch. Now he was beyond confused about what their intentions were. Since none of them followed their recently in brethren to attack him, they had just sacrificed one of their members to tell him why they wouldn¡¯te closer. Or at least, that was the reasoning William coulde up with. There was also the chance that the whole chase through the forest for this purpose. Simply to get him out of here. Of course, William still considered ignoring what the Hunters wanted from him and letting theme at him individually. If he could get himself easy experience points just like he did with the Sky Hares, that would be perfectly fine with him. Since he apparently shouldn¡¯t ever get his wish, the Shadowpack Hunters bared their teeth at him. They seemed ready to attack in unison as if they saw through his intention. The first thing William intended to do if he ever got out of this ce was to find out what the hell made him an open book. He could ept higher realm cultivators seeing through him, but spirit beasts that were basically at the same level? That was too much. ¡°Alright, fine,¡± William gave up with a raise of his hands, ¡°I¡¯ll leave.¡± Under the watch of countless glowing yellow eyes, William made quick work of getting to the forest floor. He stood right at the line and nced up again, seeing that they were waiting patiently for him to step over into the desert. William just hoped he wouldn¡¯t disintegrate like the dead Hunters he had kicked over the line. It would all depend on his luck, he supposed. Speaking of luck, he remembered that he had unused stat points. [+5 Luck] That took William¡¯s Luck attribute to thirty-eight, close to the max it could be until he reached the third level of Qi Gathering. He dearly wished that something could break through his attribute limits, or else he would be left with a truly ridiculous amount of unused stat points, and nothing to use them on. William stopped dying when he saw that a few of the Hunters had moved closer to his position with their teeth bared. After taking a deep breath, he stepped over the boundary with a wince, fully prepared to lose his foot. Thankfully, he could sigh in relief when his foot sank slightly into the sand. William was able to instantly feel a drastic change in the weather. Instead of thefortable warmth he felt less than a few feet behind him, he was sted with the full force of everything that made the desert a terrible ce. Even with his cultivation, William felt the insanely high temperaturebined with the utterck of humidity. It shouldn¡¯t have felt as terrible as it did. Still, there was something unnatural with the desert besides the fact that it was inside a separate dimension. William instinctively turned around to head back into the forest, no matter what those spirit beasts thought of it. However, his jaw almost dropped in shock when all he saw was more desert. It was like the forest had been a figment of his imagination, which he knew couldn¡¯t be true. After all, he still had all the benefits gained from eating the Dragonheart Plum. William looked around, trying to see if anything hinted at him to head in the correct direction, but other than the sand that he could see close by, all he could see was more sand, except in the form of massive dunes in the distance on all sides. No matter where he looked, it was all the same. His throat felt strangely dry when he realized that he would need to rely on his Luck to guide him, and that was something he wasn¡¯t keen on. He was no Li Xinyue to be favored by the heavens. William quickly checked his spatial stone, reassuring himself that there was plenty of sustenance that would keep him alive even in this inhospitable environment. That meant all he had to worry about was whatever dangers lived within the sand. He hoped there would be none, but in all likelihood, what would a dimension like this be without dangers everywhere? Since William would need to rely on his Luck, he decided to just use the wind to make his decision and walked toward the direction it was blowing. Chapter 78: Adverse Conditions Chapter 78: Adverse Conditions William was on his hands and knees, fingers buried in the coarse sand as he panted heavily with sweat dripping down his face. He had stored his outer robes in the spatial stone when the heat became far too unbearable, with most of the clothes soon following when even that was too much. William only had his underwear and the Impact Boots on his body, and even still, it felt like he would spontaneouslybust. So much for his belief that the desert weather couldn¡¯t affect him since he wasn¡¯t a mortal. His cultivation meant nothing here. Especially since he had gained a trait that would kill him eventually. Adverse Conditions in Environment - Loss of 50 Health per hour As William hade to realize, on multiple instances already, his cultivation meant nothing here. It certainly didn¡¯t stop him from getting a trait that would kill him in less than a day. Of course, he had plenty of Vitality Restoration Pills in his spatial stone, capable of extending his life for weeks. Still, the result of ingesting so many pills would increase the Impurity in his body so much that cultivation would be a path cut off from him unless he met someone at Daoist Chen¡¯s level. In other words, that was simply a death of a different kind. Thankfully, it seemed that only a little over thirty minutes had passed, and speaking of time, that horrible trait he recently gained dide with the convenient advantage of letting him keep track of that. Health: 1073/1100 Positive thoughts were always good things to have, or some saying simr to that. William was too stressed to give a damn if that was correct or not. He was currently halfway up one of the sand dunes he had seen at the start, and he dreaded what he would see when he reached the top. If it was more sand and even taller dunes in the distance, there might be a chance that he would experience a mental break. William had been thanking his luck that he hadn¡¯t woken up in the void when he was first dropped into this dimension, but even that would have likely been a better choice. Trudging along, popping pills to extend your lifespan, all the while knowing that death still awaited you in the end and nothing could be done except for hoping a miracle would drop out of nowhere, was horrible. Horrible enough that the desert would soon join the void as the ces William feared the most. However, that all depended on whether hope could be seen at the top. With a grunt, William pushed himself back on his feet after his Stamina had recovered. It was being sapped at a much faster pace than usual, so that was another thing that would slow his progress up the sand dune. With it having taken around three to four hours to reach the halfway point up the sand dune, it should be a little longer than that to reach the peak, with the steepness of the dune increasing the higher he climbed. It was a series of slow climbs followed by William on all fours on the sand, waiting for his Stamina to recover before getting on his feet again. He didn¡¯t have the presence of mind to keep track of how many times he had done that, but he knew how much time had passed. Health: 761/1100 Just over six hours of slogging through the exhaustion got William right to the top. There were still a few more steps to take, but he wanted to ensure his Stamina was full, just in case. While most of William¡¯s mind was filled with crude curses at his situation, he was well aware that he had somehow spent most of the day walking but still hadn¡¯t encountered anything dangerous. While he hoped this area was so inhospitable that even spirit beasts couldn¡¯t exist, it was better to be cautious. And the least he could do was make sure his Stamina was at its peak when he was about to step into a ce that hopefully wasn¡¯t simply more sand as far as the eye could see. William tried to expect the worst as he slowly stepped to the peak of the sand dune, hoping beyond hope that there was something different within his vision. His eyes frantically darted across the barrenndscape as the wind gusted around him. With sand being the only thing he could see at first nce, William couldn¡¯t practically feel the cracks in his mind forming at his hopeless future. However, his heart skipped a beat when he caught a glimpse of something in the distance. A tiny dot, barely visible amidst the vast expanse of the desert. While he wanted to let himself feel relief, nothing assured him this wasn¡¯t just a particrlyrge rock. Still, this was enough for William to regain a small amount of hope that would let him push through this hell. It was the smallest of mercies that the trek down the sand dune was nowhere near as taxing as climbing it. William still had to pause asionally to let his Stamina recover, but that was to be expected. Health: 605/1100 It took William a little over three hours to reach the bottom of the dune, which was quicker than expected, but wee nheless. However, the tiny dot in the distance had barely changed in size. Assuming that this wasn¡¯t his mind ying cruel tricks by creating the shittiest of mirages, he guessed that it would take him the better part of a day to reach what he was seeing. The question was whether he should take a Vitality Respiration Pill preemptively to be safe. It would take him into stage two of Impurity immediately, but he would have peace of mind in the short term, as in the next few hours. William grunted and decided to see what would happen on the way there. If the dot didn¡¯t get bigger, it would be time to forget about Impurity levels and other such nonsense and go into pure survival mode instead of hinging his hopes on something. Hours passed, his health decreased by the minute, but William was still in good spirits. In great spirits, actually. With every step he took, the anticipation of finding a miracle grew, and his exhausted mind seemed to gain a new life. That dot was no rock but a sweet, life-saving, beautiful oasis. Heaven in the middle of a dead desert, and William wasn¡¯t describing it simply because of the harsh contrast with its surroundings. At his full sprint, he was no more than a few more minutes from the oasis, and he could clearly see the paradise it offered. Lush palm trees were moving slightly in the breeze, with plentiful shadows that would hopefully give William a break from his newly gained trait. In the center was an inviting body of water, and while he couldn¡¯t be sure from this distance, it looked crystal clear. His parched throat almost cried in relief at the sight, even though he knew his body didn¡¯t need food or water for a day or so more. The simple option to have it without thinking of future supply was a balm on his mind. If William had to think of the closestparison of the oasis, he would say that the illusion Daoist Chen created would be the closest. Everything he wished for was presented to him right when he was losing all hope. William¡¯s entire body slumped in relief when his feet stepped onto the soft grass. Not only was theck of sand under his foot something he wanted to cheer about, the drastic difference between the weather was astonishing. It felt like he was right back in the forest, with everything feeling just right. [Trait Removed | Adverse Conditions in Environment] William let out a manic chuckle when he was no longer under the threat of dying simply by being alive. Health: 297/1100 The trek to the oasis from the bottom of the sand dune took a little over six hours. It wasn¡¯t as bad as William was expecting. He nced at his Impurity level briefly before shaking his head. Restoring his health with a pill would still take him to the next stage. With his safety hopefully no longer in question, William wanted to wait a little longer before taking that step. Chapter 79: Paradise Chapter 79: Paradise His mind only had one thing to focus on. Cultivating. After the day-long slog through the desert, sitting in one ce, with a soft breeze blowing around him and the shade of the palm tree above him, William felt he could live like this forever. Cultivation had be a rxation activity. He supposed it was fitting. William circted his Qi through his pathways onest time before exhaling and slowly opening his eyes. [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 27 Hours: +270 XP] Even the picturesque view of the oasis in front of him couldn¡¯t stop William from sighing in happiness after he read the alert. He had thought the forest was overpowered in terms of being a cultivation environment. Still, it was nothingpared to the experience points practically being thrown to him by the oasis. All William was thinking about was how many levels he could gain and how to best allocate his time so he could spend as much of it cultivating as possible. At the rate the oasis allowed, it would take about nine days for him to increase his experience by two thousand points. That type of reward was only given when he had done something extraordinary, or more likely, bruised and bloodied by training or fighting for his life. While William wished he could somehow find a way back to the forest and wipe out those Shadowpack Hunters for pushing him into such dire straits, that massive experience point gain for killing them onlysted a few levels before it drastically fell off when he was too strong. Of course, this was assuming that he didn¡¯t get ripped apart by the Hunters before any of his murderous fantasies were allowed to happen. However, William allowed himself to imagine lording over the beasts. It wasn¡¯t like they could growl at him to stop that. He shook his head and stood up, leaving the spot he had upied for the past day, and decided to explore the oasis to see if there were any other surprises. Of course, he hoped for surprises of a good kind, but that wasn¡¯t really in his control. Before William settled down to cultivate, he had done a cursory check to ensure he wouldn¡¯t be killed by something while trying to refocus his mind. Still, he had to admit that it was nowhere close to being thorough. Then again, while the oasis was a paradise for him, it wasn¡¯t like there were countless spots that could be perfect hiding ces. The only part of the oasis that William was still worried about was the crystal clear pond that took up most of the center of the oasis. While he could barely remember the details of his readings in the past life, it was amon urrence for such a body of water to be filled with death... or be some sort of treasure that empires would fight over. Of course, William would be beyond happy if the water was just that, water. Anything more was a bonus. As he stood near the edge, he was surprised that he could barely see the bottom when looking around twenty feet away, hinting that perhaps it would be better to call it a tinyke. William wasn¡¯t sure why, but he was tempted to scoop some of the water and have a taste. Well, that was a lie. He knew exactly why. Even though William imed he would be more than happy to know that the water was nothing special, he still hoped it would give him something extraordinary. William tried to pretend he was above all that, but he was endlessly greedy. He would make an excellent, ssic old monster. Act all grandfatherly, then randomly kill off an entire species because there¡¯s a pretty stone they wouldn¡¯t give him. ... Perhaps not so exaggeratedly ridiculous, but the point was made. The only thing missing is being the ¡®old monster.¡¯ William would get there in time. He couldn¡¯t wait until he didn¡¯t need to nod at what every powerful cultivator and, apparently, spirit beasts told him to do. He shook his head and frowned at the odd tangent his thoughts veered off into. Then again, thinking of something frivolous after days of being focused on surviving felt nice. William took out one of the many useless Lightning Berries stored in the spatial stone and held it above the clear water. While he wanted to see if drinking the water would benefit him, he still wanted to test if it was harmful, and the only way he could think to do that was to use a spirit fruit. They were highly sensitive to harmful surroundings, and that included direct contact with something poisonous. It was likely the reason the snake wanted him to leave its domain. If the Lightning Berry didn¡¯t deteriorate, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily mean the water would surely be safe to William, but the likelihood would be significantly higher. The berry plopped into the water with a tiny ssh, sinking quickly to the shallow bottom. He could still see it clearly and was d for it since he wouldn¡¯t have believed what had happened otherwise. The Lightning Berry was a spirit fruit that was a snack to newborn spirit beasts, rich mortals, and low-level cultivators. It wasn¡¯t that sects hadn¡¯t tried to make the Lightning Berry more fit for consumption by higher realm cultivators, but all the attempts had resulted in failures. It had consistently evolved into a different spirit fruit, which erased the ease of growing the Lightning Berry, taking away the entire reason the attempt was made in the first ce. William crouched to get an unnecessarily closer look, trying to make sure what he saw was real. The Lightning Berry¡¯s exterior didn¡¯t look any different from usual, but that wasn¡¯t the key indicator of a spirit fruit¡¯s quality. It was a heartbeat-like pulse, like the one in the Dragonheart Plum. A strong, yellow pulse came from the center of the Lightning Berry. Dropping it in the water had somehow aged the fruit by centuries like it had been carefully cared for while having ess to a limitless amount of Qi in its environment. William hesitantly prodded the water¡¯s surface with a finger, then submerged his hand when nothing happened to grab the berry. He still tried to make it as quick as possible to avoid any unknown adverse effects, but that split second in the water was enough for something to happen. Impurity: Stage 1 (76%) 8 Days Remaining He nced at his Impurity as he carefully ced the enhanced Lightning Berry on the soft grass. With his Impurity decreasing slowly over the past few days, William couldn¡¯t be sure if it had changed after his hand was in the water, mostly because he hadn''t been paying too much attention to that information. However, the rapidly disappearing ck streaks in the water suggested it did. William recognized it as the gunk that Ren Bo had taken out of his body to reduce the impurity. It would be easy to find out the truth. William tried to tell himself that it was a dumb idea and not to rush into it, but everything made far too much sense. The increased Qi in the oasis, the rapid evolution of the Lightning Berry, and the faint signs of his Impurity extracted. The water was the source of it all. Besides, he was already in his underwear, so it was another reason to take a dip in the minike. William shed thest piece of fabric on his body and stored it in the spatial stone before walking slowly into the water. Thick, ck sludge was immediately extracted from his body, left behind in the water as he waded deeper into the minike. Impurity: Stage 1 (71%) 7 Days Remaining That confirmed what William thought, and it only decreased at a greater rate the more his body was submerged in the water. It wouldn¡¯t be long before he would be free of Impurity, and he hoped that his next guess was also correct. With how rapidly the Lightning Berry absorbed Qi to evolve into its new form, William hoped the same would apply to him when he tried cultivating in the water. He would walk deep enough to sit crosslegged with only his head above the water, allowing the most amount of water toe in contact with his body while still being able to breathe. Impurity: N/A William found the perfect spot and took a seat when his Impurity was removed. Still, he got an unexpected alert that made him briefly forget about his hopes of a massive number of experience points from cultivating in the water¡­ at least for a moment. [Modified | Max Attribute] [40 ¡ª> 45] Chapter 80: Secret of the Oasis Chapter 80: Secret of the Oasis William waited to see if the attribute max would increase anymore. When it didn¡¯t, he supposed that even a windfall like this had to stop. Anything more, and he figured it would be unreasonable. Well, more unreasonable than it already was. Of course, that was only if his cultivating speed would increase as he guessed. William sat straight in the water before closing his eyes, ensuring he wouldn¡¯t identally breathe in water because of bad posture. The beginning of the cultivation was fairly standard, with his Qi slowly starting to flow through his pathways. He was slightly disappointed that there didn¡¯t seem to be any elerated effect. Still, he supposed the increased max attribute was worth more in the long run. At the very least, it gave him the knowledge that there were things out there that would let him increase it. Since William was already starting to cultivate, plus the increased motivation to better himself and gain usable stat points, he decided to keep going. Over the next hour, the familiar sensation of his Qi getting denser before suddenly reverting to the original state happened around ten times. It was the fruit of his cultivation being converted to experience points. The following hour was far different, and William noticed the change immediately. With the average cultivation rate of the oasis, it took around five to six minutes for the cycle of his Qi to be dense before reverting back. It started to take around four seconds. William almost lost his concentration at sensing the rapid change in his Qi. Still, he recovered just in time as he reverted back to the focus that was necessary when he first started cultivating. Thoughts about stats, the outside world, or anything other than cultivating were blocked out. William kept circting his Qi, watching his pathways almost pulse with the quickness of the cycle of it reaching the limit before resetting back to normal. William had lost track after counting the thousandth time it had urred. It wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t keep up, but he started to purposely ignore it since he could feel the excitement building in him, enough to break him out of this state. He wasn¡¯t sure how long he had been cultivating when the insane rate of cultivation finally slowed to the usual of the oasis. After a few more circtions to ensure it was truly over, William opened his eyes with a broad smile on his lips. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly how many experience points he had gotten from that session, but it was definitely more than enough for a level. [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 1 hour: +10 XP] [Cultivate in Qi-rich environment for 8 hours: +8000 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 20 minutes: +3 XP] Williamughed loudly, finally d that things were going his way. There was no surprise increase of Impurity to ruin the mood, no random monster that would fly out of nowhere and nearly kick him to death¡­ He quickly looked around to make sure one hadn¡¯t popped into existence while he was being deliriously happy, and thankfully it was still safe. William was about to automatically max out his Spirit and Luck attribute before remembering that the enhanced Lightning Berry was still on the grass where he had ced it. It could be possible for it to give points to more attributes with its evolution, there was no way of knowing before actually eating it, but remembering how many attribute points the Dragonheart Plum gave him, he wanted to try his luck and go deeper into the minike. If the efficiency of the water strengthened further inside, it might be possible to raise the max of his attributes one more time. And while it would be harder to cultivate constantly deeper into the minike, he would try to find a way if he once again got that type of experience point gain. William took a deep breath before wading in, submerging his head under the water as he started to swim more than walk. He could feel something in the water changing, almost feeling like a supercharged version of what he experienced in the shallower area. Just when his excitement was about to shoot through the roof, thinking about all the possibilities, he was hit by an almost fatal alert. [-100 HP] William¡¯s emotion went from unmatched happiness to fear. A swing that could only be mentioned on the opposite ends of the spectrum. It wasn¡¯t that he lost a hundred health that made him dread for his life. It was that he had utterly forgotten to restore his health after bing enamored with all the benefits the oasis gave him. If not forgotten, then dyed long enough because of the apparent safety. Health: 197/1100 William had already burst into action the second he had received the alert for the lost health. He tried to pull the Vitality Restoration Pill to consume it underwater, but the pill instantly dissolved into nothing when it was taken out. William left nothing to chance and used his full speed to try and get back tond, including trying to use the Impact Boots, the only thing he was wearing at the moment. It was too bad that it refused to activate. He tried multiple times and was sure he wasn¡¯t screwing up the activation in panic. After the fourth failed try, he stopped the attempts and focused everything into swimming faster. All those tries urred within a fraction of a second, but that distraction length was enough. [-100 HP] William gritted his teeth as wisps of Qi dispersed through his body, helping with firming his muscles when he almost tore them to shreds with the strain he was putting on them. William had reached the part where he could stand on his feet in the water, but he wanted to leave nothing to chance and swam until he was forced to run when the water became too shallow. When he was back onnd, he got several feet away from the edge before pulling out a pill from the spatial stone. [+600 HP] William immediately took out another pill and was ready to take it the moment he felt the effects of the previous one dissipate. Health: 697/1100 A short nce at his health let him know how close it was to death. Something that could have slowed him down for another fraction of a second might have done the job. He looked back at the depths of the minike and wondered at what point it changed from beneficial to harmful. And, more importantly, why? Perhaps it was William¡¯s endless greed whispering in the back of his mind, but he hoped it was because he was too weak to enter that area. Perhaps it would be worth giving it another try after maxing an attribute. Since the water benefits cultivating the most, the Spirit attribute would make the most sense. Besides, it was one that he was going to max anyway. William felt the pill he had taken settle inside his body and took the one he was holding in his hand. [+403 HP] That brought his health back to full, so he should have plenty of time underwater before having to escape for his life. Of course, he should max his Spirit before trying again, but before that, he needed to see what the enhanced Lightning Berry offered him. He picked it off the grass and wondered if it was wiser to rid his Impurity before eating the spirit fruit. Impurity: Stage 1 (40%) 4 Days Remaining William had taken that on from the two Vitality Restoration Pills. Still, even at zero, it was likely that the Impurity would immediately go to stage two with how much the water enhanced the Lightning Berry. With a shrug, he popped the berry into his mouth and chewed, feeling the shocks running through his body, reminding him of the time he had eaten the fruit as a mortal. [+5 Stamina] [Max Stamina Reached] [+5 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] [+5 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 175 ¡ª> 200] [Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor)] [12% ¡ª> 11% Attribute Reduction] [Trait Added | Spirit nt Addict - XP Gain Decreased (10%)] William expected every single alert except for the Spirit. He certainly hoped that he would get that after eating the enhanced berry, but thought it was too much to wish for. Thankfully, the water passed some of its cultivation properties to the Lightning Berry. With the rtively low amount of Qi released from his dantianpared to how much he already possessed, William was able to guide it to his heart meridian without meditating. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t much of a change with the glowing speck, not that he expected anything. There was only one more thing to do before heading back into the water. William had plenty of Lightning Berries in the spatial stone to enhance, but that wouldn¡¯t help with his Luck attribute. Thankfully, he had plenty of stat points to spare. [+7 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] Level: 24 Experience: 181/3000 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (2nd Level) Health: 1100/1100 Spiritual Energy: 200/200 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 45 (40) Strength: 40 (35) Stamina: 45 (40) Agility: 45 (40) + 10 Luck: 45 (40) Points: 8 William nodded in satisfaction at his stats and prepared to make another run. Chapter 81: More to Find in the Depths Chapter 81: More to Find in the Depths His return was slower than the first attempt, but not because of any new obstacle. The Impurity he had taken on from all the consumption needed more time to be cleared. Other than that, the methodical wading into the depths of the minike was unchanged, besides the fact that he was far more alert to any sudden health decrease. Even though William was no longer dangerously low on health, the ridiculous rate he was losing the points that quantified the amount of life he had left meant that several seconds of inaction would be enough to kill him. William stopped when he felt the water prickle his skin. Of course, that wasn¡¯t what was happening. It was likely the dense Qi that was creating the feeling. However, he didn¡¯t care too much about that. He was frozen in ce because this was where he quickly started to lose his health. A few seconds passed with William waiting for something to happen, but other than the feeling of needles poking him everywhere, it seemed like he was safe. Without the danger of death weighing on his mind, he was actually able to take in the sights under the water. Come to think of it, the first time he was down here, the greed for the possibility of more experience points was so high that as long as something didn¡¯t register as dangerous in William¡¯s mind, he shut it out as unimportant. It made him miss something that could be considered a feat not to notice. The crystal clear water had the same oddity of lighting as the forest in this dimension. Everything seemed to be perfectly lit, no matter where William looked. Then again, this body of water could no longer be called a minike unless one was blind. While on the surface, William could see the entire thing and estimated that it would take him no more than five minutes toplete a fullp around the minike... which was why he called it a minike. That certainly didn¡¯t apply when looking underneath the surface. What itcked in width, it more than made up in depth. Or at least, William assumed so. While it was shallow enough that he could stand on his feet near the edge, the depth exponentially increased to a point where he couldn¡¯t see the bottom from where he was. The light wasn¡¯t the problem. It was simply too steep, almost like a cliff, so all he could see was the sandy walls. For anything more, he would need to move closer. William wasn¡¯t too keen on doing that. Everything had been going to his liking so far, disregarding the part where he almost died because he had forgotten to heal himself. Still, there was no reason to push his luck and do something silly like peering over the edge because of curiosity. William shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself. Even if there was something dangerous in the depths, he could never get there, since the concentration of Qi in the water would kill him long before that. He needed to focus on increasing his Spirit before dreaming about doing something stupid. He sank slowly to the floor and nced up, seeing that the water''s surface was only several meters away. Being a cultivator meant he could go without oxygen for much longer than a mortal could ever hope to, but like all things with cultivation, the realm mattered the most. William estimated that he could hold his breath for thirty minutes at most, and he had already spent a few minutes gaping at the surprising depth of theke. However, the time remaining was more than enough to figure out if the cultivation rate was elerated. Not that it would be an easy time. William was a human and not a fish, so he couldn¡¯t quite get into the trance-like state needed to cultivate as quickly as on the surface. Again, understandable since he was sitting cross-legged on theke floor,pletely submerged underwater. It was hard to ignore something entirely epassing you. Still, William tried. He tried for an extremely long time, at least rtive to the number of minutes he had left until it was needed to go up for air. It was a boon that he only had to worry about the feeling of being submerged in water. There were no currents to fear, and so far, no random fish swimming about. In fact, there was nothing underwater except for the sediment making up the floor. Eventually, William was sessful. His entire being was focused on circting his Qi, drawing in the energy from his surroundings to boost himself. It didn¡¯t take long for him to figure out if the rate of cultivation was different. William sensed his Qi pathways quickly pulse, signifying the gain of an experience point. He was beyond happy to see that he would once again go through a rapid increase, but when another reset followed shortly after, it made him pause. Thest time this happened, the Qi in his pathways didn¡¯t be dense enough for approximately four seconds before resetting. It seemed to be cut in half this time. William kept a close watch, metaphorically speaking, on the pulses, trying to get a better idea of what he was sensing. It didn¡¯t take long for him to confirm that it was indeed cut in half. After that, the only thing in William¡¯s mind was the number two thousand. Two thousand experience points per hour. [Cultivate in Qi-rich environment for 4 minutes: +133 XP] The trance was broken, with William¡¯s eyes snapping open. He almost gasped before remembering that he was surrounded by water. Although it didn''t feel like he would run out of air soon, the confirmation of the increased cultivation rate gave him every reason to ensure he could continuously cultivate to the maximum extent possible. William pushed off the floor to make himself float before using his legs to do the rest. A light jump was all that was needed to make himself rocket toward the surface. His head popped out of the water, letting him take a deep breath before he immediately returned to theke floor. Being surrounded by water wasn¡¯t as much of a distraction this time. Perhaps it was the knowledge of what awaited William when he cultivated, but he was able to fall into the trance almost immediately after taking a seat. The time flew by with William watching the show his pathways put on for him as he circted his Qi. The pulsing was like a hyper-urate clock, letting him know exactly how much time had passed. It was in the back of his mind, but William always paid attention to it. There would be no point in cultivating while he downed in an avoidable death. When the thirty-minute mark passed, he was prepared to stop his harvest of experience points and return to the surface for air. And William was still prepared when the hour mark passed. Even though everything seemed fine, he couldn¡¯t find it in himself to take the risk and continue cultivating. [Cultivate in Qi-rich environment for 1 hour: +2000 XP] William¡¯s eyes nced over the alert before taking stock of the state of his body. It seemed to him that everything was fine, making a theory form in his mind. What if the heavily Qi-infused water gave him the ability of a higher realm cultivator? There was no way he could test that since any abilities needing Qi were ineffective with the water''s suppressing effect. Still, one of the many passive abilities cultivators in the higher realm possessed was to take a breath a few times a day. And that was just cultivators in the Foundation Establishment realm. Of course, the cultivators in that realm would never choose to do it since that would mean their Qi was being used to substitute for oxygen instead of something more important, but it could be done in emergencies. It wasn¡¯t too far of a stretch for William to think of such a theory with that in mind. With some hesitation, he returned to the trance and continued cultivating. He would still keep watch on how desperately his body asked for oxygen, but until that happened, he could focus on his new favorite activity. Harvesting experience points at a rate that should be forbidden. William wondered what Elder Yu would think the next time she saw him. He imagined that he could reach the fourth level of Qi Gathering at this speed of improvement. Maybe she would gift something with a greater value than the spatial stone. Chapter 82: The Third Level Chapter 82: The Third Level [Cultivate in Qi-rich environment for 10 hours: +20000 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x5 William wanted to pump his fist in celebration and cackle like a lunatic, something he noticed he had a habit of doing after something good happened to him. Maybe because it was so rare that he wanted to take all the pleasure he could from it. However, since it wasn¡¯t a great idea to do anything that could encourage a greater chance of water in his lungs, William settled for fist-pumping vigorously. He was d there was nobody else watching. On the other hand, if someone was watching, it was likely that he would have more to worry about than looking like a lunatic. Level: 29 Experience: 6064/3625 William blinked when he nced at his main stats before pumping his fist even faster. It was needed to rid himself of the excitement before settling back down to make the breakthrough to the third level of Qi Gathering. Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 30 2. Eligible for Level 30 It did make him wonder why he hadn¡¯t already broken through. With how long the increased ratested this time, he had more than exceeded the experience points required for level thirty. Previously, quest rewards had made him exceed the limit, and only when he cultivated was he able to break through. That shouldn¡¯t have happened this time around since he was already cultivating. As William sat back down on theke floor, he wondered if a breakthrough had to be purposeful. Since he was cultivating purely for the experience points, it couldn¡¯t do the other. However, William immediately knew that made no sense. Especially since thest breakthrough happened when he had practically given up on figuring out how to do it. He had simply been cultivating when the sess hit him by surprise. He pushed the mystery out of his mind and quickly returned to the trance, focusing on getting to the next level of Qi Gathering. William might be thinking about it but really had no idea how to go about it. It wasn¡¯t like he knew how to add that extra luster that signified the increased quality of his pathways. That sort of just¡­ happened while he was cultivating. Nheless, William, having no clue what particr thing he did, just started to cultivate, hoping that it would just work out. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t. Two hours had passed, and all he seemed to be aplishing was earning experience points. [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 2 hours: +20 XP] William ignored the alert, uninterested in seeing the measly experience points he had gained from that session. Not after getting used to the ludicrous amount he was used to the past day. Cultivating wasn¡¯t working, and William wasn¡¯t sure what to do to fix that. He stared aimlessly at the peaceful surroundings, a stray thought of swimming deeper into theke popping up in his mind. William instantly shut down that thought process since that was just asking for more punishment, but it didn¡¯t make him connect the dots. Since the insanely high concentration of Qi in theke could actually hurt him physically, what was stopping it from preventing him from advancing to the next minor realm? That idea made even more sense when William considered how all the Qi-infused skills were rendered useless. If it could suppress that, then why could it not do the same for advancement? In fact, that made William think of something else. He might be benefiting greatly for not being able to ¡®cultivate¡¯ in the usual sense. Those quick ''pulses'' he sensed during his cultivation were not supposed to happen. If a higher realm cultivator bothered to pay close attention to William as he cultivated, they would instantly conclude that his cultivation path was broken. And they wouldn¡¯t be wrong to do so. The whole point of cultivating was to gather more Qi into the body. What William did was gather Qi to a certain point before the system converted it into an experience point, resetting the amount of Qi in his body back to the original state. It would seem like madness to any of the native cultivators. That was beside the point. William was aware of that, but it just entered his mind of how much of a boon it might have been in this situation. To the external world, it was like he was making no progress with his cultivation. None of the usual phenomena came with his cultivation, and one of them was the barest hint of Qi released from the body as it adjusted to the additional spiritual energy. The water would have stopped that Qi release. And it would have been a death sentence. A cultivator¡¯s body would have been torn apart by their own Qi if the body couldn¡¯t go through the adjustment phase. In fact, that phase was so subtly mentioned in any text since it wasn¡¯t even a concern that cultivators usually had to consider. William looked around the peaceful surroundings with different eyes. It was like this was made specifically for him. With new, uncertain feelings about this ce, he started to head back to the shore, which didn¡¯t take longer than a few minutes. He moved several feet away from theke and frowned at feeling the water filling his boots. It was likely in the same state thest time he got out of theke, but a calm mind obviously paid more attention to mild diforts like this, unlike when he was stressed before. As he removed them and shook out the water inside, William wondered why the water didn¡¯t upgrade the Impact Boots like it did the Lightning Berry. His two most sensible guesses were that either it only affected organic things or it needed to have upgrade potential. While the Impact Boots impressed William, he doubted something meant for a cultivator in his realm would be upgradeable. He slipped them back on and sat on the soft grass, smiling when he could go through his routine and take a deep breath without drowning himself. That was followed by William quickly falling into his cultivation state, his eyes closed, and his senses turned inward. The following steps were familiar. Circte the Qi. Keep the rate steady, not too fast, and not too slow. Just the right speed that he instinctively knew was perfect. Then it was to wait. William didn¡¯t bother to count the times his Qi reverted to its original state as he gained an experience point. It was too slow to matter, and that wasn¡¯t what he was focusing on anyway. He concentrated on the pathways themselves, wanting to see if he could sense any change. After what must have been around an hour of cultivating, something finally happened. Like before, William¡¯s pathways became¡­ shinier, except this time, he could see it form a look that vaguely reminded him of a crystal. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 42 minutes: +7 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Modified | Points: 33 ¡ª> 38] [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (2nd Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (3rd Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1100 ¡ª> 1200] [Modified | Max Level: 29¡ª> 39] [Modified | Max Attribute: 45¡ª> 55] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 40 2. Eligible for Level 40 Personal Note (PRE-EDITOR): Change previous system messages to show modifications of stats ((DELETE BEFORE POST!!!)) William let out a sigh of relief as he read all the alerts. He was worried that theke wasn¡¯t the block and he would be stuck in the second level of Qi Gathering for an extended period of time. Thankfully that wasn¡¯t the case. He walked back to the water and took out a Blood Orange, eager to devour an enhanced version before going back underwater to go deeper into theke. He didn¡¯t know for sure if wandering into the depths would once again give him an even more ludicrous cultivation rate. Still, until he was proven wrong, that hope would stay. Right before William dropped the Blood Orange into the water, he remembered something that certainly wouldn¡¯t hurt if it was higher. [+10 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] That was pretty much the only attribute that the unused points would be used for. All the others benefitted from abundant, low-level spirit fruitsbined with theke¡¯s miraculous water to enhance them. William dropped the Blood Orange into theke and sighed again in relief. Being able to max his attributes this quickly and easily felt like heaven. Chapter 83: The Center Chapter 83: The Center [+10 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Trait: Soul Damage] [11% ¡ª> 9% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 200 ¡ª> 250] [+15 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] William had already dropped a Lightning Berry into the water while eating the enhanced Blood Orange. It was ready to consume since it had gained that bright yellow pulse. He grabbed the newly enhanced berry out of the water before popping it into his mouth, his body twitching from the little shocks it caused. William wondered how much longer this wouldst. Not that he would question it, but more because he wished it wouldst long enough to get to the Foundation Establishment realm. That wish would have been absolutely ridiculous a little over a day ago, but at the rate his level was increasing, it was no longer out of the question. [+10 Stamina] [Max Stamina Reached] [+10 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] William didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately reentered theke, being a little careless with the speed he swam into the depths. The overconfidence came from him being the only living thing he had seen underwater. Level: 30 Experience: 2466/3750 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (3rd Level) Health: 1200/1200 Spiritual Energy: 200/200 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 55 (50) Strength: 55 (50) Stamina: 55 (50) Agility: 55 (50) + 10 Luck: 55 (50) Points: 28 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 9% Attribute Reduction While William¡¯s stats looked pretty fantastic in a vacuum, he knew this was nowhere near his goal. Compared to Zhang Jun, the Outer Court disciple he met who was overprotective of his dwelling, William knew his stats were well above average. However, what was the point ofparing himself to someone who wasn¡¯t titled a genius? The only person William had in mind was Li Xinyue. She was a monster when he firstid eyes on her, and she continued to be a monster after he used Observe on her. William pulled up herst known stats to reinforce how far he had to go. Name: Li Xinyue Age: 16 Level: 95 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (9th Level) Health: 1800/1800 Spiritual Energy: 750/750 Spirit: 150 Strength: 91 Stamina: 103 Agility: 112 Luck: 200 With every breakthrough in a minor realm raising his maximum attribute by ten points, he would be able to exceed Li Xinyue¡¯s Strength, Stamina, and Agility by a small margin. But Spirit, and especially Luck, was a whole different story. William had a feeling that those two attributes were the most important to a cultivator. That would put him somewhere between a cultivator like Zhang Jun and one like Li Xinyue. Better than an ¡®elite¡¯ disciple, or whatever they were called, but would still get curb stomped by a genius. Still, that gap would hopefully close a little by the time he fully extracted everything thiske had to give. William had slowed down when he felt the prickling sensation return, signifying that the Qi in the water was getting close to the limit of what his body could handle. He was ever closer to the steep, cliff-like drop that he still didn¡¯t have a clear look into. If the same pattern continued after this round of cultivating waspleted, it should be possible to clear the hundred or so feet between him and the edge of the cliff. [Modified | Max Attribute] [55 ¡ª> 60] William instantly stopped swimming. He took out the needed spirit fruits from his spatial stone and blinked when they reached their enhanced state almost immediately. The concentration of the Qi in this part of theke must have made it so fast. The n was to eat them to max his attributes again, but he realized a small issue. He would be swallowing a mouthful of water along with the fruit. William jumped to get out of the water, stupidly forgetting that his body had significantly changed several minutes ago. His eyes widened as he rocketed toward the surface, and before he would act to stop himself, he quickly exited theke. William yelped in shock when he continued moving higher, like a fish that jumped out of the water. The worst part was that he hadn¡¯t jumped straight up but at a slight angle. That meant he was flying right at the center of theke. Luckily, he hadn¡¯t taken the Impact Boots off. William tried to activate it, but when nothing happened, his heart started to thump loudly in panic. He didn¡¯t stop trying to activate it when he reached the peak of his jump before falling, but wanted a backup n. He stuffed his mouth with the two spirit fruits in his hands and ate them as fast as he could. [+5 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Trait: Soul Damage] [9% ¡ª> 8% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 250 ¡ª> 275] [+5 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] [+5 Stamina] [Max Stamina Reached] [+5 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] William braced himself for impact, wanting to be ready to swim as fast as he physically could the moment he was underwater. He fully expected that his health would start being depleted. Right before William hit the water, he remembered that there was one more attribute that hadn¡¯t been touched. [+5 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] Without the Impact Boots working, he had done everything in his power to hopefully not meet an instant death. Still, the issue with the boots was stuck in his mind, and a nce at his base stats revealed the likely problem. Agility: 60 (55) The Impact Boots gave him a passive gain of ten Agility. The system no longer showed that, leading William to suspect that the boots were no longer in working order. His concerns about his precious Impact Boots were shoved aside when his feet hit the water. William quickly found himself submerged, the feeling of needles prickling his skin returning with a vengeance. Except this time, the intensity had been exponentially magnified to a level beyond difort. He was ready to swim as if his life depended on it, with the initial n to use the rtive closeness of theke''s surface and act like a fish jumping out of the water to save his health for brief moments. It was pretty much what he had done when he unintentionally jumped with too much power, except this time, it would be on purpose. William kept waiting for the health decrease, and continued to keep waiting. Nothing happened, except for the almost painful feeling of the concentrated Qi biting into his skin. He knew this was another boon thrust on him, but he couldn¡¯t help but be wary for a few more minutes. The safest thing for William to do was to escape as quickly as he could to the area where he knew it was safe for him, but like with all stupid decisions, greed overpowered logic. While William was highly focused on potential danger, it didn¡¯t do anything to make him forget that experience points would be poured on him in practically unlimited amounts if his health didn''t decrease. There was a chance that he might reach the next realm again. A few minutes passed before William finally allowed himself to rx. With caution no longer the priority, greed now took the top spot. He looked down to find a ce to cultivate. That was the n until he realized he was floating directly in theke''s center. He could finally see what that cliff was hiding, which made his mind nk in shock. William thought seeing a white sky was unsettling, but looking down a¡­ trench? Yes, trench was the best word to describe this. Looking down a seemingly infinite trench, without seeing the expected darkness, was somehow worse than the white shy. However, that was more because he could see so much. Where the shallow parts of theke werepletely barren of life, with only clear water and the sandykebed to be seen, the trench was as opposite as can be. Everywhere William looked, he saw life. Coral gardens were abundant, schools of fish weremon, and some lifeforms that were undoubtedly spirit beasts roamed in the depths where his eyes could barely make out details. They were everywhere. Though, he did notice that there seemed to be a start to all of this life. The first fifty feet into the trench was just as barren as the shallow parts of theke before the explosion of life started abruptly. William hesitated for a minute, deciding between moving away from the trench and using a barren part to cultivate. Thetter won due to his greed. Besides, it seemed safe enough, or so William told himself as he swam down. Chapter 84: Right to the Fifth Level Chapter 84: Right to the Fifth Level [Cultivate in Qi-rich environment for 20 hours: +120000 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x9 William had finished cultivating a few seconds ago, but he didn¡¯t feel like doing much of anything at the moment. The past two times he cultivated underwater, the results had been shocking, but it was never to the point that it didn¡¯t seem real. This time it was that, and more. Level: 39 Experience: 84216/4875 He had gone from level thirty to thirty-nine. With the frankly stupid amount of experience points that hadn¡¯t been registered because of the minor realm limits, it would easily take him into the fifth level of Qi Gathering. That meant the final level he would end up stopping at would likely be above fifty. In the grand scheme of things, William supposed this wasn¡¯t too big of a deal since it would only be an advancement of two minor realms, but still, it was far above the rate he was used to. Even with all the gains that had been practically handed to him on a tter, a tiny voice in the back of his mind was still disappointed. Unless William was willing to enter the trench, this was likely the end to the effortless experience points he had gained so far. Of course, nothing guaranteed the trench would have greater benefits in the first ce. William pushed himself off thekebed and swam over the trench to get another look at the entirely new world it contained. His closeness to it made him notice something that he had missed before. There seemed to be a fewyers to this trench. The life it contained progressively became more and more abundant the deeper one looked. Theyer closest to William seemed to be filled with corals and rtively small sea life like harmless fish and the like. Since he couldn¡¯t see the system giving him the name of the species or the level, he assumed that the fish were just that, fish. With the constant spirit fruit William had been eating for days, the urge to enter the trench and grab some of the fish was high. But he didn''te this far to enter a ce teeming with life without some preparation like an idiot. Past what he hoped would be a future source of food, William could see plenty of unreadable system messages above the small forms swimmingzily. The colorful corals still existed, but they were apanied by actual spirit beasts instead of harmless fish. He had a feeling that these spirit beasts would make the Draebern look weak, mainly since they lived in water with such a high concentration of Qi. Though it did make him question how they could cultivate when William needed to return to the surface to advance realms. Perhaps the water in the trench didn¡¯t suppress the release of Qi? William shrugged his curiosity off and made to return back to the shore, intending to cultivate onnd before deciding what to do next. As he was about to swim away, he noticed something strange at the edge of his vision. A small, turtle-like thing was staring intently at him as if trying to threaten him into leaving. If William hadn¡¯t seen it right at the line where the barren and life met in the trench, he might have been worried that the turtle might have bad intentions. It also helped William''s paranoia immensely when the system didn¡¯t put the basic status above the thing, telling him that the turtle wasn¡¯t a spirit beast. William swam back and forth, smiling when the tiny turtle¡¯s eyes kept track of him. He quickly found that it wasn¡¯t the only thing watching him. While it was rare, some of the aquatic life in the topmostyer looked at him unblinkingly, though the turtle was unique in that it was the only one of its kind that he noticed. William¡¯s memories were vague on this, but he thought he remembered that they liked to stare at people that seemed interesting to them. He gave the things staring at him a cursory check for a system status, but like the turtle, there was nothing to see. With that oddity nothing to be concerned about, William headed back to the shore, eager to start cultivating again. Within a few minutes, he stood on the shore, near the edge of theke, shaking free the water clogging his Impact Boots. He would usually have tried to figure out what was wrong with them. However, with his almost overwhelming urge to cultivate, he stored the boots inside his spatial stone and sat on the grass. Not long after, William was engrossed in cultivating. The familiar, soothing action of circting his Qi made the time fly. He was more than happy to keep going for an extended amount of time since he had been using the quick and dirty way of settling the additional spiritual energy after adding to his Spirit attribute. Instead of cultivating like William had been doing at the start, the proportionally small amount of added Qi allowed him to easily direct it to his Heart Meridian, even when doing other tasks. However, that meant his body was ill-suited for using that Qi efficiently, and it would have been necessary for him to cultivate anyway to get used to it. It didn¡¯t take long for William to sense that his pathways went through the qualitative change that signified his advancement to the next minor realm. He would generally take this as a sign to stop cultivating and drool over the new numbers, but with the stupid amount of experience points avable, there was another breakthrough to be had. William was proven correct a few minutester when his pathways looked ever closer to being crystalline. The Qi pathways seemed ethereal at the start, but they seemed to be getting more and more solidified as he advanced. He supposed that made sense since they were meant to hold more Qi as he got stronger. He stopped cultivating and opened his eyes to see the alerts that almost filled his vision. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 12 minutes: +2 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x14 [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (3rd Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (5th Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1200 ¡ª> 1400] [Modified | Max Level: 39 ¡ª> 59] [Modified | Max Attribute: 60 ¡ª> 80] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 60 2. Eligible for Level 60 William was ecstatic, as always, to see such progress being made. Still, he realized that he had been a fool as he stared at his cultivation status. He should have stopped his advance into the fifth level of Qi Gathering and eaten some spirit fruits. The efficiency would be reduced drastically with his higher cultivation. He stood up and walked closer to theke to drop a few spirit fruits into the water, taking them out when they started pulsing and munched on a Lightning Berry. William could immediately tell that its effectiveness was reduced since the shocks he had been feeling two minor realms ago had almost disappeared. [+5 Spirit] [Modified | Trait: Soul Damage] [8% ¡ª> 7% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 275 ¡ª> 300] [+5 Stamina] [+5 Agility] That result was still fantastic for just one Lightning Berry. Still, this minor realm would likely be thest time they would be of any real use, at least with providing multiple attribute points per fruit. The most telling sign was that the Impurity he was gaining was reduced, quantifying how much effectiveness the spirit fruit was losing. Not that Impurity mattered much here, with theke acting like the ultimate neutralizer for that issue. William was about to drop a few more fruits into the water, enough to get all his attributes to their current max, when his eyes went wide. [-100 HP] He spit out a mouthful of blood and immediately sat down crosslegged at the edge of theke. William had been casually leading the additional Qi to his Heart Meridian, as wasmon the past several times, but unexpectedly, it was rejected by the meridian. He quickly brought the minuscule Qi that had scattered back into his control. He could sense that his Heart Meridian was giving off the same warning pulse that his Lung Meridian did, indicating that it wouldn¡¯t ept any more Qi. In fact, it seemed that the speck in the center of his Heart Meridian was slightly brighter than the one in his Lung Meridian. He decided to test thetter by guiding the free energy to it, but the speck of concentrated Qi in the Lung Meridian pulsed in warning, making William pass right by it and search for a new meridian to open up. With the cultivation manual saying the order he opened them up wasn¡¯t important, he randomly picked the Stomach Meridian as the next to fill. The empty space in the meridian gobbled up the Qi, with no discernible change happening. However, that was simr to the past two meridians he opened up. William didn¡¯t doubt that would change when more Qi was added to the Stomach Meridian. He opened his eyes and stared at the water in front of him. Perhaps it was best to stay seated so he could cultivate as soon as he ate the rest of the fruits. He didn¡¯t want to risk spitting up blood again. Chapter 85: Everything is Perfect Chapter 85: Everything is Perfect William watched as the thinly spread Qi in his Stomach Meridian slowly gathered in the center,pressing until a familiar dim speck appeared. That was thest of the extra spiritual energy added to his pathways from binging on the spirit fruits. However, he still continued to cultivate, wanting to regain the precise control from a few minor realms ago. William didn¡¯t move from his spot by theke, intending to sit cross-legged on the soft grass for hours upon hours until he would be satisfied with themand over his Qi. ¡­ He honestly didn¡¯t know what to do next. While the most ¡®obvious¡¯ choice was to enter the trench and explore what it holds, William was aware that the system wasn¡¯t perfect. He still trusted the information it gave him far too much, or in this case, the information it couldn¡¯t get from the aquatic life in the topyer of the trench. While that life didn¡¯t have the basic identifying information the system would typically give him with sentient beings like humans and spirit beasts, it wasn¡¯t foolproof. The only example of that was Fatty Xu, but that was enough. It could happen once, so why couldn¡¯t it happen again? If William chose to forgo exploring the trench, only two other choices were left to him. It was to either rx in the oasis, hoping that his time in this dimension would expire, or leave this paradise and reenter the desert. Since William liked the feeling of being alive, he would only choose thetter if he was forced to leave the oasis. Even if he was far stronger than he was a few days ago when wandering aimlessly through the desert, the only thing that extra strength would aplish was to make himst longer in the brutal environment before wasting to death. He shoved that morbid thought away when there was a slight hitch in the constant cirction of his energy. William spent the rest of the time cultivating with a nk mind, lulling himself into a sort of muscle memory, but for guiding spiritual energy. After an undetermined amount of time, mostly because he lost track of it, William was satisfied with the quickness at which his Qi reacted to hismands. It was a bit of a hassle to corral the exponential increase of spiritual energy with a simr quickness when he was much weaker. Still, making sure his foundations were solid would be well worth it. That was always one of the most critical things repeatedly mentioned in the readings, in this life and the past. The more firm the foundation, the less headache a cultivator would face when stronger. William opened his eyes, feeling more aplished than when he gained that mind-boggling amount of experience points. Perhaps it was because he steadily worked on bettering his control over Qi instead of cultivating like a madman underwater. That feeling of aplishment only increased when he sawpletely unexpected alerts. [Modified | Martial Skill Compatibility] [Thunderous Palm | 20% ¡ª> 40%] [Thunderous Kick | 20% ¡ª> 40%] [Earth-Shaking Stomp | 15% ¡ª> 30%] [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 41 Hours: +410 XP] Usually, William would be surprised that he was able to sit still for nearly two days without an issue, but it was thepatibility that had his attention. He was under the impression that it took countless repetitions to increase thepatibility, or so Qin Yu implied. However, this strangely fit right in with all the other odd quirks the system allowed William to do. Repetition might have been necessary for a normal cultivator, but a shortcut was avable for him. With the order of the alerts, thepatibility increased before he finished cultivating, so it must have something to do with the meridians, or it could also be the sheer amount of spiritual energy he now possessed. Speaking of the massively increased energy, the spirit fruits William had eaten had done their job. He pulled up the past logs of the alerts that appeared after he had gobbled down multiple enhanced fruits in quick session. [+15 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Traits: Soul Damage (Minor)] [7% ¡ª> 4% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 300 ¡ª> 385] [+20 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] [+15 Stamina] [Max Strength Reached] [+15 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] He let himself enjoy seeing the multiple alerts of the max attribute being reached. While it would happen again often enough due to the massive amount of unused stat points he had hoarded, it wouldn¡¯t have the same impact. After all, he would be using a limited resource instead of a usually worthless spirit fruit enhanced by magic water. William nced at his base stats to get another look at the massive amount of points he had at his disposal when he saw something he had overlooked. Level: 53 Experience: 5003/6625 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (5th Level) Health: 1300/1400 Spiritual Energy: 385/385 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 80 (77) Strength: 80 (77) Stamina: 80 (77) Agility: 80 (77) Luck: 60 (58) Points: 138 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 4% Attribute Reduction Luck was an attribute that was often forgotten by William until the veryst second, mainly because the attribute had no direct effect on his day-to-day life. Mostly because the dreaded RNG was no longer looming above him, waiting to give him a death blow. [+20 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] Still, William was more than willing to dump his points into it. As he mentioned multiple times before, luck was pretty much the basis of how far a cultivator could grow in these types of worlds. He stood up and nced at theke before him, wondering again if entering the trench might be worth the risk. While he would love to say he had a sure answer, that was false. William still had no idea what to do next, but he couldn¡¯t lie and say that doing nothing wasn¡¯t a sweet temptation. He felt he had already used up all of his good luck so far and didn¡¯t want to try to stretch it any further. He reluctantly ripped his eyes away from theke, resisting the greed he felt that screamed at him to take the risk and explore the trench. While that might end up happening, there was nothing wrong with having patience as he tried to find other options. And speaking of options, William was walking toward one of them. The desert. It would make for a change in the background as he practiced his martial skills. He wanted to determine how much power he would get from his Qi-infused attacksbined with significantly increased strength. Plus, it just so happened that most of the trees in the oasis were at the edge, close to the desert. If William wanted to continue the tradition of using trees as target practice, then this was where he needed to be for that to be possible. He didn¡¯t dare step off the grass and let his feet touch the sand, afraid the oasis might disappear like the forest did. In fact, he always stayed a few feet away from the border of the oasis and the desert. Eventually, he chose a random tree to lean on and looked out at the sandyndscape. For the first time in days, William thought about Ren Bo and Princess Jin. If they were stuck in the desert like he had been, they¡­ would likely be just fine. Princess Jin was the least he was concerned about, not because William was callous, but because he still suspected that she knew exactly what this ce was. As for Ren Bo, that boy had an entire spirit boat in his storage pouch. There would surely be other things that would be equally expensive and helpful in any inhospitable environment. Then again, William knew that the storage pouch Ren Bo possessed couldn¡¯t even touch the stability and worth of his spatial stone. There was a real chance that the storage pouch had been destroyed by the spatial storm that had carried them to this dimension. He shook his head and crossed his arms in annoyance. While that kid was annoying beyond belief, and William looked forward to teaching him how to act like a respectable human, he didn¡¯t wish such a misfortune would happen. William hoped it was just his overactive mind creating unlikely scenarios to fill his mind. Looking out at the desert was mind-numbing, so creating drama for himself seemed like a to pass some time. He yawned loudly and rested his head on the smooth tree trunk before closing his eyes. Taking a short nap was probably better than worrying about the kid. After all, pests can¡¯t die so easily. William wasn¡¯t sure when thest time he had taken a proper nap was, but it had likely been far too long to be reasonable. A short rest would fix everything. It was too bad that the small voice in William¡¯s mind screaming at him to move away from this ce was only heard when it was toote. He had already gone to sleep. Interlude: Princess Jin Has an Assignment Interlude: Princess Jin Has an Assignment Princess Jin supposed this could be much worse. Instead of being exhausted, paranoid, and significantly injured, she could be all that while also dealing with Ren Bo¡¯s affection. Thankfully, she had been able to avoid getting discovered by the boy so far. Though, there were some close calls since they had been dropped in the same area. Princess Jin knew that her main goal should have been to try and find Ren Bo before he got himself killed in this ce, but arge part of her hoped that was precisely what happened. Her grandfather had told her to endear herself to the so-called genius of the Jade Healing Sect, but when her n had given her the information about his personality, she didn¡¯t know how strongly she could be disgusted with someone until then. Ren Bo was a spoiled child that never had the word ¡®no¡¯ said to him. Princess Jin recognized parts of her older brother in the boy, but it was taken to extreme lengths. She didn¡¯t like her brother much, and being reminded of a worse version when looking at Ren Bo didn¡¯t help her impression of the boy. Still, Princess Jin knew her feelings on the matter were unimportant. Her grandfather, Prince Rong Tai, was the ruler of Xuanjing City, and his orders werew. It didn¡¯t matter if she was his favorite granddaughter. When it came down to it, she was a tool to be used. That much was obvious when she took up the title Princess Jin. It required the sacrifice of her individuality but also came with the benefit of drastically increased cultivation resources. The only way to regain her previous name, Rong Jin, was to gain the acknowledgment of the main line of the imperial family. Of course, the hope of being called the Princess Rong Jin was why she chose this path. It would mean she would have real power in the Empire and only be ountable to the reclusive Elders or the Emperor himself. Until then, Princess Jin might be sent on unsavory tasks such as this, being used as bait to possibly lure a genius away from a sect. It hadn¡¯t been the first time a member of the Imperial family had been used this way, and it wouldn¡¯t be thest. She was snapped out of her thoughts and looked down when she heard growls to see a pack of pitch-ck beasts staring at her with yellow eyes. From the few things she knew about this Shard, they should be the eyes and ears of the forest''s protector. Princess Jin held back the shiver of fear when a few of them started to head toward her, effortlessly climbing up by jumping on the branches of the trees. Everything was fine. She wasn¡¯t going to die. The protector just wanted to be more vignt, or that¡¯s what she told her rapidly beating heart. She didn¡¯t bother to run since even a cultivator in the Nascent Soul realm had no hopes of escaping. These beasts could draw on the protector¡¯s energy if needed, and that was a situation she didn¡¯t want to ur. ¡°Greetings,¡± She bowed deeply as the first beast that reached her, ¡°I am Princess Jin of the Tianxia Empire. I have no intention of causing any disruption. I hope you will allow me to travel through the forest peacefully.¡± Princess Jin kept herself in a bow until she heard a soft growl. When she lifted her head to look at the beast, it was no longer looking at her. It was staring up to the protector''sir. Of the few things she knew about the Shard, one was that when traveling through the Verdant Veil, the name of this forest, it was best to do so at the greatest heights possible. Most spirit beasts didn¡¯t dare to travel there, which made it the safest way to get out alive. Another thing Princess Jin was repeatedly told was that in no circumstance should she ever have the gall to enter the protector¡¯sir. In fact, it was best to avoid looking at it altogether. Death would be blisspared to what would happen if she attracted the protector¡¯s attention. ¡°I have no intention of disturbing the honored protector,¡± Princess Jin said as she warily eyed the slow build-up of the beasts. There had to be at least ten of them surrounding her now. Her fingers twitched when they growled in unison as they stared at her before looking at the protector¡¯sir again. When a hole big enough for her opened up in the leaf ceiling, what the beasts were trying to tell her became obvious. ¡°The protector is calling for me?¡± She hoped she was wrong, but when she got a nod from all the beasts, she put away her fear and nodded in eptance. Princess Jin wasn¡¯t afraid of death. She knew it was a likely fate for her on this path, but she was afraid of not even having the chance to prove herself. Her only hope now was to rely on the protector¡¯s benevolence. She jumped, easily going through the space made for her before it quickly closed beneath her. She got a glimpse of emerald scales before averting her eyes. ¡°Lord Protector,¡± Princess Jin kowtowed respectfully, never looking the mighty serpent in the eyes. ¡°Hmm, now you seem more familiar than the trespasser before.¡± She stiffened slightly, wondering if Ren Bo had already met his end. Wei Liang briefly appeared as a possibility, but she had already given up on him. All the neers to the Shard would be deposited in one of the ruins outside the Verdant Veil. It was a rtively safe ce, but there had been some fatalities in the past, mainly due to poor timing and bad luck. She had searched tirelessly for the adorably serious boy before a close call nearly took her life. It was unfortunate, but it was likely that Wei Liang had been added to the list of fatalities. ¡°He was bold, even daring to try and steal from me, but I let him go.¡± ¡°Steal?!¡± Princess Jin asked with rm, though she was still kowtowing and staring at the floor, ¡°I apologize for his stupidity, honored protector. I do not think the Imperial Family intended to let him enter the Shard this early. My grandfather informed me that the main line wants the branch to test his capabilities before extending benefits.¡± ¡°None from the Imperial Family allowed him ess. He carries the mark of a Dao Seeker. They are given this opportunity freely. Him being next to Imperial blood allowed you both this chance.¡± She stayed quiet, her mind whirling at the revtion that Ren Bo might know a legend of the human race. It suddenly made sense why the main line seemed to have such a keen interest, though if they knew the whole truth, there was no doubt an Imperial Princess from the main line would have been sent to act as a lure. Princess Jin realized this might be the chance to get recognition from the main line. Having to swallow the disgust of making nice with Ren Bo was nothing if she could sessfully pull him from the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°Good, your foolish reluctance has no ce here. If I, a beast, could easily sense your emotions, then think of how easy it will be with that boy.¡± ¡°Yes, honored protector,¡± Princess Jin bit her bottom lip, simultaneously holding back tears and convincing herself it wouldn''t be so bad. If this was sessful, Ren Bo¡¯s personality would make it likely that she would be cast aside when a more beautiful girl crossed his path. It would only mean a few years of her life traded, which was nothing when considering what this could give her. ¡°Go. I sent the boy to the Oasis of Respite. You must trek through the desert with an unwavering heart before it reveals itself to you. His low cultivation will make that ce useless besides acting as a safe zone. Your presence will open up some opportunities. Use it well.¡± ¡°Yes, honored protector,¡± Princess Jin repeated before she yelped in surprise when the floor opened below her kneeling form. She quickly shifted her body tond on the branch feet first. Spotting her, one of the pitch-ck spirit beasts fixed its gaze on her from a distance among the trees. Then, it gestured with its head, indicating something behind itself. Princess Jin watched it leap onto some branches in that direction before making the same motion at her. It wasn¡¯t hard for her to guess that it was telling her to follow, likely to the desert the protector mentioned. She took a deep breath and did as asked. Chapter 86: The Master Chapter 86: The Master William knew what he was looking at, the spot where he had sat to gather enough experience points to advance multiple minor realms, but that couldn¡¯t be right. He could only have this kind of view if he was inside the trench itself. Thest thing he remembered was the sheer panic that registered when he realized he was forcefully being put to sleep. That happened near the edge of the oasis. He was no longer at the edge of the oasis. William slowly sat up and looked around, his mind still a little slow from whatever caused him to be moved here. A chill ran through his body when he fully took in his surroundings. It was beautiful, with the abundant corals and schools of fish around him, but he would have preferred to view this from the outside. It wasn¡¯t necessary to get such a close view since he was more than satisfied with seeing it above the trench. William especially didn¡¯t want this closer look after how he was dropped into the trench without his knowing. On top of that, he was somehow in a bubble that was keeping the water from touching him, and he was terrified of trying to pop it. Assuming that William was free to swim out of the trench without some sort of barrier blocking him, which he honestly doubted since none of the aquatic life here tried to leave, it would take him around thirty seconds to escape. If the concentration of Qi was too much for William and his health started to take a dive, there was no way he couldst for that long. He slowly got to his feet, making sure he wouldn¡¯t do something like identally rocket up by standing up too fast. That was sessful, but William had already moved on, frowning at the sandy floor. He didn¡¯t remember seeing anything resembling akebed when he had got a peek into the trench from above. In fact, he knew there wasn¡¯t one since he could still remember the shocked amazement at seeing how deep it was. ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± William muttered to himself, obviously not expecting a reply. ¡°You are required to cleanse the spirit beasts that have been contaminated.¡± It took everything he had to not squeal like a surprised child. Though he couldn¡¯t stop himself from flinching dangerously close to the wall of the bubble. If he thought that was the end, seeing who spoke to him was more shocking than her voice inches away from his ear. ¡°Greetings, Visitor. I wee all cultivators to use the Oasis of Respite, but there is a price to be paid for using its services. Please eliminate the spirit beasts contaminated by the impurity you have shed. This will allow future visitors to benefit from the Oasis and keep the bnce.¡± William blinked stupidly at her, vaguely registering that she didn¡¯t have the basic system status almost everyone was given. She was like Fatty Xu. Thinking of Fatty Xu and this woman as simr was an insult to her physical appearance, but for once, William wasn¡¯t stunned by her looks. That wasn¡¯t to say she didn¡¯t embody all those flowery words that could be said about her beauty, but there was something else about her that he was focused on. She had the features of a Westerner, blonde hair and blue eyes, the most stereotypicalbination to exist. ¡°I detect three beasts that have been contaminated, all in the first section. I sense that you are in the fifth level of Qi Gathering. You will be given time to limate to your new surroundings. Please return to this safe zone for recuperation before the limit.¡± William gained a growing, unsettling sensation about the woman the more he stared at her. She seemed more like a doll saying prerecorded phrases than a human. He had no proof to have that feeling except for the difort of feeling the uncanny valley. ¡°You may leave the safe zone at any time.¡± William stared, waiting for her to continue, but when she simply met his eyes with a nk expression, he decided to speak up himself. ¡°What should I prioritize my attention on the most?¡± ¡°I sense that you are in the fifth level of Qi Gathering. You will be given time to limate to your new surroundings. Please return to this safe zone for recuperation before the limit.¡± William couldn¡¯t have got a surer clue that this woman wasn¡¯t truly alive. It was likely some sort of artificial intelligence, or whatever the equivalent was in this world. His thoughts immediately returned to Fatty Xu, making William wonder if he was the same. ¡°If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.¡± He had plenty of questions, but William¡¯s mind kept returning to the woman¡¯s Western looks. If this had been a real person, he might have hesitated to even mention it, but since she was some sort of puppet, he was far more willing. ¡°Are you based on a woman from Earth?¡± William asked bluntly, slightly disappointed when she kept staring at him with an unchanged expression. However, that didn¡¯tst long. William thought he saw a spark return in those blue eyes, but unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t be sure since he was kneeling on the floor from a sudden pressure that mmed into his body. [-200 HP] William could hear his bones creaking as it felt like they were slowly beingpressed into dust. He could see the alerts of his health dropping steadily, but he could do nothing about it. [-200 HP] It wasn¡¯t like he had forgotten the numerous Vitality Restoration Pills in the spatial stone. He had been desperately trying to take them out to extend his life, but it felt like he had lost total control over his Qi. [-200 HP] William could usually impose his will over his spiritual energy quickly, but right now, it felt like trying to catch a falling boulder as a normal human. All his attempts were ripped to shreds before he could even grasp a wisp of Qi. [-200 HP] He felt the water crash into his body, indicating that the bubble had finally broken by whatever was putting so much pressure on him. William was thankful that hadn¡¯t been apanied by further depletion of his health. [-200 HP] He knew he was on hisst gasp and wondered what made him open his mouth to ask that question. So what if she had Western looks? So what if she was from Earth? To be a cultivator in the higher realm, William knew it was likely that any attachment to their old world would have been either stripped away or diminished to a point where it was of no consequence. He had been trying his best to hold on to his old life, but even though it had only been several months since his arrival to this world, William knew he was failing. It was a little slip up here and there, along with the empty attempts to seem like someone who cared about morals, like his stupid self-promise to give Gold to the workers at The Garden that had been with Cao Rui. As if that pittance would excuse his inaction when Cao Rui was ughtered before him. William knew that Lan Yin would have given his words some weight, even if she might have proceeded to kill Cao Rui anyway. She didn¡¯t think highly of him at that point in time, but Elder Huang had been supporting him, so it made him somewhat of a factor. The moment William purposely blinded himself to Cao Rui¡¯s fate, he slowly started to change. ¡°Interesting. I didn¡¯t expect someone like you to survive. You have been jumping into one lucky situation after another without much effort on your part.¡± William blinked, realizing the pressure had disappeared, and he was standing on his feet like nothing happened. The bubble hadn¡¯t popped like he thought it had, so he immediately thought it had been fixed by the woman staring at him with an amused smile. However, a quick look at his health made another theory possible. Health: 1300/1400 Maybe it was all an illusion? There was one issue with that. The illusion that trapped William within the forest couldn¡¯t replicate his system messages. The moment it tried, it failed horribly and the illusion broke. However, everything had been disyed perfectly this time. It did bring up a ridiculous thought, but that couldn¡¯t be true. She had long since ascended. ¡°An unmotivated office worker somehow getting this far,¡± The woman chuckled, ¡°But with whom you have been associating since you arrived, it shouldn¡¯t surprise me that their destiny has been unintentionally helping you.¡± The sudden knowledge the woman had about him made William suspect this was indeed the woman that should have ascended long ago. Plus, the sudden rey of his thoughts about Cao Rui suddenly made sense. William had a feeling he was forced to think about it for some reason. ¡°Are you Daoist Chen¡¯s master?¡± William had to ask. There was no way he could stay quiet when his job in the past life was casually mentioned. ¡°Hmm,¡± The woman nodded casually, ¡°I never thought what I created would end in the hands of someone from Earth. It was supposed to adapt to best fit whoever Little Chen found worthy. I didn¡¯t imagine it would take this long." She paused, looking a little remorseful before changing the subject. "The souls of people from our world are perfect nourishment for the demonic cultivators on this ne, but we wither quickly after summoning. The will I infused into the system must have helped to stabilize your soul. Even then, you were exceedingly lucky.¡± William nodded dumbly, still stuck on her confirmation that she was Daoist Chen¡¯s master. ¡°Senior, I thought you already ascended?¡± ¡°Senior?¡± Sheughed and shook her head, ¡°I know your thoughts, William. Forget the formalities for now. Though if you called me that in front of my disciples, they would skin you alive for the disrespect. They always did insist on making everyone recite my titles.¡± ¡°¡­ Sorry, it¡¯s be a habit,¡± William said sheepishly as he observed the fondness on her face, a sense of homesickness mming into him after hearing someone else call him by his true name. Even after all this time, being called Wei Liang was still unnatural. ¡°Adapting to a new world is good,¡± She waved him off, ¡°But you went a little too far, don¡¯t you think? You abandoned your name far too quickly. I certainly never let anyone call me anything but Sophia, even at the start.¡± William shrugged helplessly as he tried to think if Sophia was amon name during his time on Earth. He wasn¡¯t sure when she had existed there, and knowing that might help him get an idea without asking her the question directly. ¡°No matter. We have more pressing matters to discuss. This incarnation will be exhausted in a few minutes.¡± Chapter 87: William Can鈥檛 Meet Normal People Chapter 87: William Can¡¯t Meet Normal People ¡°No, I can¡¯t correct the issues you have with your soul,¡± Sophia cut off his hopes early, ¡°If my disciple wasn¡¯t able to help, how can my mere incarnation do so? Besides, having my creation helping you with it should be more than enough.¡± Williamughed awkwardly, not wanting to admit that was indeed what he was about to ask, but since it was that obvious, he shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m surprised to see how far the Tianxia Empire has fallen from my time, but that is my own foolishness. I can¡¯t exactly expect everything to be the same for millennia without someone holding up the sky.¡± He barely knew anything about the Empire other than it was facing possible war with the neighboring kingdoms. That hole in his knowledge was apparently known by Sophia. ¡°Have I mentioned that I struggle to understand how you have survived so far? I rmend that you learn more about the world you live in before the luck of the people surrounding you bes ineffective.¡± ¡°So I was right?¡± William perked up, ¡°Luck is a critical stat then?¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t the luck I was speaking of,¡± Sophia said with some amusement, ¡°But yes, both are of the same concept. Speaking of attributes, I saw that you were often shocked at the numbers your system gave you after using Observe on others. Why is that?¡± ¡°Er, I suppose it¡¯s because what I saw was too high?¡± William said unsurely, mainly thinking about Li Xinyue. ¡°The limits you see apply only to you, nobody else. Some truly monstrous cultivators can jump multiple major realms and still win in a fight," Sophia seemed to be remembering a fond memory, making William wonder if she was talking about herself, "That also applies in the opposite direction. Quantifying strength isforting, but remember that there are people on this ne that the heavenly dao will not allow to experience death, no matter what you do. Even if they are as weak as a mortal, you should think twice about bing enemies.¡± William immediately thought about the main characters of a novel. Still, he couldn¡¯t help but think since he knew they were indestructible like cockroaches, it could be possible for him to wipe out all possibility of survival if he tried hard enough. ¡°I would rmend you to do the opposite of what you are thinking,¡± Sophia said wryly. ¡°Sorry, my mind has been wandering recently,¡± William said with a wince. ¡°Hmm, so it has.¡± His heart skipped a beat when his vision was filled with a pair of bright blue eyes for a moment before quickly returning to normal. He wasn¡¯t sure what happened, but it felt like he was seen through to his soul. Sophiaughed freely and said, ¡°I suggest you cultivate more instead of spending time with those ¡®jade beauties¡¯ you surround yourself with. With your current body still a child, you are far too easily influenced by women with more spiritual energy than you possess. Just think of it as hormones you experienced on Earth, but exponentially worse.¡± ¡°How did you know that?¡± William asked with surprise. He didn¡¯t know if he was particrly slow today, but he had just realized that Sophia had been discussing his life in this world with great detail. It was in a way that was only possible if she had stripped his thoughts bare. The idea of having her see his every moment was notforting. It was horrifyingly embarrassing. For some stupid reason, William thought she could only glimpse what he was thinking at the moment, not much different from most of the higher realm cultivators he had met. He had gotten used to that, so he hadn''t cared much. ¡°Don¡¯t tter yourself. This incarnation doesn¡¯t have enough will for me to waste so casually to constantly read your thoughts,¡± Sophia rolled her eyes, ¡°I looked at the memories you deem significant and nothing else. After all, I would have to kill you and ensure your soul cannot reincarnate if you were unworthy of my creation.¡± And there it was, the blunt reminder that while this woman was from Earth, she was far more simr to the cultivators than earthlings. However, William expected this. It would be strange if the short time on Earth still influenced Sophia greatly. ¡°I see,¡± William nodded, ¡°Then I¡¯m d I passed the inspection.¡± Sophia hummed in agreement before saying, ¡°I wished to speak on the Tianxia Empire before this incarnation''s time is finished, but my only knowledge of their current power structure and ruling values is from your understanding, which is less than useless.¡± ¡°I already know this,¡± William pointed out, not wanting a rehash of his gaping knowledge about the Empire. ¡°And I should keep repeating it,¡± Sophia said sharply before sighing and shaking her head, ¡°The Empire acted as my hand when I was on this ne, following my decrees and ensuring it was implemented. It was the easiest way to build the world I wanted, though what was actually created was highly wed. That didn¡¯t mean it was entirely futile. Even now, you can see how most mortals live without fear of cultivators killing them on a whim, as wasmon when I was a small cultivator.¡± William¡¯s mind went to Lan Yin killing Cao Rui, but he supposed it technically wasn¡¯t on a ¡®whim.¡¯ After all, it was punishment. ¡°No matter,¡± Sophia sighed before her expression revealed a slight disgust, ¡°Let¡¯s speak of this¡­ Shard.¡± William looked around as if he would see anything other than the water surrounding them. Though he did notice that all the aquatic life had disappeared. ¡°It has been helpful,¡± William said gratefully as he thought of the relentless leveling he had experienced. ¡°Perhaps,¡± Sophia nodded, ¡°But it is highly damaged. Someone has chosen to rip my pocket dimension into four and rename them ¡®Shards,¡¯ as that serpent mentioned. This was always meant to be a dimension the Tianxia Empire sent their promising cultivators, but it¡¯s been made a mockery of its original intention.¡± William wasn¡¯t too surprised that the dimension was somehow rted to Sophia. Why else would there be some sort of puppet that could turn into her incarnation if need be? ¡°So that snake is yours?¡± William thought it was interesting that this shard had three others simr to it but matters such as that were far beyond him at the moment. However, the fruits that grew on those trees were not. It would be fantastic if he could grab a few more. That thought was halted when Sophia looked at him like he was an idiot. ¡°No, it¡¯s not mine,¡± Sophia sneered, ¡°I would never have such an ugly pet. Nor would I drain my own creation to grow such pathetic spiritual fruits. The requirement for cultivators to survive the desert has be far too high since this Oasis no longer has the capability to allow frequent use.¡± William blinked at the sudden vitriol toward the snake, finding it a little uncalled for, though thetter point he understood. Of course, he still wasn¡¯t sure what he was supposed to do with this information. ¡°That¡¯s unfortunate¡­ but I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re telling me this. I¡¯m far too weak to do anything about it.¡± William figured being blunt was the way to go. Since, you know, she had already shifted through his thoughts. ¡°I was worried you would never ask,¡± Sophia smiled brightly, ¡°I¡¯ll let you see it in a way that you have be ustomed to.¡± William stared at her warily, wondering if he had justmitted a blunder. He was thinking of one of the myths about vampires and how they couldn¡¯t enter without your permission. Could it be the same with people who have ascended in this world? They couldn''t do anything without prompting? [Dread Empress Sophia has connected with system functions] [Dread Empress Sophia is sending a possible addition to Main Quest] [Allow: Y/N] ¡°Dread Empress Sophia?¡± William read out loud with wide eyes, wondering what she had done to earn such a title. Didn¡¯t Daoist Chen mention that she was a benevolent cultivator? ¡°Interesting, the system tells you my title?¡± Sophia muttered as she stared at the system alerts, something that shouldn¡¯t be possible. However, he assumed she was an exception since she created the thing. ¡°I impress even myself. I must have made somest-minute additions before ascending.¡± William stared at her, hesitating to ept anything from someone called ¡®Dread Empress,¡¯ but doing so anyway because, again, she was called ¡®Dread Empress.¡¯ While Sophia didn¡¯t exin why she was called that, he wasn¡¯t about to push her for one. [Allowed] [Quest: Seize control of fragmented realm stone] [Information: Dread Empress Sophia¡¯s private dimension had been under grave misuse for centuries. Unknown actors have split the dimension into four shards, with all shards being drained of vital energy from their respective fragmented realm stones. Regain control of the fragmented realm stone in the current shard.] [Reward: +30 Levels | Heaven-Tier Martial Skill] [Penalty: Possible discovery by unknown actors] [ept: Y/N] Chapter 88: Suicidal Quest Chapter 88: Suicidal Quest William felt a rollercoaster of emotions as he read the quest details. Disbelief was at the top as he read what he was required to do, but the reward quickly hooked his attention. The thirty-level bump was exciting, sure, but not something William was particrly attracted by. That would happen in due time, even without the quest, so there was no reason to drool over it. However, the Heaven-Tier Martial Skill? That definitely deserved William¡¯s full attention. It was something that only the best of the best in the Sect would have the chance to glimpse. Even in a sect focused onbat, only the inner disciples might have ess to a few Heaven-Tier skills. There was one thing that the reward didn¡¯t mention. ¡°Is this Heaven-Tier skill going to bepatible with me?¡± William would have a reason to discard the quest outright if it wasn¡¯t. ¡°All of these rewards are from me,¡± Sophia said with a smirk, ¡°Finding one that¡¯spatible will not be a problem.¡± William nodded slowly, wondering if that meant the rewards were negotiable. As fantastic as it sounded to his Qi Gathering realm ears, it didn¡¯t match what the quest was asking of him. Thinking of what he needed to do to get those rewards brought him back to reality. He would assuredly die in the process, so what was the point of thinking about any so-called rewards he would never enjoy? The unreasonable quest made William wonder if this Sophia was a fraud, which obviously wasn''t true since she could see the system messages. Or maybe she was desperate enough to be forced to pick someone as weak as him. William¡¯s mind nked when he realized she was possibly reading his mind right then. He nced at her to see she was waiting patiently for his answer. ¡°Did you have more questions?¡± Sophia asked right when William¡¯s mind had settled on denying the quest. ¡°I thought you could read my thoughts.¡± ¡°I would rather not waste more of the remaining will in this incarnation when I already confirmed you are worthy,¡± Sophia replied, as if this was all supposed to be obvious. That made sense in istion, but William was confident that his mind had been read at least twice so far. Still, if a ¡®Dread Empress¡¯ said otherwise, who was he to argue? Besides, he already felt he was pushing it by declining this quest. This wasn¡¯t the same situation as when William declined the quest the snake gave him. That had been done via the system without the snake¡¯s knowing. On the other hand, Sophia was asking him directly for an answer. Not that using the system would keep it secret since she could apparently see the alerts too. ¡°I¡¯m still too weak,¡± William started his well-used spiel for avoiding undesirable situations, ¡°I wish that¡ª¡± [Dread Empress Sophia has connected with system functions] [Dread Empress Sophia is attempting to modify a Main Quest] [Allow: Y/N] William cut himself off to read the alerts before ncing at Sophia, who was still staring at him in the same way, patiently, as if she would be getting her desired response from him in the end. [Allowed] [Modified Reward| Quest: Seize control of fragmented realm stone] [Reward: +40 Levels | Heaven-Tier Martial Skill] [ept: Y/N] The assumption of being able to negotiate the quest rewards like they were in a street market turned out to be true. However, the additional levels offered did nothing to change William¡¯s mind. Mainly because it didn¡¯t change that it wasn¡¯t likely that he would live to enjoy them. ¡°The rewards aren¡¯t the issue,¡± William firmed his heart and pushed on, ¡°That serpent guarding all those spirit fruits was ridiculously strong. I¡ª¡± ¡°Spirit Severing,¡± Sophia interrupted, ¡°That ugly thing is in the Spirit Severing Realm.¡± Wiliam shuddered, wondering if that meant the master of this ce was at the same level as Daoist Chen. Still, this gave him an even more concrete reason to stay as far away from this quest as possible. ¡°Right,¡± William nodded, ¡°Spirit Severing. That basically means instant death for me.¡± ¡°Do you think I would send someone from Earth to a pointless death?¡± William knew it was rhetorical and knew that the privacy of his thoughts was suspect at the moment, but the doubt he felt couldn¡¯t be stopped from filling his mind. However, that didn¡¯t affect the words that left his mouth. ¡°Of course not! But how can I get this realm stone if someone like that guards the ce?¡± ¡°I never said you¡¯ll have to go against that ugly thing, did I? The only reason you even have a chance of seeding is due to your low realm. I would have preferred if you didn¡¯t abuse the oasis to absorb so much Qi and break through so many minor realms, but anything below Foundation Establishment is still eptable.¡± William wondered if Sophia¡¯s disgust toward the snake had anything to do with her insistence for him to take the quest. However, the brief gap he took to think of a reply was apparently too long for the seemingly patient Sophia. [Dread Empress Sophia has connected with system functions] [Dread Empress Sophia is sending a possible addition to Main Quest] [Dread Empress Sophia is attempting to modify a Main Quest] [Allow: Y/N] ¡°Allow it.¡± The t tone from Sophia made William instinctively follow the order. [Allowed] [Modified Reward| Quest: Seize control of fragmented realm stone] [Reward: +25 Levels | Heaven-Tier Martial Skill] [ept: Y/N] [Quest: ept Dread Empress Sophia¡¯s previous quest] [Information: Dread Empress Sophia wants you to ept the quest ¡®Seize control of fragmented realm stone.¡¯] [Reward: Apanion to show the path to the fragmented realm stone | Upgrade of Spatial Stone] [Penalty: Loss of Dread Empress Sophia¡¯s favor] [ept: Y/N] William nced over the decreased level gain rewards before looking at the newly offered quest. He pressed his lips together when he read the description, and then the penalty. So William had to decide between angering an immortal cultivator or doing the same to the master of this Shard. Those were not good choices to have. As for the reward that came with the new quest, William thought the tradeoff of gaining fifteen levels was worth it. His spatial stone being upgraded was nice, but thepanion was far more critical in his mind. Hopefully, it would allow him to survive this. William still must have looked unwilling because Sophia interrupted his thoughts. ¡°This is all I can do for you,¡± Sophia¡¯s expression finally changed from patient understanding to annoyance, ¡°This incarnation¡¯s will has a limit. If you feel this isn¡¯t enough, feel free to decline.¡± Since Sophia was the one setting the parameters of both these quests, William wondered why the penalty of the second had to be so personal. It was basically her telling William that he either epted the quest or he was dead to her. At least, that was the way he interpreted it. Not wanting to dy any longer, he quickly selected yes for both quests. [epted Quest | ept Dread Empress Sophia¡¯s previous quest] [epted Quest | Seize control of fragmented realm stone] [Completed Quest | ept Dread Empress Sophia¡¯s previous quest] William flinched when a burst of light was emitted from Sophia and was rapidly absorbed by the ck stone resting on his chest. ¡°Very good,¡± Sophia sounded satisfied, ¡°I wish you luck, William. I¡¯m sure we will meet again. Stay alive until then.¡± William noticed Sophia¡¯s tone bing more emotionless with every word spoken. ¡°And don¡¯t believe what you read about me. It¡¯s all fal¡­ If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.¡± He blinked, realizing that Sophia had fully returned to her previous state. To make sure, William asked, ¡°Could you repeat that?¡± ¡°I sense that you are in the fifth level of Qi Gathering. You will be given time to limate to your new surroundings. Please return to this safe zone for recuperation before the limit.¡± The Sophia-doll continued, ¡°If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.¡± That pretty much confirmed it. William felt that he was almost robbed by how short that interaction was. Still, the simple fact that an immortal had spoken to him might have made other cultivators go mad with jealousy. It would have been ideal to ask more questions, but it wasn''t to be. He noticed movement in the corner of his eyes and snapped his head in that direction, eyes widening at seeing a school of fishzily swimming by. He hadn¡¯t been aware that the aquatic life had returned. Perhaps Sophia leaving had something to do with that. Speaking of life, William wondered where his promisedpanion was. As if to answer that, a small form swam into his line of sight just outside the bubble and stared at him. William blinked, thinking this couldn¡¯t possibly be what Sophia promised him. Then it waved. Chapter 89: Lord of Deepwater Abyss Chapter 89: Lord of Deepwater Abyss He had done this before. Granted, it had been while he was outside of the trench, but this dance was familiar to him. William was moving side to side to see if the tiny turtle kept its attention on him. It did. William wasn¡¯t sure if he was supposed to melt from the cuteness of the tiny thing or shudder at being reminded of the intelligence that the Shadowpack Hunters had shown him. However, unlike those malicious beasts, this palm-sized turtle didn¡¯t have the basic information the system usually gave him. ¡°What is this turtle? Is it a spirit beast?¡± William asked the Sophia-doll behind him without taking his eyes off the turtle. ¡°All life at this level exists to convey the significance of growing contamination. Please ignore them and avoid making contact. Any attempt to damage aquatic life will result in swift punishment.¡± That made William¡¯s eyebrows raise in surprise as he looked back at the Sophia-doll. Of course, she still had a nk expression, so there was no point in looking at her. ¡°If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.¡± And there was the repetition he was expecting. William looked away with a roll of his eyes to stare at the turtle. Now it looked like it was smiling at him. A toothless, gummy, silly smile. ¡°Alright, tiny turtle,¡± William moved a little closer but made sure to stay in the bubble, ¡°Can you understand me?¡± He wasn¡¯t surprised when it nodded its tiny head, the beady eyes somehow gleaming after the question. ¡°Are you the one that¡¯s supposed to lead me to what Sophia mentioned?¡± That was a vague way to ask about the realm stone, but William had no intention of saying that out loud. He suspected that Sophia had drawn him into some type of illusion before talking since all the aquatic life had disappeared until she was done with him. He would continue to be careful with his words if that sort of caution was needed. However, the sudden change in the turtle¡¯s demeanor confused him. It had been smiling at him foolishly, but now it seemed to be angry, with one of its flippers curled as if it was shaking a fist at him. Of course, William doubted he would discover why this thing was mad at him. It couldn¡¯t exactly talk to exin what it was feeling. ¡°Was I wrong? Sophia didn¡¯t send for you?¡± William got even more confused when the little thing somehow seemed angrier. Whatever bothered it didn''t stop it from beckoning him out of the safe zone. ¡°Give me a second,¡± William felt far more casual with this weak-looking creature, though he had to admit that he was enjoying the increasingly indignant look the turtle had on its expressive face. William turned back to the Dread Empress imitation. He asked, ¡°If I can¡¯t touch anything on this level, where can I find the contaminated beasts?¡± He expected to get the same, repeated canned reply. It almost shocked him to death when it wasn¡¯t. ¡°After you are ustomed to the pressure of the Qi, you will be free to explore as you please. If you have no other questions, please exit the safe zone.¡± William couldn¡¯t say that answered his question exactly, but it seemed it would be the best he would get with what followed. He grunted in surprise when it felt like someone booted him right in the chest. If he hadn¡¯t been panicking about exiting the bubble, he would have thought more about the slight smile on the Sophia-doll¡¯s lips before she disappeared into thin air. William didn¡¯t care about that. He was tense, preparing himself to leave the safe zone, and if he couldn¡¯t handle the density of the Qi, rush right back to safety. When the Sophia-doll told William that he would need to get ustomed to the pressure of the Qi, he was actually excited about it. After all, why would he not be? William was thinking about how many more experience points he would be able to umte. Of course, that quickly changed to fear for his life when he was unceremoniously ejected from the bubble. William held his breath when his body passed the bubble wall, expecting the worst when he was surrounded by water. He was already shifting his body to let his legs get some sort of purchase on the floor, more than ready to take action and return to the safe zone. However, all that worry was for nothing. Instead of his health rapidly dropping, what ended up happening was William standing with a scrunched-up face, waiting for an event that never urred. It would have been something that he would have passed off with relief since he wasn¡¯t harmed, but he currently had a spectator. And it seemed to beughing at him. William foolishly opened his mouth to ask the slightly quivering turtle what was so funny, forgetting that he was no longer under the safety of the bubble. It might have been a fear that wasn¡¯t based on any logical sense, especially since his body was taking in small amounts of water naturally. Still, when his mouth was filled with water, William thought he might implode from the massive amount of Qi it likely held. The turtle¡¯s tiny head started to move even more in amusement at William¡¯s constipated expression. He narrowed his eyes at the turtle before deciding to ignore it. Other than the scarily intelligent thing that wasughing at him, there were more of the aquatic life that had stared at him intently when he was looking into the trench. The problem was that they were nowhere to be seen. All William could see were the prevalent schools of fish swimming about mindlessly. Watching them go between the corals as a dense mass was almost soothing, but it disappointed him more than anything. What was the point of the safe zone if there was nothing out here that seemed dangerous? With the instruction to leave all the life on this level to their own devices, William didn¡¯t expect aggressive spirit beasts to lurk here. He blinked when the turtle swam in front of his face, a little too close since focusing on it nearly made him cross-eyed. William could only re at it since there was no way tomunicate. He quickly realized that this was a problem that he should have foreseen. While the turtle could understand him, he couldn¡¯t speak tomunicate with it, leaving him with only gestures as an obvious option. He ignored the turtle moving closer to him as he groused to himself mentally. He decided to deal with themunication issue after trying to cultivate. If that failed too, then this level had nothing for him. William supposed that it shouldn¡¯t have been too much of a surprise. After all, this dimension had been ripped into four. Perhaps not everything was how it was supposed to be due to the dimension not being whole. He rolled his eyes in exasperation when the turtle moved even closer, letting him have far too close of a look at the stupid toothless smile on its face. He was going to continue ignoring it by taking a seat to cultivate, but he saw it suddenly speed up and p its flipper on his cheek. [Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss is requesting a connection] [Allow: Y/N] Chapter 90: Another That Can See Chapter 90: Another That Can See William had already moved to put some space between himself and the turtle while he stared incredulously at the alert. This solved hismunication issue, but what kind of name was Lord Paddlington? It sounded like something that a child would name their pet. That didn¡¯t stop him from allowing the connection. [Connection Allowed] [Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss is requesting disy ess] [Allow: Y/N] William nced at the turtle doubtfully, seeing it return the same look to him. When he didn¡¯t allow ess immediately, it motioned its flipper toward the system alert as if telling him to stop wasting time. It made William¡¯s heart skip a beat. He could understand how Sophia was able to see the system since she was apparently the one who created it, but it was hard to wrap his head around the fact that a turtle with the name of Lord Paddlington was able to do the same. William had already assumed Lord Paddlington was somehow connected to Sophia, but this was a bit much. ¡­ Unless she somehow came to know that the turtle would need the ability to see his system alerts in the distant future. Not that he would ever know the truth beyond his wild spections. Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss narrowed its beady little eyes at William and motioned more firmly to the system alert with its flipper. He wasn¡¯t sure why the turtle wanted this ess so much. It wasn¡¯t as if the system was hidden from it right now, but the sort of ess it was asking for was harmless, so William decided to allow it. [Disy ess Allowed] [Identifier: Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss] [Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss: You are not worthy of saying my Lady¡¯s name so casually. Respect her authority.] William didn¡¯t know what was more ridiculous. The tiny turtle demanding for him to respect Sophia¡¯s name, or the fact that the turtle¡¯s name in its ridiculous entirety would be stated every time itmunicated with him through the system. He would rather shorten it to something not as eye-roll-worthy. ¡®LP¡¯ would be far better for his peace of mind. [Identifier Modified | Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss ¡ª> LP] William blinked, thinking that was convenient. The turtle patted him on the face, looking even more furious, and this time he didn¡¯t have to guess why. [LP: My Lady created me in tandem with the system. I can see your system screens. I suggest you treat me with the same respect you treat your honored ancestor.] Ignoring the revtion that the turtle wasn¡¯t a natural lifeform, but one that was created by Sophia, William was quick to change the identifier again. [Identifier Modified | LP ¡ª> Lord Paddlington] A quick nce at the turtle¡¯s more rxed look calmed his nerves. William didn¡¯t think it would harm him. However, he was most afraid of the emotions it readily showed. Having the guide in his suicidal mission pissed off at him was a surefire way to never escape this dimension, shard, or whatever the hell people were calling it. [Lord Paddlington: Good. My Lady has told me of your noble mission. It is suitable for you to put your life in harm¡¯s way for her favor. Follow me. I shall lead you to the heart.] William didn¡¯t like the sound of that at all, even if he already assumed this was the case. Thinking it as a possibility, and having it said out loud by a tiny turtle were entirely different things. Since Lord Paddlington could see the system alerts, William tried to get a way to have his own thoughts appear on it in text form, but when the system didn¡¯t react to his attempts, he gave up and started to wave his arms frantically in a poor attempt of charades. [Lord Paddlington: Did you lose control of your arms? I do not recall my Lady having simr issues, but she is perfection personified.] William turned away from the snobby turtle to hide the roll of his eyes and swam back toward the bubble. The n was to get back to a ce where he could speak without drowning so he could say that he wanted to hunt the contaminated spirit beasts before going on that suicidal mission. It would likely get him more experience points and, if lucky, enough to increase in cultivation realm. Sophia only wanted him to be below the Foundation Establishment Realm, so there was no need to be hesitant about leveling up. However, as was standard with William¡¯s ns, the best option was usually taken away. He unexpectedly bounced off the bubble and blinked at it in a daze. Lord Paddlington took this as an opportunity to swim in front of his face to shoot him another amused look. [Lord Paddlington: You will not be allowed entry into the safe zone unless you are in mortal danger. There is no point in dying my Lady¡¯s mission. Come, let us not waste more time.] There was no way in hell that William would follow this overly amused turtle anywhere at the moment. Since going to the safe zone wasn¡¯t an option, gestures to the system would have to do. Impurity: N/A William wanted to grab Lord Paddlington and shove its face right up to the screen. Instead, he pointed emphatically at the word ¡®Impurity.¡¯ Thankfully the turtle got why he was frantically pointing. [Lord Paddlington: Ah, I see. I did not think you qualified for the culling with your low cultivation. Let me check if I will be required to guide you. After all, you might not be alive after this.] William was rmed, and the tiny turtle vanished to add to that rm. The only sign that it hadn¡¯t been erased from existence or showed the ability to teleport was the void that it left in the water. That void onlysted for fractions of a second before the water surrounding it rushed in to fill the empty space. However, that was enough for William to conclude that Sophia had given it immense powers when creating it. Of course, the assumption was there, but getting a visual confirmation was nice. Seeing its diminutive form had started nagging on William¡¯s mind, so it came at a perfect time. It was also a good distraction so he wouldn¡¯t start overthinking what the turtle said before zooming away. With its attitude towards him so far, William didn¡¯t expect anything else. Besides, Sophia didn¡¯t seem worried about him dying in his attempts to kill the contaminated beasts. Lord Paddlington wasn¡¯t gone for long. Within a few seconds, the turtle was back in front of William, looking slightly surprised. [Lord Paddlington: You are in luck. The beasts are all below the Foundation Establishment Realm. If you are able to return, I will lead you to the heart.] After sending him that message, Lord Paddlington disappeared once again, leaving him staring at nothing before he realized it. William was a little frustrated, of course. Still, once again, he had be used to bumbling about before something worked in his favor. Hopefully, that would also apply here. William nced at the very attractive, safe, peaceful bubble before shaking his head. The smug turtle was right about one thing. There was no use in dying any longer. He moved closer to the bubble so his back nearly touched it when he sat on the sandy floor. This way, he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about attacks from behind. It was just the top, sides, and front to be concerned about¡­ That might not seem like much, but William wanted to make it possible for an attack to push him directly into the safe zone purely by its force on his body. He slowly closed his eyes and diverted his senses inward, quickly falling into the state needed for cultivation. It was almost immediately noticeable that there was no elerated gain. Just to be sure, William continued to cultivate for about an hour to see if there was that dyed start, as it happened the very first time. Nothing changed. [Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 48 Minutes: +8 XP] William stopped the cultivation in disappointment, though it wasn¡¯t a surprise. The prickling sensation when the density of Qi was nearing the limit of what his body could handle did not exist here, so there were no expectations in the first ce. He pushed himself up and swam up to better understand the entire level. Seeing the vast space filled with life made him realize something. This was farrger than anything that could possibly be seen from outside the trench by an exponential amount. On top of that, those trench walls that should have existed were nowhere in sight. William wondered if this was a dimension inside a dimension, which made sense with how there seemed to be a whole new ecosystem that was thriving here. Chapter 91: Out of the Water Chapter 91: Out of the Water Thinking of this beautiful underwater paradise and the hellish desert that he had experienced as one and the same was unfair, but that was what William¡¯s mind was starting to conclude. After a certain point, wandering around the beautiful sights was getting equally repetitive as seeing sand as far as the eyes could see. There was only so much that stunning corals and carelessly swimming fish could make him stop and look for more than a nce. What made William even less interested was that there seemed to be nothing important to his cultivation on this level. That could have been considered a given since one of the few things that the Sophia-doll mentioned, at least indirectly. Besides being a ce to get ustomed to the Qi, this level wasn¡¯t meant to be anything else. Of course, he didn¡¯t believe that and wasted his time swimming around aplishing nothing. William stopped near the very edge, where it changed from containing aquatic life toplete emptiness. He pushed out a hand and wasn¡¯t surprised to feel some sort of barrier stopping him from going further. This was one of the first things he tested. He was locked in here until he was able to kill those contaminated beasts. William turned to nce at the nearly invisible safe zone in the distance. Even though he could sustain his body underwater for a length that likely reached days, it wasforting that he had a vague idea of how long it would take to reach the only ce with oxygen. Since sight no longer was of any help, William had been straining his senses to try and feel the barest hint of the Qi in the water increasing in density. Thus far, it had been equally as useless as his sight. A stray thought passed in his mind that he was going around in circles under an illusion, just like in the forest. However, since he was using the distant bubble as a marker to keep track of his general location, that was very unlikely. William shook his head to get his wandering mind back into focus. This level might have been Sophia¡¯s personal fish tank for all he knew. It wasn¡¯t even that much of a stretch since he was explicitly warned not to bother any of the aquatic life here, though calling it aquatic life was very much a stretch. Other than the eerily simr schools of blue and green fish abundantly avable, nothing else existed. Of course, Lord Paddlington of the Deepwater Abyss didn¡¯t count since that turtle, by its own admission, was created by Sophia. ¡­ Didn¡¯t that mean it was possible that Fatty Xu was also a created life? William tilted his head as he considered that scary theory. It certainly exined why the system didn¡¯t give the standard information it offered with everyone he met. Sophia must have designed the system to discover the name and level of natural life, and it might not work on things created artificially. Perhaps they were some sort of constructs? Golems? Alchemic creations? William honestly didn¡¯t know much about things like this. From what he remembered, they weren¡¯tmon in cultivation worlds. However, the existence of Sophia must have caused changes that he still hadn¡¯t discovered. After all, it would be strange if all she had changed in this world¡¯s culture was how hotel rooms were designed. He blinked, realizing that his thoughts had once again gone off track. The effect Sophia had on the culture of this world was something that he could wonder about all he wanted once he was free from this dimension. William pped his face to snap himself out of it, but it didn¡¯t have the same effect since he was currently underwater. What was supposed to be solid contact turned out weak and disappointing instead. He kept himself high above the floor to have a decent vantage of everything around him and tried to see if something looked out of ce. The saving grace of the desertpared to this was that the only thing that existed there was sand. Finding the tiny blip that ended up being the oasis was an easy task. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Such a find was not possible here. Not only were there colorful corals dotting the underwaterndscape, the damned fish seemed to want to get his attention by merrily swimming through the area he was focused on. And they were always in massive schools, never solitary. William spent far too long floating in the same spot, trying to discover a clue of where to go next. He only stopped when a truly enormous school of fish wasing right at him, as if there wasn¡¯t nearly endless empty space around him. With a roll of his eyes, he kept the warning he received in his heart and avoided any contact by swimming away. Around another hour passed, and William was starting to understand how vast this ce was. He had lost sight of the safe zone since he had been swimming at a brisk pace in the opposite direction, but he still couldn¡¯t see any end in front of him. It seemed that he was hopelessly lost on what to do and where to go. The best choice might be to return to the safe zone and try to find the smug turtle, Lord Paddlington. ¡°You have been ustomed to the Qi bysting three hours without detriment. Prepare to be transported to the next level.¡± William instantly recognized Sophia¡¯s voice. He looked around frantically to see where she was, but it seemed it was just her disembodied voice. It took him a second after that to realize what she had said. He had been searching endlessly for nothing. All he had to do was sit next to the bubble for three hours before the same thing happened. William didn¡¯t fight the sudden suction he felt pulling him down to the floor, nor did he panic at the sudden appearance of a brightly shining array. ¡­ That wasn¡¯t theplete truth. He panicked just a little, but that was to be expected since he was terrified of death. He would soon fight against spirit beasts far above his level, and there would be no running away this time. As William was steadily getting pulled down, almost at a snail¡¯s pace, the only thing he could talk to in this horrible ce reappeared. Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss was a few arm lengths away, a gummy smile proudly disyed on its face. It''s tiny, smug, stupidly infuriating face. He knew the turtle had likely watched him bumble around with that same smile. Why could he not meet someone, or something, helpful for once? [Lord Paddlington: Do try to return without losing a limb. My Lady has chosen you for a reason, and it¡¯s certainly not strength. Having that many digits must be the key to your luck.] William saw it wave its flipper at him before the world shed a blinding white. He was familiar with this. He experienced the same process when a teleportation array was activated. Where hended, though, was not familiar. Not at all. William was deep under ake in an oasis, not to mention that he was inside an endlessly deep trench that was mindbogglingly vast, so he thought it wasn¡¯t too farfetched to expect that he would still be surrounded by water. Of course, the one thing that William kept forgetting was that things wouldn¡¯t go the way he thought. ¡°Fuck!¡± William cursed as he dodged the burst of fire that shot toward him from an actual . He quickly turned his head to follow the fire, and his eyes widened at seeing itnd into anotherva pit far too close behind him. It was telling that he could barely feel the heat emanating from it due to the scorching temperature everywhere. William was honestly surprised that he didn¡¯tbust from what he could feel. He hoped to any higher power, or in this case, Dread Empress Sophia, that this ability to not get damaged by the heat wasn¡¯t some weird temporary effect of beingpletely surrounded by water a few seconds ago. If it was, that wouldn¡¯t surprise him at all. Going from an underwater environment to its opposite in every way was jarring. Still, William already knew what he had to do. If the desert caused him constant health loss due to being an inhospitable environment, then this would certainly do the same. He wanted to take his time while trying to take down these contaminated beasts, but that no longer seemed to be an option. Risks would need to be taken before the only way to survive would be by popping an endless amount of Vitality Restoration pills. Chapter 92: Into the Fire Chapter 92: Into the Fire William¡¯s increased cultivation might give him a little more breathing room before his health started to take a hit. Still, he had no intention of leaving his life up to that hope, especially with what happened next. To top off the hellish environment, sudden distant roars made theva pits bubble in excitement as William braced himself to not fall over when the ground shook beneath him. When he saw that both theva pits seemed eager to spew more mes, he quickly jumped away to remove himself from the area. William¡¯s jumpnded him hundreds of feet from where he was teleported, and while it couldn¡¯t necessarily be called safe, it was certainly better than being in the middle of two temperamentalva pits. If William had to describe what he saw around him in the simplest of words, it would be the Venus, but redder. Everything seemed redder than it had any right to be. The air, the tint of the cracked soil, the damned sky¡­ everything. It was as if this level took a look at the red of the constantly replenishedva and decided to take on that color to the extreme. Speaking of theva, there were far too many pits filled with them. While it wasn¡¯t to the level of identally stepping into one since they were tens of feet wide at the minimum and reasonably spaced out, there wasn¡¯t a ce William could look without seeing at least one in his vision. Just looking at the roiling molten earth made him break out in a sweat, even more than he already was. Ever since the desert, he had decided to forgo clothing because it was more of a hindrance with the challenges he had faced, and that certainly applied here too. It hadn¡¯t been the first time he berated himself for not being thoughtful enough to buy clothes that would offer him some sort of protection. The fretting over his nonexistent clothes was interrupted by thunderous roars. It seemed to be the same as what he had heard previously, only much, much louder. William realized that the roars seemed to ovep as if more than one thing made that noise. He winced when the roars somehow increased in volume, making him mp his hands over his ears to try to futilely keep them from being damaged. [-10 HP] William shuddered in relief when the roars abruptly stopped, barely able to believe that he actually lost health due to distant beasts roaring at each other. He hoped for his continued life that these were not the contaminated beasts he had to kill, but knowing his shitty luck, that was precisely what they were. He pulled his hands away from his ears and grimaced at seeing the small amount of blood on them before wiping it off his body. The roars might have stopped, for he could still hear the dull thuds of flesh meeting flesh. There was a fight happening, but William couldn¡¯t see the things that were doing this fighting. Since there were no hills or mountains around him, it was beyond confusing where this was taking ce. William had a thought that it might be happening below his feet since the ground shook every time a hit wasnded, but unless there was some sort of odd underground cave that somehow existed alongside the flowing magma, that was impossible. He crouched slightly to get more bnce when the ground started to shake more intensely. His eyes widened when he saw cracks forming, revealing magma that began to seep to the surface. William was quick to get out of the way of the biggest of these, especially one forming between his feet, but it was a constant game of cat and mouse, so it felt like he was always on the move. It got to a point where William actually thought that the entire level would crumble and beyered withva. It wasn¡¯t like there was a ce for him to escape to, so he was wondering about how to survive if something so disastrous came to pass. Thankfully, that didn¡¯t happen, but it also didn¡¯t mean things weren¡¯t drastically changed. William panted like a dog as he tried to somehow cool himself down, but it was highly ineffective. Likely because there was now a shimmering haze from the heat emanating from the massive amount ofva that now flowed on the surface like streams. What had been sparse pits of bubblingva had somehow turned into even more of a hellscape than it was at the start. It felt to William like his skin would start bubbling at any moment, and an alert popped up to support that feeling. [You are in an environment with adverse conditions] [It is rmended to head for safety as soon as possible] [Trait Added | Adverse Conditions in Environment - Loss of 100 Health per hour] William only gave the alerts a nce before dismissing them. He considered that a minor issue, almost a boon, in fact. Even though it was worse than the trait he gained in the desert, considering how much worse it was at the momentpared to the paradise-like desert, it was a blessing. The only exnation William could think of was his increased cultivation level. It was likely the reason he hadn¡¯tbusted instantly. William ignored the sweat dripping down his body as he looked around, paying close attention to the fireballs spewed in far greater numbers than before the ground decided to crack open. At the very least, it seemed the fireballs were still originating from theva pits and not theva streams that sprang into existence. It took him a few seconds of cautiously watching theva pits to realize something was missing. William could hear the bubbling of theva pits, the dull crackle of the fires that were seen on the surface of parts of theva rivers, and the loudest of them all, the roar of the fireballs that asionally flew out of the pits before crashing into another. However, the thing that started it all couldn¡¯t be heard. The roars that made his ears bleed could no longer be heard, nor were there the signs of the fight that cracked the ground open. He knew what would happen next. It was far too obvious since he was sent here to kill the contaminated beasts. William¡¯s eyes darted around, taking in where the cracks on the ground were the deepest, and immediately ran the opposite way. With his considerable speed, he made ground at a startling pace while making sure to keep afortable distance from anyva pits that were starting to spew fire and a frighteningly fast rate. Thankfully he was able to avoid any disasters in his escape attempt. The ground was far less damaged in this area, which gave him a sense of relief. He was eyeing the area cautiously when he heard the sound of rock cracking behind him. William turned, his jaw dropped as he stared at a massive finger breaking through the ground where he had just been standing. As for why he knew it was a finger, it kept pushing up, breaking the ground like it was made of paper to reveal an entire hand. It was at this point that William realized that if the hand was thisrge, the body would be absolutely massive. Massive enough that the distance he fled was insignificant. William didn¡¯t hesitate. It was time to run again. He had thought that the times when his first reaction to run was in the past, and now he had to be brave and stand his ground, but no way in hell would he stay and let himself be killed by ident. Obviously, he¡¯d rather not get killed at all, but he prefers it to be against something that knew he existed. William ignored all the sounds behind him, no matter how insane it was getting. All he was thinking was that there must be another one that would dig itself out. Assuming that this massive thing was one of the ones that had been fighting, there was something that could give this a challenge. As terrifying as that was to visualize, William knew his priority was to get as far from this ce as possible before another fight started. This time it would be above ground and exponentially more dangerous to his life. Chapter 93: Darkness Chapter 93: Darkness William¡¯s patented ¡®Run for your life¡¯ skill was going as well as it could, considering that two humanoid-shaped behemoths were throwing punches that created shockwaves behind him. That was great, but he really wished his guess that another giant would rip its way out of the ground to start a fight was wrong. William had tried multiple times to turn around and look at what exactly was fighting each other, but all he could see were massive, charred calves before he was forced to put his focus back on fleeing for his life. William couldn¡¯t exactly avoid theva pits without looking at where he was running, but more than that, the nce behind him made him realize how close he still was to the fight. He was lucky that neither bothered with attempting to move their legs because if they did, it was highly likely that he would have been crushed under a heel by a single step in his direction. [-100 HP] William ignored the alert. He had been tracking his health since he acquired the negative trait, so it wasn¡¯t a surprise. The loss of health happened steadily as time passed, making that alert a simple reminder of that fact. Health: 1190/1400 The ground cracked open right in front of him, but it had be such amon urrence that William casually leaped over it without slowing down. More important than the ground crumbling into nothing around him, he wondered when it would be time to use the Vitality Restoration Pills. William still had plenty of pills in reserve, but he had a gut feeling that it was best to use them efficiently. An ample supply didn¡¯t mean he should be careless with it. He wasn¡¯t sure thest time he had taken a pill, but it was when he was in the second level of Qi Gathering. The pill had restored six hundred health, but the effect was expected to be reduced since he now had a higher cultivation. Perhaps it would be best to take a pill when he had lost around five hundred health. Of course, that only applied if he wasn¡¯t being attacked directly. Efficiency was thrown out at this point, and maximum health was the top priority. However, as wasmon with William¡¯s underestimation of what was dangerous, he neglected to consider the unexpected things, or worse, something that he should have thought of but didn¡¯t since he was too focused on other possibilities. William heard a sickening squelch of flesh pierced behind him, the shockwave resulting from that attack almost made him think his body had been damaged. It made his heart skip a beat, almost as if his body subconsciously knew something unpleasant was about to happen. That turned out to be an understatement. The howl that ripped through the air made William¡¯s ears bleed profusely, and to add to that, the sonic boom that apanied the pained scream mmed into his body and flung it into the air like a ragdoll. [-720 HP] The shriek leaving William¡¯s mouth was drowned out by the earsplitting roar the giant was still letting out. Just because his pain couldn¡¯t be heard didn¡¯t stop him from feeling the multiple broken bones in his body. He ground that pain into nothingness to focus on his near-fatal situation. William wasunched into the air with little to no control over his body. The only thing that let him have some sort of control in the air, his Impact Boots, were turned into something less than useless by theke water. And it looked like hisnding spot was perilously close to multipleva pits. Of course, it was. He pulled three Vitality Restoration Pills from his spatial stone and held the spares tightly in his fist while he shoved one into his mouth. [+570 HP] [Health: 470 ¡ª> 1040/1400] [Impurity Increased] [N/A ¡ª> Stage 1 (17%)] William didn¡¯t hesitate to swallow one more while returning the spare back into his spatial stone, knowing that this was one of the situations where having his full health was mandatory. [+360 HP] [Health: 1040 ¡ª> 1400/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (17%) ¡ª> Stage 1 (34%)] That wasn¡¯t the end of his troubles quite yet, but thankfully, William was able to confidently predict anding spot that was in one of the few areas that didn¡¯t contain ava pit. He contorted his body to try andnd on his feet, but in the process, he saw something mind-blowing. With William¡¯s body spinning near-uncontrobly, he inevitably came to a position where he was looking straight up into the sky. He could finally see what he was attempting to get a glimpse of during his escape attempt. Two massive giants with lines of flowingva running down their bodies. Their entire bodies were charred ck, with two burning red eyes ring at one another. The one to the right grunted, its arm buried in the chest of the other, glowing a menacing red. Even with the distance William was flung away, the sound was enough to damage him a little while adding more force to his impromptu flight, making him rag doll far further than he already was. [-30 HP] Before he could try to figure out if the new ce he wouldnd would be safe for him, the giant with its chest pierced had something ripped out of its chest. A pulsing, purplish-red mass that spewed out gold liquid with every contraction. The heart. That was William¡¯sst thought before the now heart-less giant let out an unholy sound that a human wasn¡¯t supposed to hear. [-800 HP] It couldn¡¯t be described adequately, nor did the loss of health signify how much it affected him. William could only see the blue text of the system alert. Everything else was a blurry mess at best, and utterly dark at worst. The pain was the worst he had felt so far, as if all of his nerves had been lit on fire while also having their sensitivity cranked up exponentially. William wasn¡¯t sure if he was screaming or not at this point, but either way, his instincts took over. He automatically pulled out more of his precious pills and swallowed one. [+570 HP] [Health: 570 ¡ª> 1140/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (34%) ¡ª> Stage 1 (51%)] He wanted to panic when he still couldn¡¯t see anything other than the system messages, but he crushed it to stop from getting distracted. It was not the time when just one more pill might be the solution to his blindness. [+260 HP] [Health: 1140 ¡ª> 1400/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (51%) ¡ª> Stage 1 (68%)] Now was the time to panic. William still saw nothing. And he was flying blind. However, his hearing wasn¡¯t affected one bit. The giant that took away his sight was no longer furthering the damage with its dying cries. But in ce of that, it sounded like the world was ending around him. The sound of the ground shifting was so deafening that he almost came to the conclusion that the giant¡¯s dying call was turning everything into a sea ofva. Thankfully¡­ not maybe not, he didn¡¯t have to worry about it. William felt his nose break. Then he lost consciousness. Chapter 94: The Grass is Nice Chapter 94: The Grass is Nice His waking groan was muffled. To be urate, it was more blocked than muffled. William¡¯s jaw was somehow nestled inside a rock. Not only that, but his entire body was lodged in rock. It took a few seconds for what happened to sh through his mind before he lost consciousness. The spike of fear that shot through him was heart-stopping. It almost paralyzed him when he realized that he still couldn¡¯t see. He immediately pulled up his health to see how much he had lost and, more importantly, how much he had left to spare. Health: 42/1400 The spike of fear that William felt before looking at his health status was nothingpared to what filled his entire body at the moment. This might be the closest he had been to death, and if not that, it was undoubtedly the most significant proportion of health he had lost. The loss of his sight was the least of his concerns now. It was now a matter of how to get himself out of this situation and swallow more pills before the adverse conditions of the hellscape killed him. As William tried to get himself out of the ce he was lodged in, he pulled up the logs to see the alerts that appeared after he fell unconscious. [-1200 HP] [-100 HP] [-58 HP] [Trait Removed | Adverse Conditions in Environment] That was good news. Great news, actually. Not that he knew why that trait had been removed. He had been unconscious for at least two hours, but that would have been enough to kill him if he hadn¡¯t got lucky. He wondered if his Luck attribute was actually enough to give him such a break. William grunted when he freed his arms from the rock. He could barely feel any part of his body, including the arm he freed. Considering the broken state he was in, it was likely a blessing to have his nervespletely dead. He freed his other arm carefully as he watched his health to make sure he didn¡¯t identally damage himself in the process. Thankfully that was sessful. William didn¡¯t know how close he was to the ground, but since a slight fall might be enough to end his life, he needed a firm grip on something before trying to free the rest of his body. The only problem was that he could feel his arms, and he also suspected that it had the quality of jelly since it was likely that his bones were shattered. The answer to his problems was to use Qi, as long as it worked, of course. William assumed the suppression didn¡¯t apply on this level since the water wasn¡¯t here. He grunted as he thrust his palm into the rock. [-5 HP] William winced at seeing the loss. Five points was usually nothing he would pay attention to, but it was nearly a tenth of what he had left at the moment. He decided to forego using his other arm and hoped one was enough to keep himself in ce. Besides not wanting to lose more of his precious health, William had another reason to get himself out of this rock. The hope that he could only see ck due to being lodged face-first into a rock wall. Not for any other permanent reason. With his fist clenched in the hole that was just created and his other hand pushing on the rock wall, William finally pushed his body out. [-5 HP] That alert was ignored as he giggled hysterically while hanging precariously to the wall with his one arm. He could see. It was blurry at the start, but William didn¡¯t give a fuck. He could see. [-1 HP] That alert he couldn¡¯t ignore. There was still a stupid smile on his face, or he assumed so since he couldn¡¯t really feel his face, but he didn¡¯t let that stop him from popping the needed pills. He pulled two from his slowly dwindling supply and swallowed one. [+570 HP] [Health: 31 ¡ª> 601/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (67%) ¡ª> Stage 1 (84%)] William groaned in pain when his nerves suddenly started to do their job. It was unpleasant and pleasant at the same time, but mainly thetter. Pain meant he was alive and getting better. However, he hesitated to use more pills after seeing his impurity percentage. It would take him to stage two, which would be a massive detriment with the rewards that would be in reach due to the quest from Sophia. And William also noticed that the initial impurity had dropped a percentage point during the time he had been unconscious. It meant he had only been out for a little over two hours, far less than he had thought. With that in mind, he decided to dy taking another pill until his impurity had dropped by two percentage points. It was a risk, no doubt, but he would keep a pill on hand in case of an emergency. A whiff of danger, and he would take it. William closed his fist around the pill and looked around for the first time, blinking in shock when he saw the changes in the environment. What had previously been a hellscape with pits of mingva had turned into a lush garden that seemed more vibrant than the forest he had been dropped into. And in the center of it all was a massive thing that could only be called as some sort of world tree. It made the trees in the forest look pathetic inparison. It was a significant distance away from Wim. Still, the massive trunk seemed to be a mile wide, and that was no exaggeration. The bark was a rich brown, but there wererge green patches that could be moss, though those patches had to be mind-bogglingly vast with how much of the bark they covered. He kept tilting his head to see the end of the tree, and by the time he found it, he was looking straight up. This thing was ridiculous. Its vast branches spread from the center before ending right above him, creating afortable shade over the garden as if shielding it from the outside. William noticed that there seemed to be an actual ecosystem that thrived on and around this tree, unlike the clinical nature of the ones in the forest. It was as if this was naturally grown without interference from a cultivator. He looked away from the marvel when he heard a soft crack beneath him. He snapped his head to the sound and blinked when he took in the distance to the ground. It was lucky he had the mind to get a grip on the wall, or he truly would have fallen to his death. There was another crack, this time more clearly heard, and the rock wall had a small hole at the very bottom. It was then that William saw proof that he was still in the same hellscape. A reddish mist seeped through the hole, turning the vibrant grass full of life a dull yellow the moment it was touched. That wasn¡¯t the end of what came through the newly formed hole. [Name: Pyralisk | Level: 67] It was a lizard-like creature with a rather stunning armor covering its body. It would be stunning if William ignored its fearsome appearance and focused on a small part of its body. Its transparent crystalline armor shimmered and shined while showcasing the constantly flowing magma beneath. The first thing it did after entering this paradise was munch on the grass, making a sound simr to rocks grinding against each other. Perhaps it was from happiness, but he didn¡¯t overthink it. There was something else that needed his attention. William realized something when that Pyralisk broke in. This lush garden was contained inside a barrier made of rock that surrounded all sides, and from the asional circles that covered this wall, he quickly concluded that this had formerly been ground. Those circles had once beenva pits. Something happened that caused the ground to be lifted to form a bowl, with that tree in the center. William¡¯s mind shed to the two giants having a death match, ending as golden blood covered the ground beneath them. His eyes locked onto the tree, or more precisely, where it had grown. It was approximately where the golden blood had stained the ground. William gulped as if that would stop his greed from overtaking his mind. He looked at the Pyralisk happily munching away at a new patch of grass. He wanted to taste some grass too. It must have extraordinary properties. But before allowing himself to leave the wall, William needed to get his health to a higher state. And before that, he needed to wait around five hours to reduce his impurity and avoid crossing over to the second stage. However, after that, he would taste some of that grass. Chapter 95: Luck Matters Chapter 95: Luck Matters Unsurprisingly, it was not exciting to hang onto the wall while doing nothing but waiting for his Impurity percentage to reduce. Well, that wasn¡¯t theplete truth. William did something while waiting, but it only took an hour or two before he had to pass the time by staring at the Pyralisk doing its best to act like a cow. In all the excitement, the fact that Sophia had improved his spatial stone had slipped his mind. Since he hadn¡¯t been in a mood to bother with the spatial stone other than to take out the Vitality Restoration Pills, he figured it was understandable he had missed the possible changes. Before William used his Qi to investigate what Sophia had done, he had all sorts of fantastical ideas in mind. Since she had somehow created this separate dimension as a training ground, he almost expected a dumbed-down version to appear in his spatial stone. After all, he couldn¡¯t expect Sophia to be capable of more since she had only been present as an incarnation. Still, she was an incarnation of an immortal. That was why William was sorely disappointed when the only thing that seemed to have changed was the holding capacity of the spatial stone. It increased from the size of the side room in the Jade Healing Clinic torger than the entire Clinic itself. Of course, he didn¡¯t ept that to be the extent of the improvement. Still, after spending over an hour spreading his Qi inside the spatial stone, hoping to discover anything hidden, he epted that there was nothing to find. William consoled himself by thinking about how much more valuable the spatial stone was. If poor Nascent Soul Realm cultivators would have drooled over the stone before, it wasn¡¯t a stretch that even well-off cultivators in that realm would desire it after the upgrade. That didn¡¯t really make his disappointment disappear altogether, so he also tried to distract himself by studying the Pyralisk. After all, William had to decide if the best n of action was to avoid the spirit beast or if it would be more beneficial to fight it. And the best way to figure that out was to use Observe. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Pyralisk Level: 67 Cultivation: Immature Beast (Level 6) Health: 1500/1500 Spiritual Energy: 455/455 Spirit: 91 Strength: 55 Stamina: 74 Agility: 36 Seeing the Pyralisk¡¯s attributes made the decision extremely easy for William. It had to be the most mismatched numbers he had seen, especially the Agility. It filled him with confidence to the point where he believed it would be hard-pressed for him to take any damage whatsoever. It was getting close to the time when his Impurity would get to the required percentage to get a move on. Which meant it was a perfect time to make a battle n. The Pyralisk was minding its own business, still being its best cow self and munching on all of the greenest grass it could find, not knowing that there was someone who was about to ruin its happy meal time. Over the nearly five hours that William had been waiting, the Pyralisk had wandered a little ways from the rock wall, but it was still well within his attack range. A stomping from the sky, directly to the head, should get William the experience points the Pyralisk had for him. Or if not that, it should be a few attacks away from getting him those precious points. Just as the Pyralisk finished stripping a spot off its grass and was about to move a little further away, the stat William kept an eye on changed. Impurity: Stage 1 (82%) 8 Days Remaining He immediately took out a pill and threw it into his mouth. [+570 HP] [Health: 601 ¡ª> 1171/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (82%) ¡ª> Stage 1 (99%)] He sighed in relief when the throbbing pain dulled into something far more manageable. William knew this was cutting it close, and he wouldn¡¯t be able to consume much of anything until the Impurity was drastically reduced. Still, he held out hope that he would find another miracle like the oasis water. Surely, that giant¡¯s golden blood created something simr here. After all, it literally created this paradise in about two hours. He put that worry aside and tensed his muscles, readying himself to take down the Pyralisk before starting his exploration of the ce. William sank his fingers into the rock before pulling out his other hand which had been embedded into the wall. He winced when it made far too much noise, but luckily, his target paid it no mind. Either it was far too engrossed in tasting the delicious grass, or it didn¡¯t consider the sound of rocks crumbling something to be concerned about. It may also be possible that it simply couldn¡¯t hear it, but William didn¡¯t believe that. The Pyralisk¡¯s level was far too high for such dull senses. William¡¯s heart sped up in anticipation of what was about to happen. It seemed like it had been a lifetime since he fought something, and it actually got his blood pumping at getting another opportunity. He nced at the spot in the air he wanted to reach, figuring it would be a perfect ce to cause the most damage when dropping from the sky. William bent his knees slightly as he ground his feet to make a sort of makeshift tform into the rock wall. When he was satisfied that it wouldn¡¯t crumble under the force of his jump, he did just that. He grinned happily when he found himself almost floating in the sky right at the spot he was targeted, directly above the Pyralisk. It was tough to not marvel at his new perspective of this ce, but he forced himself to keep a close eye on the beast to see if it would react to the crumbling rock because of his jump. It didn¡¯t. The Pyralisk continued to chew on grass, oblivious to the deathing from above. William directed his Qi to his feet, almost losing his concentration when, instead of thin wisps of Qi emanating from his feet, it was almost like a roaring fire. The change was either from his drastically increased Spiritual Energy or, more likely, the increase inpatibility of his martial skills. He shot down at the Pyralisk like a silent missile, his Qi-covered feet leading the way. William had been ready for the spirit beast to realize that its doom was moments away and suddenly react, but to his surprise, it never happened. He grunted when his feet mmed into the top of the Pyralisk¡¯s head, all the power in his bodybined with the multiplier of his Qi crashing into it without anything blocking it. William winced when the Pyralisk¡¯s head popped like a balloon. The mineral-like characteristics of the Pyralisk meant that instead of a mess of blood and gore, it was more like he was pulverizing abination of different colored rocks that likely substituted as its organs. [+5797 XP] [Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added] He was barely able to stop the momentum after he was distracted by the surprising amount of experience points he gained. It was lucky that was the case when the Pyralisk tried to get revenge even after its death. ¡°Oh, fuck!¡± William cursed when the headless body started to glow a bright red. The magma flowing under its crystal body seemed out of control, and he was right in its path. This all happened within a fraction of a second. While William was able to get himself a few feet away, he knew it was highly likely that he was still in the st radius. William quickly covered his face to try and protect his vitals, but when nothing happened for a few seconds, he realized that the Pyralisk¡¯s body had stopped glowing. There was also a system alert that made his face light up. [The eliminated Pyralisk¡¯s body has been preserved] [Current odds of preservation is 38.5% based on Luck: 77] It looked like his Luck attribute once again had a tangible real-world effect. Chapter 96: Lord Paddlington Sends a Friend Chapter 96: Lord Paddlington Sends a Friend William stared at the headless body of the Pyralisk while scratching his chin in confusion. There must be a reason it had been preserved, but for the life of him, he couldn¡¯t figure out why. Like the foodie he had be by necessity, his first thought was to how he should go about eating it. The problem was that he would literally burn his mouth if he tried, which would be the best situation. It was more likely that he would be lit on fire from the inside out. So obviously, doing something as stupid as taking a bite into the rocky, mey body was not an option. William waffled for a few more seconds before resorting to an option he didn¡¯t want to take. Storing the body in his spatial stone. Since it couldn¡¯t handle the preservation of high-quality spiritual fruits, he certainly expected the same issue with a spirit beast. However, something barely above the level of trash was better than abandoning the body. William ced his palm on the dead Pyralisk and surrounded it in his Qi before pulling the body into his spatial stone. With that taken care of, he needed to figure out what to do next. William looked around the heaven on earth that sprouted from the giant¡¯s blood and saw far too many areas to explore, the massive tree being thergest target. As crazy as it sounded, he didn¡¯t think he had unlimited time to do so. The Pyralisk that broke through the wall will not be the only beast that would intrude the paradise. And the more beasts that do, the faster this ce will deteriorate. William moved to where the Pyralisk broke through the wall and frowned when the heat he felt on his skin increased exponentially. Not quite at the level he experienced when he was dropped into this level, but far closer to it than he would like. A look out the hole confirmed what he suspected. This ce was an oasis from the hell that was out there. And the way the red fog seemed in and seemed to reim thend taken by the paradise meant he shouldn¡¯t try to explore for pleasure. William¡¯s goal on this level was to destroy the contaminated spirit beasts. The only focus he should have was on acquiring things that would let himst in the hellish environment without the need to pop Vitality Restoration Pills constantly. He didn¡¯t believe it would be possible to find the contaminated beasts quickly with the vast size of this level. It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that this was a directparison to finding a needle in a haystack. With a firm goal in his mind, he decided to ignore most of this ce and put all his attention on the tree. It was likely where the most incredible finds were located anyway. Of course, when he moved a little closer, William saw something that made him abandon his firm goal almost immediately. Water. Well, it''s a waterfall, but same thing, really. William hadn¡¯t been able to see it previously since it had been hidden by an outgrown part of the tree that hid it away perfectly. But now that he had, all he could think of was if this would have the same effect as the water in the oasis. Since Sophia had made this entire dimension, it wouldn¡¯t be a stretch for this to be possible. Maybe she got the idea to base the oasis water on something that could be extracted from the creatures she ced here. William honestly had no idea, but he was creating every possible excuse and reasoning in his mind on why it wasn¡¯t a gigantic gamble to waste his time visiting a waterfall on the other side of this ce instead of going right to the tree. At the very least, it would waste a few hours if nothing unexpected slowed him down, and at the worst, an entire day or two could easily pass with nothing gained from it. He already knew his mind had been made up. It was to the water he goes. He prayed to Sophia that it would answer his ridiculously high Impurity problem. Even though his new destination was on the other side of the tree, William didn¡¯t take a direct path to it. It might be the shortest distance to the waterfall, but it certainly wouldn¡¯t be the fastest time-wise. There were far too many obstacles if he traveled in a straight line in the form of increasingly thick vegetation the closer one got to the tree. It was also likely that there were unknown dangers, but that was just a guess at the moment. On the other hand, if William stayed near the wall, there was nothing to be worried about. Unless the grass here suddenly gained the ability to fight him. ¡­ William slowly looked down and stared at the grass before pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. He had forgotten the entire reason that he had decided to fight the Pyralisk. It was to eat grass without being disturbed. William squatted, gently rubbing his hand on the soft grass and wondering if he would really do this. Did he really fall to the level of eating grass in case it might help it? Of course, he was. That was never in doubt, especially since he had already done so before in The Garden. Since the grass here looked to be of much higher quality, he even considered it as a delicacy. William ripped some of the grass, only a pinch, before putting it in his mouth. He had expected the refreshing feeling that came with eating high-quality spirit nts, but all that he could actually taste was grass. The extremely strong taste of the most grassy grass that existed. It suddenly brought back memories of him as a child in his old world, when he had to eat grass because he had lost a dumb schoolyard bet. However, William didn¡¯t care about the taste. All he wanted to know was if it would help him increase his stats. Of course, the moment he thought about his stats, he immediately started to spit out the half-chewed grass like it would kill him. William even went as far as to rub his tongue to get all the traces of grass out of his mouth. Thankfully, it seemed like it didn¡¯t have any effect on him. Either because he didn¡¯t eat enough of it or the grass was utterly useless to him. ¡°I¡¯m such a fucking idiot,¡± William muttered as he shook his head after the fright. If eating the grass had raised his stats, the Impurity would have jumped to Stage 2. William was disgusted at his own carelessness. He stood back up and decided to ignore everything he was tempted to eat and started to make his way to the waterfall by circling around the edge. It was possible to use his full speed and quickly cover the distance since the only thing he really had to be wary of was more break-ins by the spirit beasts that lived outside of this wall. William was almost halfway to the destination after around thirty minutes of full-on sprinting. He was able to see the waterfall much more clearly from here. The water seemed to originate from the tree itself before it fell off the edge that appeared to be made of pitch-ck rock. He couldn¡¯t see the bottom of the waterfall since it was blocked by vegetation, but he questioned if there was one at all. There should have been some sort of river orke that had formed due to the sheer amount of water the waterfall contained, but there were no signs of that. [Lord Paddlington: Did youe here with some friends?] William halted in his tracks from his surprise at the system alert. He looked around to see where the turtle was, but it seemed to be nowhere in sight. [Lord Paddlington: This girl seems to know how to use the Oasis of Respite. She will be heading to your level soon. Do you want me to send her to you?] His eyes brightened, realizing that this was Princess Jin. William had tried to keep the thoughts of the other two that came here to a minimum since he honestly thought they were goners. Everything he had met seemed to be so far above their level that thinking otherwise was pure ridiculousness. William wanted to tell the turtle to send Princess Jin here but had no way to send a message back. It made a sick feeling form in his stomach, thinking of the girl dying in the fiery hell outside this wall. [Lord Paddlington: Right, you cannot reply. This girl seems to be too weak to survive on her own. I will send her to you.] William let out a sigh of relief and mentally thanked Sophia for not making the turtle unnecessarily sadistic. He waited for a few seconds for another message, but instead of that, the air above him darkened to reveal a void. Lord Paddlington appeared near the edge of the void, giving him a small wave with its flipper before throwing a shocked Princess Jin down at him. Interlude: Princess Jin Does Not Find Ren Bo Interlude: Princess Jin Does Not Find Ren Bo Princess Jin released a sigh of relief when she finally stepped into the Oasis of Respite. If she was made to trek through the desert for much longer, the protections her robes offered would have failed. She shuddered at thinking of what would happen to her. Her royal tutor went into detail about this Shard since she was expected to ess it. Of course, nobody thought it would be this early, but the future was never certain unless one received a divination from a master. The desert was amon obstacle that the visitors of the Shard had to face, and one that the tutor focused on in particr. It hadn¡¯t taken too many lives, but the number of hopeful cultivators it had scarred exceeded hundreds. The damage the desert does to a cultivator¡¯s skin couldn¡¯t be fixed with a simple pill. However, it needed the expertise of a Master Alchemist, and those were in rare supply in the Tianxia Empire. In fact, the Empire itself only had one that was directly employed. And that alchemist didn¡¯t care to restore the horrifically deformed skin of the cultivators that were unlucky enough to have low-quality protective clothing, unless they were from the main branch, which was a given. The two other Master Alchemists in the Tianxia Empire were part of the Jade Healing Sect. Princess Jin knew her grandfather loved her, as much as a Nascent Soul cultivator could love someone, but she knew he would nch at paying the price to tempt those two to make a move. Thankfully, this was all hypothetical since she arrived safely at the Oasis of Respite. Princess Jin ignored the sparse trees that decorated the edge of the oasis and headed straight to theke at the center, expecting to see Ren Bo sitting idly in the area. The royal tutor ensured that she knew everything about the desert because of this oasis. While there were other areas of the Shard that the visitors could ess, the Oasis of Respite was easily the most beneficial to low-level cultivators. When Princess Jin reached the central area, it baffled her that Ren Bo was nowhere to be seen. She looked around with sharp eyes to see if he was making camp somewhere else, but the only thing that aplished was increasing her confusion. With a frustrated sigh, she decided to think about him after she received her benefits from the oasis. Princess Jin carefully knelt on one knee a few inches away from the edge of theke before pulling out a small spoon made of gold. She tied the sleeves of her robes to ensure they wouldn¡¯t interfere before slowly scooping out a spoonful of water. She immediately moved away from theke with her prize in hand, or rather, in spoon. Princess Jin let out the shudder she was holding back due to fear. She had seen the illustrations depicting what had happened to the visitors who had foolishly been careless with their interactions with theke. It hadter been theorized that all of the Shard¡¯s spiritual energy originated from deep within theke, so it hadn¡¯t been a surprise that the cultivators directly in contact with theke had literally exploded from Qi overload. Princess Jin gulped down her saliva as she held the spoonful of water at eye level. Separating some water from the main body was the only way to use it without harm. She put the spoon in her mouth, swallowed the precious water, and quickly sat on the soft grass. The Qi in her body was already surging from the boost from the spoonful of water. Sweat dripped down her face as she struggled to contain the Qi while trying to hold off progressing to the next minor realm before it was ideal. She started to regret swallowing such arge amount of water when she felt her control slipping, but just when she thought Qi poisoning would be her punishment for being cocky, her pathways were finally saturated. Princess Jin breathed heavily as she slowly opened her eyes, a relieved smile on her lips at having a perfect breakthrough. That smile dropped when she felt the thick sludge expelled from her body coating her skin. The smell quickly became overpowering when she no longer had cultivation as a distraction. Cleaning herself up took a good hour without ess to usable water. Still, Princess Jin was more than happy to do so since it meant impurities no longer existed in her body. She eyed the ck sludge that had been cleaned off her body, marring the bright green grass, and noticed it slowly absorbed into thend. The payment for the benefit the oasis gave her could be paid after. Without the payment, leaving the Oasis of Respite wouldn¡¯t be possible. Princess Jin resolved to find out what happened to Ren Bo before everything was absorbed. She returned to the edge, the only ce where a sparse amount of trees existed. Also, the only ce where it could be possible for Ren Bo to be without her being able to see him from the center. With the Oasis of Respite having little ground to cover, the search didn¡¯tst long. A short whileter, Princess Jin was back near theke with a puzzled expression. No matter how much she disliked Ren Bo, there was a reason that her elders thought of him as a genius. So, he wasn¡¯t likely foolish enough to blindly test the water in the oasis, especially since he was part of the Jade Healing Sect. It was drilled into the disciples of any sect that it was the height of stupidity to ingest anything that was unknown in secret realms. If a third-rate sect did that, so would the Jade Healing Sect. Princess Jin didn¡¯t think that Ren Bo killed himself by touching the water, so the only other option was that he discovered how to properly use the water by himself. ¡°As expected from a genius of the Jade Healing Sect,¡± Princess Jin muttered resentfully before she sighed. It looked like she would have to meet him while paying the levy for what she had taken from the oasis. Princess Jin once again sat on the grass, but this time, she cleared her mind of everything other than her intention to finish using the oasis. She didn¡¯t fight the feeling of being pulled down, knowing it was all happening as it should. Honestly, she was more anxious about the person she would meet here. That odd feeling disappeared, and Princess Jin tensed in nervousness at what would happen next. ¡°Greetings, Visitor. I wee all cultivators to use the Oasis of Respite, but there is a price to be paid for using its services. Please eliminate the spirit beasts contaminated by the impurity you have shed. This will allow future visitors to benefit from the Oasis and keep the bnce.¡± Princess Jin¡¯s eyes snapped open the moment the greeting started. She stared at the visage of the famed ancestor of the Tianxia Empire greedily, barely able to pay attention to what was being said when facing her idol. This was the woman who dominated the world and was able to end civilizations with a flip of her palm. It caused the ancestor to gain the undeserved title of Dread Empress by most of the world. Princess Jin didn''t me the ancestor, of course. What else could an Empress do when so many civilizations courted death? When the ancestor was finished speaking, Princess Jin dropped to her knees heavily and kowtowed. ¡°I will do so to the best of my abilities, Ancestor Sophia!¡± Princess Jin raised her head, wanting to ask what other orders the honored ancestor had for her. However, seeing a turtle floating in the air between her and the ancestor made her freeze in shock. It didn¡¯t help when it seemed like the turtle ripped space apart like a Spirit Severing old monster and created a void beneath them. Princess Jin wanted to scream in shock, but fear caused all sounds to be stuck in her throat. The next thing she knew, the turtle tossed her unceremoniously into the void below. Chapter 97: Need to Be Cautious Chapter 97: Need to Be Cautious William saw Lord Paddlington give him a gummy smile before the void closed. He then noticed that Princess Jin seemed to be in shock and wasn¡¯t preparing for a safending. He wasn¡¯t sure if the travel through the void did something to her, but he wasn¡¯t going to wait in hopes that she would snap out of it. William jumped up to catch Princess Jin in his arms and heard her muttering something curious. ¡°The turtle took away the ancestor.¡± That sentence was repeated constantly by her in a tiny voice. Knowing Lord Paddlington could be a condescending turtle, William suspected something traumatizing had been done to her. He hadn¡¯t thought the turtle could create voids in space, but since it was apparently able to do so, it might also have the ability to create illusions. Maybe it had teased Princess Jin about her favorite rtive because it was angry about something. ¡°Wei Liang?!¡± Or maybe instead of making wild guesses, William could just ask Princess Jin what was wrong since she was clear-eyed again. And just in time, too. His feet had justnded back on the ground when she snapped herself out of whatever was causing her to lose focus. Before William could ask Princess Jin questions to satisfy his curiosity, she spoke again, making him freeze. ¡°Why don¡¯t you have any clothes on?!¡± He had forgotten that the only thing he had on his body was underwear. Honestly, since there was nobody else to worry about, he even started to prefer to be without clothes. Princess Jin squirmed to get out of William¡¯s arms and turned her face to avoid looking at him. ¡°Put your robes on! Don¡¯t you know how dangerous it is here?¡± William suddenly realized that her presence caused another problem. He wouldn¡¯t be able to use his spatial stone as casually as before. At least he could pull his robes out of the space with Princess Jin giving him some privacy by looking away. After slipping on his robes, William asked, ¡°How did you get here?¡± Princess Jin nced at him, obviously relieved that he was no longer nearly naked, and angrily pointed at him. ¡°I should be asking you that! How did you get here? And where is Ren Bo?¡± ¡°Ren Bo?¡± William was confused why he was being asked that since they were the first ones sucked into the vortex, ¡°I thought he might be with you. Are you saying that you haven¡¯t seen him?¡± Princess Jin made an odd face before slowly saying, ¡°No, I¡¯ve been alone the whole time.¡± William hummed in eptance, wondering if Ren Bo would arrive here soon. Of all the ces Princess Jin chose to go in this vast dimension, it happened to be here, where he was pretty much directed by that snake. ¡°How did youe by the oasis, Princess Jin?¡± ¡°Same as you,¡± Princess Jin gained a strange look in her eyes, ¡°The Lord Protector of the Verdant Forest. Did he not send you here?¡± ¡°The what?¡± William blinked, taking a second to realize who she was talking about, ¡°The serpent?¡± ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin said sharply, ¡°Don¡¯t mention the Lord Protector in such a disrespectful way. He will hear about it, and that will not end well.¡± ¡°Er, right,¡± William nodded, wondering what the Lord Protector would do if he knew he was privately, mentally referred to as a snake. ¡°Good,¡± Princess Jin nodded, rxing a little before looking around for the first time, "¡­ How long has it been like this?¡± William stared at her, getting the hint that she knew what this random paradise in the middle of hell was. That pretty much confirmed his original thought that she knew something about this dimension. ¡°Almost since the time I was dropped here,¡± William replied, ¡°Why? Anything special about it? What do you think of that waterfall? Looks good, doesn¡¯t it?¡± William stared at Princess Jin eagerly, waiting for her to say the waterfall was the answer to all his problems and that his expectations weren¡¯t overblown. Unfortunately, he received a less-than-satisfactory answer. ¡°The waterfall?¡± Princess Jin nced at it before looking away, ¡°It¡¯s average. I can take you to see the Whisper Falls near the capital. It has to be ten timesrger at minimum.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William deted slightly, not hearing what he expected, ¡°Sounds good.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Princess Jin nodded, ¡°You know, we¡¯re beyond lucky that this was the time we arrived here. This ce is usually a fieryndscape, but there are the rare times when a treasurend like this forms.¡± ¡°Treasurend?¡± William repeated with a slow smile, his disappointment about the waterfall disappearing, ¡°What do you know about it? I¡¯ve only been here for a few hours, so I haven¡¯t done much other than kill a Pyralisk.¡± ¡°Pyralisk!¡± Princess Jin moved into his personal space and stared into his eyes, ¡°YOU killed one?¡± William blinked at the sudden closeness and stepped back slightly, for the first time, noticing the changed level she now had. [Name: Princess Jin | Level: 46 Clearly, the oasis helped her just like it did for him, though not as significantly. "Pyralisks are formed as an equivalent to humans in level six of Qi Gathering. You¡¯re strong enough to do that now?¡± ¡°Er, yes?¡± William stepped back again, ¡°You can¡¯t tell me the water up there didn¡¯t help you out either.¡± Princess Jin took a deep breath and muttered something too quiet for him to hear before speaking louder, ¡°How much were you able to drink before it got too much for you?¡± ¡°Drink?¡± William asked dumbly. He didn¡¯t drink water other than the trickle that might have inadvertently entered his body. He submerged himself until there were no benefits to be had. ¡°Yes, how many spoonfuls did you drink?¡± Princess Jin didn¡¯t wait for him to answer, ¡°It must be more than six. The efficiency reduces greatly after the first. I¡¯m surprised that you were able to take that much without harming yourself.¡± William kept his mouth shut and let her make the conclusions. He felt that he had done something that was either ridiculously stupid or stupidly impossible. He remembered how being underwater blocked off all use of spiritual energy. Also, he realized near the end that going underwater and cultivating might have caused him to die explosively without the system converting his benefits from cultivating into experience points. When William noticed that she was actually waiting for an answer, he mumbled, ¡°I can¡¯t be sure. Probably something like that.¡± Princess Jin stared at him for a long second before shaking his head. ¡°You really are amazing, Wei Liang. I was wrong about you. Tell me, how many contaminated spirit beasts did Ancestor Sophia tell you to eliminate?¡± ¡°Three,¡± William replied, but his mind went to something Elder Yu warned him about, of how the Emperor of the Tianxia collected talents. Princess Jin was a part of the imperial family. She might be one from a branch line, but she was part of the imperial family all the same. It might be possible that everything that she would see and hear would be reported back to her elders. In fact, instead of being possible, recing that with something more concrete would be better. Princess Jin will tell her elders everything that happens in this secret realm. ¡°Ancestor Sophia wasn¡¯t able to tell me how much I had to kill before that turtle sent me away, but I think it¡¯ll only be one. Maybe two if I got really unlucky.¡± William nodded, still wondering what to do about his realization. Having Princess Jin here was a bigger problem than he realized. ¡°We can work together,¡± Princess Jin said happily, ¡°Before that, let¡¯s plunder this treasurend. It¡¯s rumored to disappear quickly, so let¡¯s head straight for the tree roots. There is a resource for Spirit Severing cultivators underneath, but we can exchange it for things that will help us greatly.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± William nodded, sticking to a short answer. A n was slowlying to mind, but it would be tough to pull off a friendship of a level that would make her keep his secrets. Chapter 98: Fake Chapter 98: Fake William trailed after Princess Jin and the whole thing was surprisingly peaceful so far. His previous fear of the path to the tree at the center being filled with dangers had turned out to be false. It was instead a good stroll where he was able to take in the sights. That was another thing that didn¡¯t match William¡¯s expectations. It was like an empty vase. Everything looked pretty, but it was strangely dead. The greenery that they passed weren¡¯t quite trees, but they certainly looked like they were. And, again, they felt dead. William had touched a few of the lower hanging branches and leaves on the faux trees, and while they moved like they were real, they also felt like rubbery stic. ¡°Can you stop touching them?¡± Princess Jin sounded irritated. ¡°I can¡¯t. They feel so odd.¡± William''s curiosity spiked when he saw something that looked like a spirit fruit. He made a little jump and gasped in shock when he ended up hanging from it foolishly instead of plucking it off the tree. ¡°Happy?¡± He looked down to see Princess Jin sneering at him. ¡°This is all failed growth. Whatever caused that tree to sprout on this soil didn¡¯t leave anything toplete the process on the surroundings.¡± William let go of the fake fruit, more disappointed that he wouldn¡¯t get to have a taste of itter more than anything. He continued to keep pace with Princess Jin while mentally questioning her exnation about all this. It sort of made sense when thinking about it briefly, but it didn¡¯t make much sense after a closer look. Why would the outside of a fruit, the facade, grow on the tree before it was real? Shouldn¡¯t that be thest to form based onmon sense? William shrugged slightly, figuring it didn¡¯t matter. Perhaps it was true due to how the tree was formed. It could be something to do with the giant¡¯s golden blood being the source of all this. If it wasn¡¯t, then it would be due to Princess Jin simply not having the correct information. He had almost forgotten that she was only fourteen years old. Still a child, really. ¡°How do you know all this anyway?¡± William asked curiously. When she didn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds, he thought that it was something that she couldn¡¯t answer. Just when he was ready to change the subject, Princess Jin replied. ¡°This Shard is aing-of-age ceremony of sorts for the imperial branch line at Xuanjing City. I have had a tutor who informed me of themonly encountered treasures and dangers. Of course, this treasurend isn¡¯tmonly encountered, but the opportunity it gives is so precious that it was hard not to learn a little about it.¡± ¡°I see,¡± William nodded, feeling a little jealous of this imperial family. This did exin why she was so willing to let herself be sucked into the vortex that started the mess. Even though it was just a branch line, they still had ess to a secret realm like this. However, this gave him hope to ask something that he was still thinking about in the back of his mind. ¡°Since you learned about this realm, do you think that waterfall has the same properties as the water from the oasis?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Princess Jin shrugged, ¡°But why waste time checking when it could be better spent? Some odd treasures always appear in the surroundings, but they vary each time.¡± William hummed, wondering how to make an excuse to get away. However, that thought onlysted for a few seconds. His foolproof, unstoppable n, which was really neither of those things, of getting Princess Jin to think of him as an extremely close friend couldn¡¯t happen if he didn¡¯t spend a lot of time with her. The alternate n, which wasn¡¯t a n at all since he wasn¡¯t a murderous psycho, was to silence her. That wasn¡¯t something he was willing to do, especially since Princess Jin wasn¡¯t a cannibalistic bunny. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t happen to have some sort of pill that could do the same, would you?¡± William asked casually. He was surprised that he got a look from her suggesting that he was an idiot. ¡°You want a pill to reduce impurities,¡± Princess Jin asked nkly, ¡°And you¡¯re asking me?¡± ¡°¡­ Yes?¡± ¡°Wei Liang, are you really a part of the Jade Healing Sect?¡± William had stopped walking, mainly because Princess Jin had done so. If she was being this dramatic, it must genuinely be a moronic question to ask. Heughed unconvincingly and said, ¡°It was a simple joke.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± She looked equally unconvinced as theugh itself, ¡°If you really think your impurities are that dangerous, we might find something under the roots. There might be two or three things that could be considered the grand prize, but there are also plenty of minor treasures that might help.¡± ¡°I see,¡± William¡¯s eyes gleamed as he looked at the towering tree in the distance. The main trunk might be some distance away, but they were getting ever so close to the start of the sprawling roots. ¡°Good, let¡¯s make haste without more distractions. I don¡¯t want this to rot above up right when we¡¯re about to get our treasures.¡± William matched Princess Jin¡¯s faster walking speed, keeping himself from asking anything... before he couldn¡¯t stop himself. ¡°Will the tree actually rot above us?¡± ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin didn¡¯t turn, but her tone was clearly dead serious, ¡°That was just a saying. I have no idea.¡± William got the hint and kept quiet, though he had an amused smile that was thankfully hidden since Princess Jin wasn¡¯t looking at him. It was fun riling her up. Just a little. He spent the rest of the time studying her new stats to keep himself from the temptation to push her over the edge. [-25 Spiritual Energy] Name: Princess Jin Age: 14 Level: 46 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (4th Level) Health: 1300/1300 Spiritual Energy: 530/530 Spirit: 106 Strength: 38 Stamina: 40 Agility: 45 Luck: 150 It felt good to William that he didn¡¯t have to worry about using Detailed Observe anymore. There was a time when using that would cripple his ability to fight for most of a day, but now all it would take is around twenty minutes to recover the used spiritual energy. That little tangent was to stop himself from having a little mental breakdown over the unfairness of the world. This must be what Sophia was talking about when she said limits only applied to him, not any others. William was almost a hundred percent certain that the only thing that changed about Princess Jin¡¯s attributes was her Spirit. It had gone up to a ridiculous level that exceeded his own Spirit attribute. Spirit: 80 (77) Of course, William outssed her in everything else that wasn¡¯t called Luck, but who would even consider that broken attribute? He hadn¡¯t used Detailed Observe on Princess Jin before since he hadn¡¯t thought they would interact long enough for him to do so. Now that he had, it had suddenly put her at the same level as Li Xinyue. At least in terms of Luck. While William would usually fret over his limitations for a bit longer, something he was very aware would get legions of cultivators to hunt him down after seeing his broken system, he didn¡¯t linger long on it this time. After all, they were about to hunt for treasures under something that looked like a world tree. Having a girl with Luck equal to Li Xinyue was a blessing of the highest order. William turned his attention away from Princess Jin¡¯s stats when they were close to the beginning of the tree¡¯s roots. The ones he could see directly above the ground were a littlerger than him in height, before they grew to ridiculous proportions as one looked closer to the tree. Speaking of the tree, it was significantly closer, yet somehow still far away, let him see the ridges between the bark lookingrge enough to fit a decently sized Outer Sect building. It was actually a little chilling somehow, especially knowing that this was grown from the death of a higher-level being. It made William think that maybe the tree wasn¡¯t just a tree. There was a reason it was here. The only constion was the green moss that covered vast swathes of the tree trunk. It was stunning to look at from the edge of this ce, and it was even more so close by. If this tree was sentient, it wouldn¡¯t allow the insult of something else growing on it, right? ¡°Wei Liang, what are you thinking about now?¡± William was snapped out of his quickly spirally thoughts by Princess Jin, who was waving her hand in front of his face. ¡°Nothing,¡± William waved her question off, ¡°I was just surprised by the size of it.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Princess Jin nodded in agreement before pointing at therge opening, ¡°Then save your surprise when you enter. The treasure we¡¯re seeking is directly in the center, and I heard that there is a view that should be admired by the lucky few to see it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not vague at all,¡± William muttered, though not as quietly as he assumed. ¡°I apologize for my rtives who never thought to document that for you,¡± Princess Jin huffed before walking to the entrance. William quickly followed her as he exined, ¡°I was just thinking out loud! I didn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡± Princess Jin still gave him a cold shoulder, but it wasn¡¯t as tense as before. William considered her to have a personality on the colder side, so he considered this a win. Chapter 99: Glove Chapter 99: Glove Walking into the slight opening that led them down to the maze was worrying enough, especially when the ¡®walls¡¯ of the root maze widened to the point where it was more like cavernous walking through hallways. So when the system prompted William with a quest, the details it gave him did not help his nerves. [Quest: Take the heart from Magmaheart Goliath Embryo] [Details: Princess Jin wants to take the heart from the Magmaheart Goliath Embryo. Reach the womb safely and protect Princess Jin while she extracts the heart before time expires.] [Reward | 3 Treasures suitable for early Spirit Severing Realm cultivators] [Penalty | Decreased reputation with Princess Jin | Impurity increased to Stage 3] [ept] [Yes | Continue to follow Princess Jin deeper into the root maze] [No | Leave immediately] ¡°Princess Jin,¡± William grabbed her arm to stop her from waking, disregarding the usual propriety, ¡°Tell me, do you know what this ce really is?¡± ¡°This again?¡± Princess Jin narrowed her eyes, ¡°I already told you that the times this can be encountered are rare. It¡¯s a miracle I know anything about it at all.¡± ¡°This entire thing is basically a womb,¡± William blurted out, ripping the bandaid off as quickly as possible, ¡°The treasure that you want to take is the heart of this thing.¡± ¡°¡­ And how do you know this?¡± Princess Jin asked with disbelief. ¡°It was thedy that sent me here,¡± William said vaguely, ¡°She mentioned that I might see something like this.¡± ¡°So you decided to hide this from me until now?¡± Princess Jin growled, ¡°If this is true, why wait until we are inside before bringing it up?¡± ¡°I was unconscious,¡± William defended himself, ¡°Then I woke up to that Pyralisk sniffing around. After that, you fell from the sky. Can you me me for forgetting?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Princess Jin sounded personally offended, ¡°Ancestor Sophia gave you instruction, and you forgot!¡± ¡°Right, anyway, so what do you think?¡± William tried to move past the subject of Sophia, ¡°Do you think we should keep going?¡± Princess Jin looked around at the increasingly dark surroundings before sighing in frustration. ¡°Again, this is something you seem to know better. Do you think we should continue or abort?¡± William went over the pros and cons, mostly the cons, really, trying to decide if there were enough reasons to call for a retreat. He might be crazy, but what bothered him about taking this quest the most was the loss of reputation with Princess Jin. He knew what was riding on that hope, and if such a thing came to pass, there would be little doubt that the Empire¡¯s attention would be on him. Of course, there was always the tiny chance that simply being in this secret realm meant drastic increases in cultivation. After all, Princess Jin herself had felt this effect. If that was the case, William¡¯s hope would strangely rest on Ren Bo. If he also raised his cultivation drastically, William¡¯s gain would be nothing to be surprised about. ¡°We can continue on one condition,¡± William said sternly, ¡°If we find beasts that I think you can¡¯t handle, you have to listen to my orders.¡± ¡°¡­ That¡¯s it?¡± Princess Jin stared, ¡°You made a big deal about something that I would have obviously done anyway?¡± William¡¯s serious face broke as red crept up his cheeks when Princess Jin looked exasperated at him. ¡°Well, excuse me for wanting to have some sort of n before we walk into the unknown.¡± Princess Jin giggled, surprising William at the sudden change in emotion, and said, ¡°I forgot that you try to act like a little adult. But let¡¯s agree to not waste time standing around in the future until our lives are in danger.¡± ¡°Done,¡± William nodded as they continued to walk into the depths, ¡°So you don¡¯t happen to have something that would let us see better, do you?¡± He had assumed the entire secret realm¡¯s strange lighting would apply here. Where every surface was well-lit as if there were invisible studio lights everywhere. While that was the case near the entrance to this root maze, it was quickly apparent that the surroundings were getting dimmer. ¡°I have this,¡± Princess Jin pulled a smallntern from her storage pouch, ¡°It¡¯s powered by Qi, so I would rather not use it until necessary.¡± William nodded, agreeing silently. He could see that she was intending to take the task of being a light bearer on herself. It was something that he noticed about Princess Jin the more he interacted with her. Prince Yuan, being the only imperial member he met before her, colored his impression of all the other imperial members. William expected them to be the stereotypical arrogant, head too far up their own¡­ anyway, he didn¡¯t expect someone like Princess Jin. For one so young, she was rather considerate with her actions, at least with what he had seen so far. William didn¡¯t have to push for her to take responsibility for much anything since she had her own ns and was willing to do more than her part. He nced at her, noticing that she had narrowed her eyes at something protruding from the dirt between the root walls. ¡°Wait here, Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin ordered. Or maybe Princess Jin was willing to take on more responsibility because William¡¯s current body was younger than her. It was still something that he often forgot. However, this wasn¡¯t something William would allow her to do. ¡°No,¡± William grabbed Princess Jin and pulled her back, ignoring her indigent squawk, ¡°How about you stay here and avoid getting yourself in trouble.¡± He ignored her angry muttering since she didn¡¯t try to change his mind, likely because she just remembered that he was much stronger than her. [Name: Jingmu Shadow | Level: 44] The thing Princess Jin was staring at was a spirit beast, and it was one that was nearly as strong as her. William didn¡¯t see the point of letting her fight with something almost on the same level as her. Not when killing this Jingmu Shadow would be effortless for William. The only hesitation he had was the sickly appearance of the spirit beast. Its form was a brownish-colored blob with streaks of ck that seemed to go into its body. Sort of like a jelly, but one that had been thrown into filth. William wasn¡¯t keen on having his fist, or any part of his body, touch this thing. He winced when he saw the Jingmu Shadow flush a particrly nasty brown color, and then he froze in shock. The Elemental Gauntlet. William had moments where he wondered what happened to his mind, but now, he wondered if it was necessary to make an appointment to whatever qualified as a mind healer in his world. Mei Lingxi, the woman who guided him around the Treasure Pavilion, had given him the Elemental Gauntlet before he left Xuanjing City. It had been stored inside that little chest in his spatial stone all this time. William supposed the only excusable reason it hadpletely passed his mind was his inability to use it. That might still be the case, but at least he would have ayer between his fist and the Jingmu Shadow. With Princess Jin only able to see his back, William used this chance to pull out the Elemental Gauntlet from his spatial stone. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°Decided to use a glove,¡± William replied to Princess Jin, ¡°This thing looks dirty.¡± He ignored the scoff from her and gently slid the glove on his right hand, blinking when it resized to fit him perfectly. He had forgotten that it did that. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [ERROR | Spiritual Energy Insufficient] William was slightly disappointed by that, but using its ability wasn¡¯t his goal anyway. He clenched his fingers and almost thought it was a shame to dirty the shimmering silver. He turned his attention back to the spirit beast and slowly walked to it. Just because it was weak didn¡¯t mean it couldn¡¯t catch him by surprise. William tensed when it gurgled and shot off the dirt wall directly at him. The body of the Jingmu Shadow was still jelly-like, but it had expanded to a size twice as tall as him. Facing him was arge ck hole, which he assumed was a mouth. It was a misshaped mess open wide enough to swallow him whole. William gave it an unimpressive stare, feeling like its speed was as slow as a crawl. He appeared at its side, avoiding the mouth, and mmed his right fist covered in roaring Qi into its body. [+1 XP] He blinked in shock when the Jingmu Shadow disappeared with a far too human-like shriek. The concern William had about being covered in filth never materialized. Chapter 100: It Depends on Luck Chapter 100: It Depends on Luck ¡°Was it that weak?¡± Princess Jin asked in surprise as William casually walked back to her. ¡°Er, in a way, I suppose it was,¡± William replied, unsure if saying it was about as strong as her was wise. He was only one minor realm above her, but his attributes made it so he could match cultivators in the eighth or ninth Qi Gathering realm. Of course, William wasn¡¯t foolish enough to actually fight with cultivators at that level. Simply having his attributes match them didn¡¯t mean he wouldn¡¯t be dropkicked into theherworld. He knew very well that his martial skills and actual experience in fighting were severelycking. ¡°Well, at least we now know that the weakest beasts can be killed with a single punch,¡± Princess Jin smiled, ¡°Next time, let me have a try!¡± William made a nomittal sound, very much not intending to let her have a ¡®try.¡¯ ¡°Wei Liang!¡± Princess Jin gasped, making him tense up and look around, expecting a danger to fall on them any moment, ¡°You were the one that my brother talked about!¡± William blinked stupidly at her while still in a fighting pose before asking, ¡°What?¡± Princess Jin pointed at the glove, ¡°That! My brother kept boasting about how it would let Foundation Establishment cultivators fight above their realm. When my family found he gave it away, even grandfather was surprised.¡± William¡¯s mind was filled with questions, the biggest one being whether there was a point in hiding his capabilities from her if Prince Yuan had already paid this much attention to him. ¡°Prince Yuan seemed more interested in my Senior Sister,¡± Williammented, thinking of the lengths that man went to talk to Lan Yin, ¡°Maybe this gift was to make himself look better?¡± ¡°That does fit my brother¡¯s personality more,¡± Princess Jin muttered as she became less energetic. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we keep moving?¡± William interrupted, ¡°We are on an unknown time limit here.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that urgent,¡± Princess Jin retorted, though she did restart her walk into the maze, "Are you actually able to use the Elemental Gauntlet?" William had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. It hadn¡¯t been more than a few minutes when she scolded him for wasting him. Still, it was nice to see her act like the little brat she was. ¡°Nope,¡± he replied cheerfully, ¡°I just put it on because it looks cool.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Princess Jin sighed, ¡°Of course, you did.¡± A lull of silence fell on them as the surroundings became increasingly dark. William could still see well enough, but it was odd to experience dim light for the first time in days. ¡°Do you know why the Jingmu Shadow disappeared?¡± William broke the silence when his mind wandered, remembering his surprise that the beast disintegrated. ¡°Is that what the beast was called?¡± William''s steady steps almost stuttered before he quickly got it under control, ¡°Yes, I remember some books that described a spirit beast exactly like that.¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t know why it disappeared? Shouldn¡¯t it be in the book that catalogs beasts such as that?¡± William nced at Princess Jin, mentally sighing in relief when she looked confused rather than suspicious. He was getting far too paranoid. Perhaps to a point where he might actually give something away because he was too shifty. ¡°I didn¡¯t pay much attention to it. I just remember I saw the mention of Jingmu Shadows in passing,¡± William thought that was a reasonable lie, ¡°So I¡¯m guessing that you don¡¯t kno¡ª¡± William cut himself off and appeared before Princess Jin, using every bit of his speed to block off the spirit beast that rocketed toward her. The bright, roaring Qi around William¡¯s glove-covered fist briefly lit up the dim surroundings. [+1 XP] He ignored the dying shriek, suddenly regretting that he had used his martial skill. It was a waste of spiritual energy that was suddenly in much need. Spiritual Energy: 380/385 (20% per Hour) Every time he used his martial skills, it only cost five Spiritual Energy. He would regain the lost energy in under four minutes with his current recovery rate. That sounded incredibly fast, but not when he might need to use numerous attacks within that recovery time. ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin whispered, ¡°We need to run.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a great idea,¡± William pulled her close to him as he replied just as quietly, ¡°But where exactly do we run, Princess?¡± He could hear an audible gulp from her. Still, he couldn¡¯t spare the attention since his senses were working in overdrive to ensure the beasts surrounding them didn¡¯tunch a sudden attack. William had no idea why the system wasn¡¯t showing him the standard information, especially since he had seen plenty of Jingmu Shadows in the mix of beasts surrounding them. ¡°How did they sneak up on us?¡± Princess Jin hissed, ¡°They¡¯re herding us forward!¡± William grunted as he quickly twisted his body and mmed his fist into the iing attacker. [Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 62] This spirit beast was barely a beast at all. It was more like a human ghost. A furious, murderous human ghost. He was just thankful that physical attacks seemed to work on it. Not that it seemed to do much damage. The moment William saw that this Rootbound Spirit was at a higher level than him, all thoughts of conserving his Spiritual Energy were thrown out. William didn¡¯t flinch when it screamed in anger right at his face. His fist tore through its body, the Qi-infused attack doing its job. [+4894 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] He spared a thought about how effective his martial skills were. Especially for something that Lan Yin and Qin Yu frequentlymented on as subpar. Of course, that self-congrattions onlysted for a fraction of a second. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± William snapped his head to Princess Jin, and he saw she could barely hold off the two Jingmu Shadows attacking her. That wasn¡¯t a surprise when he saw that the beasts were at a slightly higher level than her. [Name: Jingmu Shadow | Level: 49] [Name: Jingmu Shadow | Level: 47] He put himself between Princess Jin and the attacking Jingmu Shadows, not bothering to use his Qi to get rid of them. [+1 XP] [+1 XP] William thought it was a stroke of luck that nothing stronger attacked Princess Jin. Then again, it might have been due to her insanely high Luck. ¡°It looks like the time for thinking is over, Princess,¡± William ignored her gasp and gathered her into his arms, ¡°There¡¯s no way to fight our way out, so we¡¯ll have to try our luck deeper inside.¡± That wasn¡¯t a lie. It might be possible for him to carve a path through the crowded spirit beasts, and it would even amass him a massive number of experience points. Still, he would be the only one escaping. Princess Jin would be unable to follow him, and her fate would likely be death. Of course, if she had the divine luck behind her, it might even make her somehow survive and be a true cultivating monster. William couldn¡¯t bear the thought of leaving Princess Jin to her death. ¡°Use yourntern,¡± William barked as it started to be too dark for even his enhanced sight, ¡°This isn¡¯t the time to be cautious! Let¡¯s live first!¡± ¡°R-Right!¡± William blinked, quickly adjusting to the sudden light as he pumped his legs. It was definitely helpful that he was able to see more than a few feet in front of him. ¡°Look behind me,¡± William ordered, ¡°How many can you see.¡± ¡°Too many!¡± Princess Jin yelped. William cursed softly when the bad news waspounded by the split in the pathways ahead. While he had referred to this ce as a root maze, that wasn¡¯t quite the correct name. There had been simr diversions a few times before, but every path but one was overgrown by twisting roots and packed with dirt where the roots didn¡¯t take space. Besides, the goal was to get under the tree¡¯s trunk, and it made the most sense to take the straight path, which was previously unblocked. There was no longer such a convenient option. William was quickly approaching four different paths he could take, four different tunnels that were all unblocked and clear to enter. To make it worse, all the tunnels curved, so he couldn¡¯t see which seemed to be the best, obvious option to take. ¡°Princess, choose a tunnel!¡± William said urgently. ¡°What?¡± Princess Jin had been staring wide-eyed at the beasts chasing them, so she wasn¡¯t prepared for his order. ¡°A tunnel!¡± William jostled her to face the far-too-close forks in the road, ¡°Choose one!¡± ¡°Left! The leftmost tunnel!¡± That was enough for William. He put his hopes on Princess Jin¡¯s Luck working in their favor and went full speed into the left tunnel. Chapter 101: William Is Not Lucky Chapter 101: William Is Not Lucky William wasn¡¯t sure what his hopes were. Well, that was false. He was hoping for a lifesaving miracle, which obviously didn¡¯t materialize. ¡°Any ideas, Princess?¡± William asked, eyes darting everywhere to ensure there wasn¡¯t an ambush in front of them. Thankfully, it seemed to be deserted¡­ for now. ¡°¡­ I might have one, but it will leave us without any lifesaving measures.¡± William¡¯s eyes darted to Princess Jin briefly, about to explode in anger before seeing her tense expression. It came to mind that what she mentioned might genuinely be a choice ofst resort. He snapped out of his moment of distraction when he heard the angry howl of a spirit beast right on his heel. ¡°Why did you slow down!¡± Princess Jin yelped in fright. William cursed and sped up, reinforcing his legs with Qi to give himself a little boost. The only issue now was that he was covering ground far too quickly. ¡°Choose another tunnel,¡± William ordered when more forks in the road were seen in the distance. He was satisfied when he saw Princess Jin carefully study the choices ahead and ignored the pressure he put on her. Instead, he used the time to figure out how to get out of this mess. William might be overestimating himself, but he imagined using his martial skills to copse the tunnel behind them to bury most of the spirit beasts. Not only would that take them out of the immediate danger, but it might also give him a massive amount of experience points. When Princess Jin started speaking, he forcefully snapped himself out of his irrelevant thoughts. ¡°Second from the right,¡± Princess Jin said unsurely, ¡°Wei Liang, we can¡¯t keep running.¡± ¡°I know,¡± He said tensely, ¡°You don¡¯t happen to have something that will give me a few minutes to cultivate, do you?¡± It could be possible to kill enough spirit beasts and then advance to the next minor realm, increasing his attribute limits. Getting out of this situation would likely be a breeze at that point. ¡°Minutes?¡± Princess Jin repeated incredulously, ¡°Maybe a few seconds, but that will be it.¡± William knew that wouldn¡¯t be enough, but he would have to try to make something of it before their situation worsened. ¡°Alright,¡± William grunted, shifting how he carried her, ¡°Here¡¯s the n. I will try to copse the tunnel, and if that doesn¡¯t work, I''ll try to take down as many of the beasts as possible.¡± Princess Jin looked even more incredulous at his so-called n, but what else was he to do? There was nothing elseing to mind. ¡°Keep yourself safe while I¡¯m busy. If necessary, use this lifesaving measure you spoke of.¡± ¡°This is the stupidest idea I¡¯ve heard,¡± Princess Jin dered. ¡°Yeah?¡± William was unamused, ¡°Do you have anything better?¡± The near minute of silence from Princess Jin was an answer in itself. And that time was enough for William to reach the entrance of the next tunnel that they nned to enter. ¡°Then we go with my n,¡± William ignored the yelp from her when he tightened his grip around her body. It wasn¡¯t going to be the thing that surprised her the most. William twisted his body to throw Princess Jin a few hundred feet away, treating her like a human-shaped javelin. Far enough that he was confident she would be out of the range of the spirit beasts chasing them, but close enough where he could get to her if she somehow came to be in danger. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± He ignored her and turned around, blinking when he noticed an oddity in the information the system told him about the beasts. While the spirit beasts in the front always had the name and level disyed, the information for the ones in the back didn¡¯t exist. William also noticed that the light emitted from Princess Jin¡¯sntern had almost faded to the point that he could barely make out the figures of the beasts in the back. Throwing her away from him at least had some immediate gain in the form of a mystery likely solved. The darkness in this ce must have some unique property to cause it to create blindness in the system. To support that theory, William saw the information reappear when the spirit beasts in the back continued their mad dash toward him. It seemed that a certain amount of light was needed for the system to warn him of a spirit beast nearby in this ce. He made a note of that as he quickly looked around to find the general strength of the mob about to fall on him. He ignored the different species names, not meaning anything to him, and tried to find any beasts with levels in the seventies or higher. William hoped there would be none, but one was right at the front. [Name: Lingzhi Viper | Level: 74] It was a brown snake-like creature with a mushroom-shaped head. He wished he had the Spiritual Energy to spare to check its attributes, but he was terrified that he would run out, so it needed to be conserved. The poor light in the tunnel suddenly became a non-factor. zing Qi surrounded William¡¯s fists and legs as he prepared to jump into what might be the most perilous fight of his life. Right as he jumped, it came to mind that he was still scatterbrained. William should have been focusing on the best spot tond his stomp, where it would damage the Lingzhi Viper while taking out most of the lower-leveled spirit beasts around it, but instead, he pulled out a Vitality Restoration Pill at the peak of his jump. [+229 HP] [Health: 1171 ¡ª> 1400/1400 [Impurity Increased] [Stage 1 (99%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (16%)] [Trait Added | Impurity Poisoning (Stage 1) - 10% XP Reduction] It was regrettable that William had to increase his Impurity, but safety was to be prioritized above all else. The Lingzhi Viper was staring right at him and let out an odd hissing roar, which made the weaker beasts around it seem to get riled up. Since they wanted to help him by staying in one ce instead of moving around, who was he to pass the opportunity they gave him? If they want to be a better target, then so be it. William¡¯s fists lost the zing Qi surrounding them right as the haze around his legs strengthened to an almost seemingly tangibleyer of Qi. His eyes sharpened when the Lingzhi Viper shot toward him like a coiled spring. It seemed it knew he wanted to wipe out many of its brethren at once and decided to meet him in the air. Right before his Qi-covered feet met the Lingzhi Viper¡¯s head, it moved with a quickness that matched his speed and twisted to mp its fangs into his calf. [-100 HP] William ignored the sting, happy it had no venomous side effect. His original target might have been missed, but his feet still dug a deep groove into the area right below its skull. The Lingzhi Viper hissed loudly in pain and released his calf, and he took that as a chance to m his fist right into its eyes with every ounce of power in his body. [-50 HP] William grunted when its tail mmed into the side of his body as it trashed around in pain. But he had a bloody grin through it all. The Lingzhi Viper¡¯s thrashing about killed plenty of the lower-leveled spirit beasts. He nced at Princess Jin, ensuring she was still safe as hended softly on the ground. Of course, he didn''t get to have his attention away from the fight for long. It was immediately brought back by a spirit beast that rushed at him. [Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 68] William¡¯s palm split the beast down the middle before it could even make a sound. [+6016 XP] [Trait Activated | -602 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] He eyes the Lingzhi Viper, satisfied that it was still inadvertently helping him kill some of the beasts. William wanted in on the fun and threw himself into an area of the mob with mainly low-level beasts. He wanted to save as much of his Spiritual Energy as possible, and ¡®wasting time¡¯ on the spirit beasts below level fifty was the answer. It also gave him some time to recover the Qi that he spent. [+1 XP] x 68 [Trait Activated | -7 XP] His breathing was a little heavier after mowing through beasts that couldn¡¯t even damage him. Not from the difficulty of it but from throwing punches repeatedly with most of his strength behind them even though they had no Qi infused in them. ¡°WEI LIANG!¡± William snapped his head to Princess Jin in fear, afraid that she was being attacked in his distraction, but saw that she was pointing at the ceiling above him. He dodged an attack by one of the stronger beasts in the mob as he looked up. [Name: Corrupted Lifeform | Level: 88] Chapter 102: Pew Pew Chapter 102: Pew Pew [-5 HP] William grunted, casually throwing out a punch at what annoyed him. [+1 XP] He didn¡¯t dare take his eyes off this ¡®Corrupted Lifeform,¡¯ terrified that he would get instantly killed. Unlike the Lingzhi Viper, there was no thought about conserving his Spiritual Energy. He used Observe. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Corrupted Lifeform Level: 88 Cultivation: Demonic Novice (8th Level) Health: 1700/1700 Spiritual Energy: 760/760 Spirit: 152 Strength: 114 Stamina: 103 Agility: 71 [+1 XP] x 11 [Trait Activated | -1 XP] ¡°Princess!¡± William yelled as he cleared the annoyances around him, ¡°Be ready to save me!¡± This corrupted beast was the first thing he faced where he waspletely outssed. Other than the agility attribute, it crushed him in every way. That meant he might actually die if he wasn¡¯t as careful as possible. With agility slightly in his favor, he would need to use it to its full potential while chipping away at its health. Of course, the alternative if he was about to face death was Princess Jining to the rescue. William shivered when the sickly yellow eyes stared at him calmly as if mocking him for bothering to try and fight against his inevitable death. He couldn¡¯t tell any of the other features of the corrupted beast. It was a ck, misshapen mess that never really stayed the same. It frequently shifted into shapes that were familiar but bizarre at the same time. The only saving grace William could see about this situation was that Princess Jin was utterly ignored. That was one headache he didn¡¯t have to worry about at the moment. The shrieks that were let out by the spirit beasts crushed from the Lingzhi Viper¡¯s continued thrashing about made William realize that it was mandatory to get rid of it. The crazed beast might be helpful to him now, but that would change without a doubt. He needed to get rid of it. It was the only spirit beast that could cause him significant harm other than the corrupted beast, and he didn¡¯t want to keep a watch out for that when fighting for his life. [+1 XP] x 73 [Trait Activated | -7 XP] William¡¯s path to the Lingzhi Viper was not far, but it was definitely slow. He had a constant mob of fodder spirit beasts in his way, and more importantly, most of his attention was still on the corrupted beast that stared at him unblinkingly. He had killed enough fodder that three wouldn¡¯t immediately rece the one that was taken out, and that was enough for him to get a clear shot at the Lingzhi Viper. William¡¯s fists lit up with Qi for the first time in minutes, making the weaker beasts around him pause. That was even more of a boon since it gave him a more straightforward pathway to his target than he assumed. Without hesitation, he shot toward the Lingzhi Viper and thrust his palm into the side of its damaged skull. He ignored its pained hiss, once again keeping more of a watch on the corrupted beast lurking above as his legs lit up with zing Qi. He was happy that the Lingzhi Viper¡¯s retaliation missed him by inches, which was basically a mile wide with his reaction speed. The original attack from minutes before had blinded the beast, which was paying dividends. William grunted as he kicked up, with all his Qi-infused strength, into the underside of the Viper¡¯s mouth. The repeated blows to the weak points were too much for the higher-level beast to take. [+6825 XP] [Trait Activated | -683 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] He thought he heard Princess Jin cheer when the Lingzhi Viper¡¯s head exploded in a shower of gore, but he had already shifted his focus entirely to the corrupted beast. It moved leisurely, ever so slightly closer to the princess. ¡°Princess Jin!¡± William yelled immediately, ¡°Be prepared! This one is too strong!¡± He thought he faintly heard her reply, but that was mostly drowned out by another voice. Y??????o???????u????? ???????t?????h????i?????n????k??? ?????s????h???????e??? ??????w????i?????l??????l?????? ??????b????e???? ??????a??????b????l???e????? ??????t?????o????? ?????u???s?????e????? ???????t??????h?????a????t????? ????l??????i?????t???????t??????l?????e???? ???????t?????r???????i????n??????k?????e?????t???????????? William wasn¡¯t the only one who shuddered in disgust at hearing a voice that could only be described as nails on a chalkboard. The fodder spirit beasts around him shrieked, with some even copsing to the ground. His vision was a little unfocused, and his mind equally so, but he still had the sense to check on Princess Jin. Mainly because the tunnel fell into darkness. It was hard to make out, but he could see a dark shape where Princess Jin was supposed to be. He didn¡¯t think it was possible to feel more afraid when he found that she was likely crumpled on the ground, as unresponsive as the beasts that fell around him. Y??????o??????????r??????? ????????b?????l??????????????????d????? ?????w?????i??????l?????l????? ???b?????e????? ?????d???e?????l??????i??????c?????????????o????????????????.??????? William sucked in a sharp breath when a mass on the corrupted beast¡¯s body shifted before turning into a grotesque hand, one that was pointed right at him. He didn¡¯t have to wait long to see what it was nning. The beast released a bright red burst of energy from its newly formed hand. He almost tore his muscles with the strength he put into getting out of the way. And it happened to be just in time. [-10 HP] William hissed in surprise, the heat of the corrupted beast¡¯s attack seared against his back. He felt that the back of his robes had been burned away. He quickly turned to see the aftermath and gaped in shock. Even though he had killed well over a hundred of the weaker spirit beasts, more than twice that number were alive in the mob. There was now zero after the attack that looked like a beam of an evil version of Qi. The ground wasn¡¯t spared either. While there wasn¡¯t a massive hitch or anything so drastic, he could see a slight depression from the attack. William was reminded of his n to copse the tunnel. Something that he was never able to try since the Lingzhi Viper¡¯s presence made that impossible. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t try. If the corrupted beast¡¯s attack barely affected the ground, then there would be zero chance his palm, punches, or kicks would do anything near causing a copse on this tunnel. His eyes widened when the corrupted beast repeated a simr motion. Its palm started to glow a deep red. R????¨´???n????? ???????f?????¨°????r??????? ?????m????e???????,???? ??????r????a???????t???????.??????? Even at this distance, William had to resist the urge to cover his ears from the agony of hearing it talk. It was a good thing he did because he wouldn''t have been able to escape the evenrger attack that ckened the spot he was just upying. He couldn¡¯t even understand what the hell it was saying, so all this was in the end was another sort of attack. It was a highly unfair one since it only required the thing to speak. William chose his next spot, further away from Princess Jin¡¯s unmoving body, not wanting to make her an idental casualty from the attacks the corrupted beast was capable of. The attack itself was something that baffled him. This was the first time he faced an enemy with a ranged attack. William knew that he needed to get close because he was a close-range fighter with absolutely no martial skills that had any sort of range whatsoever. A?????g???????a???????i?????n????.?????? He grunted, disappearing just in time to dodge another attack. It seemed that it couldn¡¯t be bothered to move from its spot and was more than happy to fling the enemy beam attacks his way. William was also happy about that, exceptionally so. He yed along for a few more minutes until his Spiritual Energy was back at its peak, dodging two more attacks from the corrupted beast. With it able to speak¡­ something, he assumed that it had an intelligence that he shouldn¡¯t look down on. However, there was a suspiciously consistent gap between those red beams shot at him. William dodged the next attack and appeared significantly closer to the corrupted beast, carefully timing the gap before he saw the red glow on its palm again. Y?????e????s???.????? ?????C??????l????????????????????r?????.??? The speech no longer made him fight himself to curl up into a ball, but still, it wasn¡¯t pleasant. William had to stop the satisfied smile from appearing on his lips when the corrupted beasts attacked right on time. However, he also noticed that its whole body seemed to lose a bit of its ck color right after the attack before recovering. He was close enough that he would be able tounch an attack whenever he wished. However, he wanted to know one more thing, which required using Observe. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Spiritual Energy: 530/760 William was only interested in that one stat. He waited for the beast to throw another one of its predictable energy beams again. A bright red sh lit up the dark tunnel, with William using the chance to move just that bit closer. Again, he used Observe for that one stat he was interested in, the only one different. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Spiritual Energy: 490/760 Each of those red beams was a significant cost for the corrupted beast. William would prefer to take his time and let it dry out its reserves, but he had Princess Jin to worry about. He didn¡¯t know if she needed healing as quickly as possible, and he didn¡¯t want to gamble on her being able to handle the long fight. William made up his mind. With the cost each beam signified and the odd reaction the corrupted beast¡¯s body experienced after every attack, it was worth taking a shot. Chapter 103: Appendage Replacement Chapter 103: Appendage Recement I????? ???s???????e????e????? ??????y?????o?????u?????r???? ?????p?????l?????a?????n??? William once again ignored the gibberish that was spoken. There was no point sparing any attention since it didn¡¯t seem like human speech. Besides, ignoring it also helped reduce the difort of hearing that strangenguage. What he focused on instead was for the moment the corrupted beast released its attack. He was close enough that it would be possible tond a few palms on the beast¡¯s body before having to escape when it recovered from the apparent weakness that came after shooting the red beam. William''s eyes sharpened when the red glow on the beast¡¯s makeshift hand increased in brightness. It was time. He stood still, trying to make his bodynguage seem like all he was nning to do was dodge the beam and nothing else. He wasn¡¯t sure how sessful that was, but there was no chance he would leave a single trick unused. ???? ????w?????????s???????h????? ????????o???? ???????????????¨¦???? ????y?????o?????u????r?????? ??????s?????t???r?????e?????n??????g?????t???????????,?????? ????r??????????t?????.??? William was on the move the moment the red beam left the corrupted beast¡¯s palm. He dodged the attack like usual, moving to a stop slightly closer to the beast still hanging onto the ceiling, but this time, he didn¡¯t stop there. He took note of the grayish color that spread through the corrupted beast''s body, which only reinforced his decision. William rocketed up at the beast, hoping tond a few attacks by surprise and then reevaluate depending on how much damage he had done. Using every bit of speed his Agility afforded him, William was right next to the beast in less time than it took to blink. His arms were covered by his raging Qi, ready to demolish whatever the target was. William could feel the wide, almost manic grin as his palmnded on the corrupted beast¡¯s body. And theynded repeatedly. He hadn¡¯t been sure if the formless body could even be attacked, but when his first attack met a firm, almost slick skin, it took a weight off his mind. [-5 Spiritual Energy] x10 Not even a second had passed, but William had alreadynded ten attacks on the corrupted beast, his Qi seeming to explode out of his palms with the sheer speed of his movements. However, that was the end of his free rein since he saw the beast¡¯s body convulse precisely where he wasnding his attacks. William knew this wasn¡¯t a reaction out of pain. This urred right before the corrupted beast formed a limb to attack him. He always intended to be as safe as possible, especially since the high level of the beast meant that a simple graze might take away his life. However, since William had to jump to attack the corrupted beast on the ceiling, he was in an awkward spot by just hanging in the air. William had a n for this, too. He twisted his body and kicked his legs back as hard as he could, grinning when the beast finally made a sound resembling pain. As pathetic as it sounded, the martial skill Earth-Shaking Stomp was his most damaging attack. The only thing that stopped him from continuously using it on the corrupted beast was that it wouldunch him in the opposite direction if he wasn¡¯t attacking from above, making it a one-time use skill in his current situation. However, it would top off the barrage he put on the beast, hopefully taking away a chunk of its life. William should have known all of this was going ording to n a little too well. Since when had that happened? Never was the answer. Just when hisst attack was about to take him out of the area where he could be touched by the corrupted beast, William felt a searing pain on the bottom half of his left leg. [-1000 HP] [Trait Added | Blood Loss (-10 HP per minute)] [Modified | Agility (-50%)] It took everything he had to not look at the damage done to him. He kicked out with his legs again, using the Earth-Shaking Stomp, and sessfully escaping the corrupted beast¡¯s grasp. I????n?????t????e?????r???????s?????t????i???n??????g?????.??? ?????????????u????r???? ???????i????n????d???? ????d???????e??????s????? ???n????o????t????? ?????????i???????? ?????w????i???t??????? ????t????h????i???s???? ????d?????a???m????????g?????e?????.???? William wheezed when hended on his feet... or thought he wouldnd on his feet. He fell over on his side instead of standing straight like he expected. He braced himself from falling t on his face with his hands, heart sinking to his stomach when he saw that everything below his left knee was gone. William snapped his head up, terrified that this would be the end. He expected to get a face full of red beam. Instead, he stared as his separated flesh slowly sunk into the corrupted beast¡¯s body. I????t???? ????i???s??? ????o?????f??? ????n????o???? ????h????e???l??????p?????.???? He was a sitting duck. His only advantage, his Agility, was taken away from him. D?????i?????s???a?????p?????p????o????i?????n???t?????i????n?????g????.???? William forced himself to stand up without showing any difficulty, hoping it would buy him some time. It truly wasn¡¯t a difficult task, but that image would rapidly change if he tried to move whatsoever. Even through all this, he didn¡¯t forget to use Observe to look at the corrupted beast¡¯s health. Not after all the effort he had gone through. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Health: 1550/1700 This was the end. He had underestimated the reduced effect of his attacks on a high-level beast such as this. After all of those attacks, all William had aplished was giving the corrupted beast the equivalent of a scratch or something as minor. And what he got in return was a lost limb and near-certain death. Somehow, he would need to do this over ten times to finally kill the beast. [-10 HP] That helpful alert reminded him that a minute had passed without being attacked. It looked like the beast was ying him the entire time. Maybe for sadistic amusement. William no longer had any hopes ofing out of this alive. He would make ast-ditch effort to get to Princess Jin¡¯s copsed body and hope he could find whatever she intended to use to get them out of this mess. Not that he expected it to work. With his drastically reduced speed, it was doubtful that he would even get to Princess Jin. Even if he did, he had to somehow find the artifact she would use and figure out how to activate it. Y????o?????¨²??? ???????r????e??? ????r???????????s?????¨¬???l?????i???e????¨½???t????.????? ????Y??o???????r???? ?????¨¢???????t?????a?????c????k????s????? ?????¨¢??r???????? ?????d???¨¡????m????a????????i????????g????.???? ????I??? ???s????????a???l????l??? ?????r????¨¨???????u????r?????¨½???.????? Under William¡¯s stunned gaze, the corrupted beast seeped into the ceiling like sludge before disappearing. He still couldn¡¯t believe it was gone just like that, right when he had basically epted his death. William looked around frantically for a moment before walking, or rather, hopping, to Princess Jin. At the same time, he pulled out far too many Vitality Restoration Pills. [Modified | Agility (-50%) ¡ª> Agility (-25%)] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (16%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (23%)] He stumbled and fell to the ground, clutching right above his torn-off limb as it started to feel strange. He wouldn¡¯t be so surprised if it was just pain, but the fact that it wasbined with something that couldn¡¯t be described changed his reaction. William gaped at the mangled flesh below his knee. It was fixing itself under his very eyes. Everything to his ankle had been restored in less than a few minutes, though it was all strangely numb. The only thing missing was his actual foot. He swallowed another pill. [Agility Restored] [Trait Removed | Blood Loss (-10 HP per minute)] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (23%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (40%)] William¡¯s left leg was whole again. As if it hadn¡¯t been ripped off just a few minutes ago. The only evidence of that catastrophic damage was his torn robes. It took him a moment to get over the fact that he somehow had a limb-regrowing ability, and the only cost was a minor increase in impurity. Once he did, it came to his notice that his health had beenpletely untouched, even though the reason it dropped so much had been regrown. William quickly realized that while his leg was restored, he had no control over it. It was as if it was unconnected to his body. He did the only thing that seemed to be the answer to everything. Swallow another pill. [+570 HP] [Health: 223 ¡ª> 793/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (40%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (57%)] His leg was still dead weight, but feeling returned down to his ankle. [+570 HP] [Health: 793 ¡ª> 1363/1400] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (57%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (74%)] William giggled, almost hysterically, when his toes moved on hismand. This was good. It was great. Now, there was another issue he would need to watch carefully before it became a more significant problem than a lost leg. Impurity: Stage 2 (74%) 7 Weeks, 2 Days, 19 Hours Remaining That impurity percentage meant that it was very likely that he only had one more use of a Vitality Restoration Pill before he would be well into stage three territory. William forced himself to stop thinking of his bleak future and checked on Princess Jin. Chapter 104: Back With Friends Chapter 104: Back With Friends [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Princess Jin Age: 14 Level: 46 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (4th Level) Health: 1300/1300 Spiritual Energy: 530/530 Spirit: 106 Strength: 38 Stamina: 44 Agility: 45 Using Observe told William nothing about what was wrong with Princess Jin, making him fear that hearing the corrupted beast''s voice had caused her to go into aa-like state. Deadweight was not something that could be taken care of at the moment. He was still jittery as he checked for Princess Jin¡¯s pulse, frequently looking around to ensure the corrupted beast wouldn¡¯t return to finish the job. After William detected her pulse steady, he picked her up in a princess carry and immediately started to sprint back to the entrance. He nced at the penalties he would incur, but as bad as it seemed, it had almost be mandatory to ept. [Penalty | Decreased reputation with Princess Jin | Impurity increased to Stage 3] William¡¯s Impurity was already at the edge of stage two. It was almost guaranteed to be a lost cause, so the only actual loss was his reputation with Princess Jin. It was a shame but something far more eptable than the death awaiting them if they stayed here. He retraced his steps while keeping an eye on his surroundings, almost wishing for the manageable spirit beasts to show up. That near-fatal encounter taught him that anything below level seventy could be killed in a single attack when he was using a martial skill. Anything above that could be an issue. It also taught him that spirit beasts in the sixth level of their Qi Gathering equivalent were goldmines for experience points. William almost wanted to bash his own head into the wall from frustration. There had to be around ten of those types of beasts in the mob before the corrupted beast had casually wiped them all out. What he needed most for survival at the moment was higher attribute limits. He had intended to stock up on experience points and hold them in reserve without raising his minor realm, mainly because of what Sophia mentioned. Sophia had said that the lower his cultivation, the better. However, that would be no longer feasible if he wanted to live. Thankfully, she had mentioned that anything below the Foundation Establishment Realm was eptable. William would have to meet that corrupted beast again, and more worryingly, there would be two more that he would have to kill. There was absolutely no way to aplish that without being significantly stronger. ¡°W-Wei Liang?¡± William nced at Princess Jin, finding she was peering at him with confusion,ing back to consciousness slowly. ¡°Look who¡¯s awake,¡± William said roughly before forcing himself to control his emotions. He was taking out this disaster of a quest on her for no reason. ¡°We¡¯re abandoning the tree, Princess. This was suicide to even try.¡± ¡°What!¡± Princess Jin yelped, squirming in his arms to try and free herself. It was unsessful. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry,¡± William said drily, doing his best not to sound fed up, ¡°I should have decided to stay after we were almost killed by that corrupted beast.¡± ¡°What?! How!?¡± Princess Jin then saw the surroundings and gasped, ¡°How long have I been unconscious?¡± ¡°Long enough to miss everything,¡± William slowed his pace slightly, narrowing his eyes in the distance, ¡°You conveniently went to sleep when I started to fight for both our lives, and now that I somehow managed to get you out of there, you seem to want to go back.¡± ¡°Obviously!¡± William twitched in irritation when Princess Jin started to scratch at him. He was getting more concerned about what he saw in the distance, so he let her go. ¡°I wasn¡¯t prepared for the beast to know how to attack by sound, but-¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t an attack,¡± William interrupted her spiel, ¡°It was some sort ofnguage. All it was doing was speaking.¡± He thought that would get her to see reason, but he shouldn¡¯t have known that would have been too easy. ¡°Even better!¡± Princess Jin said excitedly, ¡°I have just the thing to help with that.¡± William saw her motion at her storage pouch but couldn¡¯t bother with her anymore. His suspicions were confirmed. The corrupted beast was back. He had been staring at a spot on the ceiling in the distance where there seemed to be an odd-shaped protrusion. The paranoia paid off when that protrusion turned into a corrupted beast. To make it worse, it had brought along a friend. William threw Princess Jin over his shoulder, ignoring her indignant squawk, and legged it back into the depths until he was far beyond the reach of the corrupted beast¡¯s red beam. During all this, the princess was suspiciously quiet. It wasn¡¯t in her nature to do so, but he got his answer when he stopped sprinting. ¡°Keep going! We¡¯re going to be surrounded again!¡± William could feel Princess Jin hitting his back with her fists, and he could see why after he turned around. His question about where the mob of spirit beasts appeared from was answered. They came from the corrupted beasts. They acted like some sort of portal, which made little sense to William when he considered their levels. Space Dao needed the practitioner to be a true cultivation monster. While the corrupted beasts meant death to him, in the grand scheme of things, they were nowhere near that level. ¡°Wei Liang, are you trying to kill us both?!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± William blinked, realizing he was rooted to the spot, staring at the abundant spirit beasts below level seventy but above sixty. His Goldilocks zone. ¡°Princess, tell me how to use your life-saving measure.¡± He set Princess Jin back on her feet, keeping an eye on the corrupted beasts while also noting the number of spirit beasts above level seventy. ¡°Here!¡± Princess Jin thrust a round piece of jade into his hands, ¡°All you need to do is break it, and my grandfather¡¯s spiritual pressure will break down the spirit beasts.¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± a smile slowly stretched across William¡¯s face, ¡°They will only focus on me, so stay far away, Princess.¡± He heard Princess Jin squeak something affirmatively before running away. That was one less of a thing to pay attention to. William rolled the jade ball between his fingers and made a vague n. He needed to take out as many spirit beasts in his Goldilocks zone as possible before switching his focus to those above level seventy. Of course, the moment either of the corrupted beasts made any sort of movement, it would be time to run. He regretted not taking advantage by killing as many of the beasts as he could, and now that he had another chance, it wouldn¡¯t be wasted. Wim flinched when a scream that sounded like shattering ss hit his ears. It wasn¡¯t damaging, but the sound was something he would never expecting from a spirit beast¡¯s mouth. [Name: QiMoth Wisp | Level: 76] It was a new type of spirit beast and one that could fly. He didn¡¯t like that. At all. Nor did he like that this spirit beast almost seemed ethereal. It wasn¡¯t that difficult to see now that he was aware of the QiMoth Wisp¡¯s existence, but that was mainly because of Princess Jin¡¯sntern. If she lost consciousness again, it would be a headache to deal with. William switched his target from the fodder spirit beasts to the QiMoth Wisp. It must be eliminated as quickly as possible to avoid another horrible situation. He bent his knees slightly, wisps of Qi appearing along his forearms as he prepared to amass experience points from theing ughter. What was to be done after that, since the corrupted beasts would be next, was a problem to be dealt with by the jade ball. Chapter 105: XP Farming Chapter 105: XP Farming [Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 68] William was momentarily surprised when he couldn¡¯t kill the beast in one shot while using his martial skill. However, that was quickly remedied with another palm thrust. [+5700 XP] [Trait Activated | -570 XP] He would usually be more concerned about why that had taken two tries to aplish, but spirit beasts below level seventy were not enough of a concern for him to bother sparing any attention to them. Even as his palm had split the Rootbound Spirit in half, his eyes stayed locked onto the QiMoth Wisp hovering above. He used Observe. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: QiMoth Wisp Level: 76 Cultivation: Immature Beast (Level 7) Health: 1600/1600 Spiritual Energy: 723/730 Spirit: 146 Strength: 25 Stamina: 94 Agility: 115 William tilted his head to the side to dodge some type of strange spitting attack that seemed filled with Qi. It was one of the first attacks that a Jingmu Shadow had ever done against him. Previously, they would be killed before there was any opportunity for them to take any sort of action. [Name: Jingmu Shadow | Level: 55] Perhaps the fact that it was in a higher minor realm made it possible to attack him at a range. Not that it changed the ultimate fate of the Jingmu Shadow. Death. [+4275 XP] [Trait Activated | -428 XP] [Level Up! | Stat Points Added] [The eliminated Jingmu Shadow¡¯s body has been preserved] [Current odds of preservation is 0.77% based on Luck: 77] William jumped back slightly to dodge the swipe of another spirit beast as he nced quickly between the Jingmu Shadow¡¯s body and the minuscule percentage it apparently had at being preserved. This only happened once before, and that was with the Pyralisk. However, the chance of that spirit beast¡¯s body being preserved was over thirty percent. The immediate conclusion that came to William¡¯s mind was that a preserved body of a Jingmu Shadow was far more valuable, even though it was a lower-level spirit beast. He needed to store the body in his spatial stone. No matter how much it seemed like a blob of muddy filth. All William had stopping him were a couple rootbound spirits. [Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 63] [Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 66] A sh of light from the Qi erupting around his forearms blinded the mob of spirit beasts briefly before it died off to reveal the two rootbound spirits disintegrating before William¡¯s eyes. [+4713 XP] [Trait Activated | -471 XP] [+5256 XP] [Trait Activated | -526 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] William ignored the dying wails of the two beasts. He refocused quickly on the leftover body a short distance away. With a path finally clear of any pesky spirit beasts, he appeared next to it in a sh before quickly pulling it into his spatial stone. As quickly as he tried toplete the act of storing the body, it seemed like he was still far too slow. A strong feeling of danger practically screamed at him,ing from above. William felt he would be critically injured if he didn¡¯t act. Thankfully, his instinctive reaction saved him. [-50 HP] William grunted when the arm he raised to somewhat shield his head was mmed into by a powerful strike. He gritted his teeth when he saw that something that resembled tentacles covered with Qi continued to put increasing pressure to break through his surprisingly effective defense. [-100 HP] With an rmed expression at seeing the loss of health double, William did the only thing that came to mind when it seemed like he was about to lose the stalemate. Attack. However, it would mean it would lessen the Qi he could maintain for defense. [-50 HP] He stored the round jade in his spatial stone and savagely thrust his free palm at the beast attacking him, hoping to kill it in one strike or at least fatally injure it so he could safely escape this precarious situation. It was somewhat sessful. William pushed away from the area the moment the beast fled to avoid his attack. Only then could he see the devastation around where he had been attacked. While he had lost two hundred health, that was apparently a testament to his body¡¯s robustnesspared to the sudden void of spirit beasts around him. The attack William had been able to stop with a simple Qi-reinforced block with his forearm had killed everything around him due to what could only be the aftershock. The other spirit beasts hadn¡¯t been on his mind during that little strength contest, but it certainly made sense why he hadn¡¯t been besieged by the fodder spirit beasts. [Name: QiMoth Wisp | Level: 76] William made eye contact with what had attacked him, which didn¡¯t surprise him. The QiMoth Wisp seemed to have waited for him to get sufficiently distracted beforeunching an attack. By all rights, an attack by this flying spirit beast should have fatally injured him, especially considering what most of its attributes looked like. However, there was one thing that was likely the most significant factor in preventing that oue. The ridiculously low strength attribute of the QiMoth Wisp. It was low enough that William shouldn¡¯t even feel the attack without enhancement. He suspected that what truly damaged him was a martial skill. ¡°Alright then,¡± William muttered as he warily watched the QiMoth Wisp for its next move, ¡°This isn¡¯t going to be fun.¡± He had said that out loud to calm himself, but when the QiMoth chittered at him, he decided to keep his mouth shut. Who knew if this thing could understand him or not? William quickly nced at the two corrupted beasts, satisfied that they hadn¡¯t moved from their original spot, before returning to the QiMoth Wisp. It seemed more than ready to wait patiently for him to make a move. Or it might be waiting for the spooked spirit beasts below to regain their courage and swarm him. He didn¡¯t have much hope of ever matching its speed, so he decided to see if it was possible to attack with little downside. William jumped without warning at the hovering QiMoth Wisp with arms zing with Qi. Practically telegraphing his intention of a straightforward attack. It was of no surprise that his target chittered mockingly and disappeared, reappearing well outside his range. That was fine. This was expected. Better than expected, to be honest. He thought he would have to shield himself from another attack, but it only wanted to stare at him mockingly at a distance. That was perfectly fine. He made sure to re at the QiMoth Wisp as if it personally offended him since it seemed to have some sort of intelligence, but only until thest second. Right below where the QiMoth Wisp was hovering, there was a truly disgusting amount of spirit beasts that were amassed in a tight area. This was what he wanted to attack in the first ce. William hadn¡¯t forgotten that he had a miracle solution to all his problems in the form of a jade ball. There was no need to let himself take unnecessary damage by fighting with formidable spirit beasts when there were far easier ways to gain experience points. William was no more than ten feet above his targets when he finally switched the concentration of Qi in his body. The fiery Qi surrounding his forearms disappeared before appearing around his legs, brilliantly lighting up the rmed spirit beasts below. He could hear the QiMoth Wisp chitter angrily in the distance, but it was toote. He was already rocketing down at a speed that made it impossible for it to stop him. William noted that most of the spirit beasts that would be killed were fodder, but at least five would give him a substantial number of experience points. He crashed thunderously into the now-shrieking spirit beasts with a savage smile, eager to wipe them out and extract the points their lives were worth. [+1 XP] x 87 [+5716 XP] [+4425 XP] [+4056 XP] [+4241 XP] [+3688 XP] [+1475 XP] [Trait Activated | -2369 XP] William was ecstatic that his ill-thought-out n worked better than he ever hoped, but not receiving a level-up alert after all those experience points made his heart skip a beat. He hadn¡¯t checked on his stats for far too long, mainly due to his attributes already at the current maximum. It had also caused him to lose track of his level. William ensured the QiMoth Wisp wasn¡¯t about to attack him before pulling up his status screen. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 59 Experience: 25043/7375 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (5th Level) Health: 1163/1400 Spiritual Energy: 342/385 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 80 (77) Strength: 80 (77) Stamina: 80 (77) Agility: 80 (77) Luck: 80 (77) Points: 148 Chapter 106: Jade Ball to the Rescue Chapter 106: Jade Ball to the Rescue He had enough experience points for the next minor realm with some more to spare. Of course, it didn¡¯t escape him that it might be beneficial to keep himself at this current level and farm experience points, but again, it was not something he was keen on doing with the two corrupted beasts waiting in the distance. Especially when he had already sacrificed a portion of his cultivation speed by willingly increasing his Impurity. Impurity: Stage 2 (74%) 7 Weeks, 2 Days, 19 Hours Remaining William withdrew the jade ball from his spatial stone. It was time to end this. As if the QiMoth Wisp had the same idea, it chittered loudly enough that he was confident that it could be heard throughout the entire length of the tunnel, all hundreds of feet of it. V??????e????r?????y????? ????w????e??????l?????l???????.???? That came from a corrupted beast, but it seemed he had gained a little tolerance since it didn¡¯t affect him much. However, he was rmed to see the steady light from Princess Jin¡¯sntern weaken significantly. William risked taking his eyes off the QiMoth Wisp and sighed in relief when he saw that while Princess Jin seemed unsteady on her feet, she hadn¡¯t lost consciousness. A ferocious roar made him turn his focus away from the princess to the corrupted beasts. His eyes widened at what they were bringing to the battle. It seemed to be a more mobile version of themselves. [Name: Corrupted Lifeform | Level: 58] [Name: Corrupted Lifeform | Level: 99] Two of them. One didn¡¯t seem much of a concern to him based on the level, but the other meant instant death. William hadn¡¯t missed that there were four corrupted beasts. Three that were likely for him based on their levels, and the much weaker one must be for Princess Jin. The only reason he had a modicum of confidence at the moment was the jade ball Princess Jin had given him. If not for that, he couldn¡¯t see how this would be survivable for him, let alone the average cultivator that entered this dimension. Was it expected for everyone to have a lifesaving measure? Or maybe his was a special case. After all, instead of taking a sip like Princess Jin, William had casually waded into theke before merrily cultivating to his heart¡¯s content until it was no longer possible. Perhaps that was why he was set upon by such high-level spirit beasts. All of this could simply be a price for his greed. It certainly exined when Princess Jin was utterly ignored in all this, and every beast seemed hell-bent on taking his life. William noticed that the QiMoth Wisp had retreated back to safety near the two newly summoned, though why William had no idea. It wasn¡¯t like he could touch the spirit beast with his limited speed in the first ce. If anything, this was actually a benefit to him. ¡°Princess!¡± William yelled without taking his eyes off the corrupted beasts that seemed to be staring back at him, ¡°Where¡¯s the furthest I can break the jade?¡± ¡°Anywhere!¡± William nodded slightly, aware she likely couldn¡¯t see his slight movement of acknowledgment. He didn¡¯t care. The corrupted beasts that had dropped down on the ground started to slowly lumber toward him. He put a little more pressure on the jade ball in his palm, debating cracking it open instantly. There was also a brief thought of moving closer to the corrupted beasts so there wouldn¡¯t be any unpleasant surprises in store. Mainly preventing a possible overestimation of the range at which the jade ball was effective. However, the choice was taken away from him. H?????h?????h????h??????h?????h?????r??????r???????r??????r??????r?????r?????a???????a?????a?????a????a??????a??????H????H???????H?????H????H?????H??????!???? The tunnel fell into darkness, indicating that Princess Jin had lost consciousness. That was the least of William¡¯s concerns. The previous assumption of gaining tolerance to the corrupted beast¡¯s speech was instantly broken. He fell to his knees as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Even when painfully aware that doing so would mean death. He could hear something rushing at him, and the growing sense of doom did nothing to help him use his strength to crack open the jade ball. R?????i???p??????? ??????t????h???????e???? ???l?????i?????m????b???? ???????o??????f??????f?????!??? Of course, when his physical strength seemed far too affected to use the lifesaving measure, William immediately directed his Qi to enhance his strength. It should have been an almost instantaneous process. However, it felt like his Qi moved through his pathways like msses. At leastpared to the speed he was used to. D??????i????e???????.???? William could barely react to the sudden appearance of the corrupted beast in front of him. It attacked him, swinging an arm that looked to be made of ckened flesh in the form of a club. That was what saved him. Perhaps it was due to Princess Jin¡¯s luck affecting the situation. Still, the corrupted beast choosing to attack him with something that needed close contact instead of staying at range most likely gave him the extra fraction of a second for his Qi to finally reach his hand to reinforce his strength. William heard the sharp clink of ss breaking as his fingers split the jade ball at the most dramatic moment. His eyes were heavy with unnatural exhaustion, but he still noticed the corrupted beast had frozen in ce. Its strangely fluid body was far too still, a sharp contrast to the regr movements constantly seen throughout its body. ¡°Demons.¡± What made William fall closer into forced sleep was lifted, making his eyes snap open in surprise. He immediately got to his feet and jumped back to distance himself from the corrupted beast. Conveniently, it also put him right next to where Princess Jin had copsed. ¡°Four demons.¡± William quickly checked to ensure she was simply unconscious before grabbing thentern she had been using to provide light. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Cost | 20 Spiritual Energy per hour] He didn¡¯t dy activating thentern with his Qi. At this distance, it was impossible to see the corrupted beast that had been about to mash him into a pulp, let alone the other three that were at an even greater distance. More than that, he was even more curious about the cultivator that was speaking. It was likely that this was Princess Jin¡¯s grandfather, but he still wanted to confirm if this was the same man who politely ordered him to take the young girl on this disastrous trip. The tunnel was lit up, erasing the darkness that previously covered it to reveal all four corrupted beasts frozen in their spots. And the cause of all this was the ethereal cultivator that casually hovered in midair, arms crossed behind his back. William¡¯s mouth twitched when he realized that even if he could see more than just the cultivator¡¯s back, it would be impossible to match him with the one that stopped him at the gates of Xuanjing City. The sun had blinded him to the point that he hadn¡¯t even been able to see if the man had white hair, which the specter that was saving them certainly did. ¡°Perish.¡± The corrupted beast with the massive club for a limb, the one about to effortlessly murder William with glee, shattered like a mirror. Without a sound, it disintegrated into nothing before his eyes. He then saw Princess Jin¡¯s possible grandfather nce at the corrupted beasts in the distance before the same fate befell them. All of that pain William had faced was fixed with a mere word and brief nce. He shuddered, though he wasn¡¯t sure if that was in terror or desire, not at the cultivator but the sheer power one held at the higher realms. It was always known to him, but seeing it in action was humbling. ¡°Wei Liang?¡± William kept his eyes on the specter that casually eliminated all four spirit beasts. Still, he replied to the princess. ¡°Wee back. Your lifesaving measure seems to have worked.¡± A few seconds passed in silence, other than Princess Jin struggling to get on her feet. It was making him nervous. ¡°Princess, you said this esteemed cultivator is your grandfather.¡± William stared at the vignt specter suspiciously. ¡°I-It is.¡± ¡°I see,¡± William''s doubt wasn¡¯t helped by her shaky voice, ¡°The corrupted beasts are gone, but your lord grandfather is still on guard.¡± ¡°It will stay active for a few hours,¡± Princess Jin had obvious tiredness in her tone, ¡°This was only supposed to be used forte-stage Core Formation cultivators, not mere beasts in the Qi Gathering realm.¡± ¡°¡­ Oh,¡± William said dumbly. ¡°If we hadn¡¯t been sucked in by the vortex, my protectors would have easily been able to protect us against the threats we faced so far.¡± William nodded silently, a n slowly forming in his mind. ¡°Is it possible to move him with us?¡± ¡°No,¡± Princess Jin shot that down instantly. He expected that. It would be too easy to carry around something that had the strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator. Other than the giants that had fought each other when he first arrived at this level, nothing else would stand a chance. That was fine. It just meant taking a little precaution before returning to the depths of the root maze was necessary. ¡°Alert me if needed, princess. I need to cultivate.¡± Chapter 107: The 6th Level Chapter 107: The 6th Level William frowned slightly as he cultivated, steadily building to the breakthrough to the next minor realm. The high impurity he could detect in his spiritual pathways wouldn¡¯t really be a factor while using his Qi to attack, but it certainly felt like it should. It was an ugly blemish that couldn¡¯t be ignored, especially since it seemed that those blemishes could best be described as rotten Qi. To his senses, it was as if the ck sludge expelled from his body when ridding the body of impurities resided in his spiritual pathways. Not only that, but it merged with a not insignificant minority of his Qi. William saw firsthand why even the most fundamental books in the Jade Healing Sect warned of the dangers of too much intake of pills and spirit nts. However, as bad as the state of his spiritual pathways seemed, it was harmless to him. He wasing to suspect this was another quirk of having this broken system. William had little doubt that if he was an ordinary cultivator, the impurities in his body would have caused issues with cultivating at the minimum and more likely would have also created significant problems when using Qi-infused attacks. Instead of those detriments, all he had to deal with was the loss of a tenth of the experience points he would earn. A trade-off that was looking more and more favorable. William snapped out of his theories of how his body treated Impurity when he sensed that his spiritual pathways underwent the telltale qualitative change. He vaguely heard Princess Jin gasp, but he focused on finishing the final cirction of his Qi before slowly exhaling and opening his eyes. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 24 minutes: +4 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x3 [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (5th Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (6th Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1400 ¡ª> 1500] [Modified | Max Level: 59 ¡ª> 69] [Modified | Max Attribute: 80 ¡ª> 90] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 70 2. Eligible for Level 70 [Impurity Reduced] [Stage 2 (74%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (37%)] He had forgotten that advancing to a higher minor realm reduces the impurity in his body. Rather, it would be better to say that his body gained the capacity to hold more impurity before it became an issue. Perhaps this would be a possible solution to the problem if nothing else was doable. ¡°Did you advance to the next minor realm?¡± Princess Jin said tly, making William nce at her, ¡°Just like that, huh? Makes sense.¡± He had basically given up the hope of hiding his rate of advancement from the princess the moment he started fighting for his life against the corrupted beast the first time. And that had only been reinforced as the thing that he should prioritize the least when his leg had literally gotten ripped off. What was the point of William hiding himself if the result was mauling and/or death? For some reason, the Vitality Restoration Pills had the ridiculous effect of restoring his body to its peak condition, going as far as regenerating his lost limb. At least that was the case with his leg, but he wasn¡¯t keen to test that again soon. ¡°Give me one more minute, Princess,¡± William didn¡¯t answer her unasked questions. That could be dealt withter. [+10 Spirit] [Max Spirit Reached] [Modified | Trait: Soul Damage] [4% ¡ª> 2% Attribute Reduction] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 385 ¡ª> 440] He efficiently guided the assertional Qi added to his pathways to his stomach meridian, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t wary of the meridian rejecting the extra spiritual energy. After his lung and heart meridians consolidated intopact pinpricks of light and started to reject his efforts to add more Qi to them, he was of the mindset to always expect such a situation when increasing his Spirit attribute. However, William didn¡¯t experience any setbacks this time, and his stomach meridian assimted the additional Qi, with the slightly transparent fog of energy inside the meridian getting somewhat more opaque. He pulled up his main status screen and debated which attributes to increase. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 62 Experience: 2547/7750 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (6th Level) Health: 1263/1500 Spiritual Energy: 440/440 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 90 (88) Strength: 80 (78) Stamina: 80 (78) Agility: 80 (78) Luck: 80 (78) Points: 153 Traits: Soul Damage (Minor) - 2% Attribute Reduction While he was a massive fan of using as few spare stat points as possible, there wasn¡¯t really a way he could justify keeping most of his attributes below the maximum limit. Strength and Agility were mandatory increases since they would enable him to instantly take out spirit beasts in the seventh level of Qi Gathering. It might also let him put up a real fight against a beast at the peak of Qi Gathering. William was tempted to hold back on Luck since he was of the mind that he could leech off Princess Jin, but that thought onlysted for a fraction of a second. The only way he had found he could increase his Luck so far was a dish prepared in the Phoenix Pavilion. ¡­ That felt like a lifetime ago at this point. He missed being in a city with other humans, and even though the dish was made out of literal bugs, he craved another taste. He decided to reward himself with a simr dish after getting out of the secret realm. Maybe he¡¯d also invite Li Xinyue. Or Wang Xiaoling if she didn¡¯t avoid him because of the money he had given her. ¡°Are you done?¡± William blinked, realizing his fantasies of food that wasn¡¯t a spirit fruit made his mind wander. He nced at the specter still standing, or rather hovering, guard in the distance. ¡°Yes, ready to finish this?¡± William stood up as he assigned his unused stat points to the attributes. [+10 Strength] [Max Strength Reached] [+10 Agility] [Max Agility Reached] [+10 Luck] [Max Luck Reached] He still wanted to preserve his stat points as much as possible, and Stamina was the only attribute he didn¡¯t feel the need to raise. It hadn¡¯t been much of an issue during the two brawls that he had taken part in. While there was a sense of fatigue after throwing full-strength punches repeatedly over a hundred times, William hadn¡¯t felt that he was anywhere close to his absolute limit. He had experienced what it felt like when he had been entirely out of Stamina, and during that time, all he had been able to do was drag his feet like he was being weighed down by the world. ¡°Maybe we should abandon this,¡± Princess Jin spoke up with a weary look, ¡°If this was what we faced outside the center, imagine how much worse it will be there.¡± William raised an eyebrow at her sudden reluctance, clearly remembering how she was the one who was insistent on continuing deeper. He even thought about taking the way out, but when the Quest penalty wasn¡¯t modified to a lesser consequence, he decided not to. ¡°I would agree, but did you notice how the spirit beasts were brought in by the corrupted ones?¡± ¡°¡­ No?¡± Princess Jin said slowly, face turning pink slightly, ¡°I was looking at something else.¡± William nodded understandably. The only reason he noticed was his hyper-focus on the corrupted beasts. If it wasn¡¯t for that, the chaotic mess around him would have distracted him, too. ¡°The corrupted beasts had some sort of spatial ability to transport them. I don¡¯t think we will face something like this again.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± William waited patiently for Princess Jin to settle her confusion. If she had insights into why some a low-level beast had ess to Space Dao, he would be d. Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t the case. ¡°If you think it¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll follow your lead, Wei Liang.¡± William blinked at the trusting eyes Princess Jin gave him. This was very different from her usual, which resembled someone looking at an unruly child. He supposed that saving the princess¡¯s life a few times must have changed his impression on her. Good. Maybe getting these treasures would make Princess Jin put him on even more of a pedestal. After that, he would be time to sweet-talk her into keeping quiet about his growth. Of course, how he would do that was still a mystery to him. [Lord Paddlington: What a surprise! You actually lived!] Interlude: A Meeting with the Grand Elder Interlude: A Meeting with the Grand Elder It was times like these that Guan Feng thought about handing over his position of Sect Master and living his life purely for pleasure. It was all he wanted to do, even hundreds of years ago when he was first elevated to an Elder of the Outer Court. Though his strength and position changed over the centuries, that desire stayed the same. It would be a dreame true if there were no Sect politics, Empire shenanigans, and, most importantly, no Grand Elder Lian Xue to be wary of. The past week had not been one that had beenfortable for Guan Feng. In fact, thest time it came somewhat close to this level of stress was nearly a century ago when he had been a mere Elder of the Inner Court. The Emperor had demanded his services to heal a prized son of his favorite Imperial Concubine, and while that wasn¡¯t an issue in itself, his sess in bringing the Imperial Prince back to full health had been his downfall. The Council of Elders started to pay far too much attention to Guan Feng, making it clear to him that he would be groomed to be the next Sect Master. If it hadn¡¯t been for the promise his beloved master had drawn from him, Guan Feng would have escaped the sect and lived happily in some mortal city in luxury until his death. Unfortunately, that same promise stopped him from following his instinct to leave his position and flee to some corner of the world. Perhaps it would be possible if Yu Yanhua broke through to the Spirit Severing realm in the next century. He could then rest easy knowing that the Jade Healing Sect would be in good hands. Until that time, Guan Feng would have to ept that he was stuck dealing with the mess hoisted on him. Speaking of dealing with unpleasantness, he slowly walked up to the highest peak in the sect, where Grand Elder Lian had resided for well over five centuries. Who told that little brat, Wei Liang, to get sucked into the Imperial family¡¯s secret realm? Who gave him the right to be so troublesome? Guan Feng resisted the urge to show his frustration. It was entirely possible that the Grand Elder was keeping an eye on him at the moment. He regretted giving Yu Yanhua the go-ahead to take Wei Liang back to Xuanjing City. He should have insisted on keeping the brat within the sect walls. The entire reason Wei Liang was sent to a mortal city was to avoid the attention of the Grand Elder¡¯s faction. Instead of aplishing that, this drew the attention of the Grand Elder himself. Yu Yanhua was already working with the Imperial Protectors that arrived from the capital since this could be considered an unauthorized entry into one of the Empire¡¯s most important assets. Two of the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s disciples being involved mandated a representation, and since she had been the highest ranking member closest to the event, it was her the Imperial Protectors asked for. Guan Feng wasn¡¯t sure if keeping Wei Liang was possible after this, and even if it was, perhaps it wouldn¡¯t be wise to do so. When Yu Yanhua brought his attention to the brat, all his decisions were based on the assumption that his background wouldn¡¯t cause an issue. It was true that she reported strange findings that suggested either a true genius of Space Dao or a pir in the Dao Seeking realm helped Wei Liang in the past. Still, Guan Feng didn¡¯t put too much importance on that. While rare, it was not entirely unheard of for high-realm cultivators to help mortals in peril. However, if they intended to take a deeper interest in an individual, it generally didn¡¯t involve leaving them alone. That was why Guan Feng didn¡¯t care too much about Wei Liang possibly having been helped by a Dao Seeker. However, the fact that the brat had been allowed entrance into the Empire¡¯s secret realm meant that the rtionship with the Dao Seeker was not as shallow as Guan Feng had hoped and assumed. Again, he hid his increasing frustration as he approached the Grand Elder¡¯s dwelling. It was a simple structurepared to the rest of the sect, but that wasn¡¯t much of a surprise since the Grand Elder had simple tastes. This is theplete opposite of Guan Feng and another reason he disliked visiting this peak. ¡°Come in.¡± A voice gently weed him. Guan Feng let a small smile show on his lips and stepped past the entrance. ¡°Thank you, Grand Elder Lian.¡± ¡°Nothing to thank me for,¡± a well-manicured hand waved him off elegantly, ¡°I was the one that troubled you to meet me, Little Feng.¡± Guan Feng chuckled happily, though his stomach turned at theck of respect for his position. The Grand Elder always seemed kind, but centuries of hidden warnings from his predecessor and first-hand evidence proved that Grand Elder Lian hid his true intentions beneath endless kindness. ¡°It¡¯s no trouble at all,¡± Guan Feng¡¯s smile dimmed, ¡°After what Yu Yanhua informed me, I¡¯m not surprised.¡± The Grand Elder hummed before shaking his head slightly. It attracted Guan Feng¡¯s eyes to his long, cascading silver hair that reached his waist. It was neatly kept in order with jade pins, so not even one strand was out of ce. For someone Guan Feng suspected to be over millennia in age, it was nearly unfair how perfect the Grand Elder looked. If seen at a distance, the silky silver hair, wless porcin skin, and lithe body could be easily mistaken as belonging to a young woman. Even if one saw the Grand Elder¡¯s face, the high cheekbones, soft jawline, and lips with a hint of red would reinforce that assumption. It was no wonder why most would describe the Grand Elder as beautiful as a rose. And it wouldn¡¯t be wrong. ¡°Those children are far too young to be thrown into such a ce,¡± the Grand Elder frowned softly, ¡°It might be designated for cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm, but the Empire does not have full control over what they might encounter in the secret realm.¡± Guan Feng nodded, not feeling the need to add anything. This was well-known by cultivators in any position of power. ¡°What made me curious was how they entered,¡± the Grand Elder''s blue eyes met Guan Feng¡¯s, ¡°None from the branch in Xuanjing City opened the path.¡± This was the real reason Guan Feng was called here. ¡°I have my suspicions, Grand Elder. However, I¡¯m lost on what to do if my fear turns out to be true.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± The Grand Elder tilted his head slightly, waiting for him to exin further. ¡°Before I jump to conclusions, how confident are you that the princess with our disciples had no part in this happening?¡± ¡°You can take my word that the young Princess Jin is not at fault,¡± the Grand Elder said confidently, ¡°But you already know that.¡± ¡°I did,¡± Guan Feng confirmed before sighing, ¡°But I still had hopes that I was wrong. This means one of our two disciples has the mark of a Dao Seeker.¡± There was a brief silence where the Grand Elder didn¡¯t respond. All he did was stare intently into Guan Feng¡¯s eyes. The tension was snapped when he finally replied. ¡°That is the most obvious conclusion from this,¡± the Grand Elder stood smoothly, ¡°I have already ruled out the other possibilities, as rare as they are. Having such a disciple in our sect is considered a great honor, but the Emperor¡­¡± Guan Feng nodded as the Grand Elder trailed off, sneering inwardly at the concern he was showing. This was the man some considered the Emperor¡¯s dog. ¡°Come, Little Feng,¡± the Grand Elder patted his shoulder with a gentle smile, ¡°I¡¯ve called for a meeting with the Elders. We must discuss the disciples in the secret realm with them and hear any worries. More importantly, we must decide what to do with them.¡± ¡°Now?¡± Guan Feng blinked, ¡°Most Elders have been sent to mortal cities.¡± ¡°I have called them back,¡± the Grand Elder chuckled at his rmed expression, ¡°It was at the Empire¡¯s behest. They havee to the same conclusion and want to find the best way forward.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Guan Feng nodded, finding it unsurprising. He chuckled after a second and said, ¡°I never thought the first time the Elders get recalled would be due to a couple of brats.¡± The Grand Elder shared his amusement, adding, ¡°me the Dao Seeker that made it happen.¡± Guan Feng didn¡¯t dare to even think of doing that. After all, he wasn¡¯t like the Grand Elder, who could protect himself after saying a suicidal sentence such as that. As they left the Grand Elder¡¯s peak, Guan Feng started to draw up ns to make sure Wei Liang would spend most of his time with Yu Yanhua. Of course, that was assuming the Empire didn¡¯t take him away. Chapter 108: Lord Paddlington Tries to Help Chapter 108: Lord Paddlington Tries to Help ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± William questioned a third time as they entered a tunnel, one that was partially filled with overgrowth from the tree¡¯s roots. ¡°I think so. It just feels right,¡± Princess Jin replied before hesitantly continuing, ¡°Unless you prefer to go another way?¡± ¡°No,¡± William said immediately, ¡°If you think this is the correct path, I trust you.¡± He smiled slightly when her face pinked at his words, but his mind was more on his system, mostly about why Lord Paddlington contacted him and why bother to do so when it had only been one sentence. William wondered how it knew he had finished the task in the first ce. He looked up at the ceiling, narrowing his eyes as he searched, almost expecting to find a smug turtle hiding among the overgrowth. He didn¡¯t. William scoffed lightly to himself. If that thing had the power to casually open voids, it likely didn¡¯t need to be present to know his actions. ¡°AH!¡± William shouted when he felt his leg get wrapped by something, jumping to the ceiling as he stomped down with all his power. He heard Princess Jin scream when the roots that had previously existed below him before the attack were pulverized. His heart nearly beat out of his chest as he clutched onto a root hanging off the ceiling, ready to jump down and m his fist into the ground to finish whatever had touched his leg. However, all he saw when he looked down was a barely noticeable depression in the ground, an area void of overgrowth, and a ring Princess Jin. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± Princess Jin yelled shrilly, ¡°Are you crazy?! I thought we were being attacked!¡± William¡¯s heart was finally starting to calm down. He ignored Princess Jin¡¯s questioning and stared at his exposed leg, noticing the faint brown mark on his shin. Nothing had grabbed him unless having his leg caught in the roots was considered a grab. He avoided the princess¡¯s eyes and let himselfnd on the ground, more than a little embarrassed at overreacting to such an extreme. Who knew that having his leg ripped off was still weighing on his mind? It shouldn¡¯t have been a surprise, but he supposed that he was good enough at hiding it that even he had no idea it was an issue. ¡°What was that for?¡± Princess Jin still sounded mad, which was understandable. ¡°Nothing,¡± William replied awkwardly, ¡°I guess I¡¯m still jumpy. The nerves will go away.¡± The princess eyed him suspiciously as she hummed, sounding doubtful about his im. ¡°We should be about to reach the center. Do you want to take a quick break?¡± William was about to agree, thinking it would be best to settle himself and maybe cultivate until the hidden trauma was further suppressed. However, it would just be a dying tactic. He was honestly terrified of meeting a monster as strong as the highest-level corrupted beast he had seen. Even with his increased attributes, he held no misconceptions that he could beat that thing. Given that thought was always in the back of his mind, it was no surprise that he was always hyperaware, ready to flee back to the specter standing guard a few tunnels behind them. ¡°No, let¡¯s keep going. Dying only had negatives attached to it. We don¡¯t know when this ce will get reimed by the hell outside the walls. Plus, your grandfather¡¯s specter will disappear in a few hours. After that, we will have no other path for survival.¡± ¡°Good to know you¡¯re considering everything,¡± Princess Jin muttered as she waved for him to walk beside her. William winced, seeing a familiar look return to her eyes. One that was of an older sister. So much for gaining her trust a short while ago. He had significantly undermined himself by acting like a startled cat. He kept pace with the princess as he quickly checked his stats, or rather, the condition of his body. It would be necessary to ingest another Vitality Restoration Pill before they reach their destination. While it might be better to wait until he had taken more damage and could use the full effects of the pill, it wouldn¡¯t be ideal to waste time taking a pill when in a life-or-death situation. It had already happened, and putting himself in a position to do so again was the height of negligence for his own life. William nced at the princess, seeing her focus intently on their surroundings. She was doing a far better job with contorting around all of the root overgrowth and avoiding contact with them. He had tried to mimic it, but it seemed that higher agility didn¡¯t automatically mean excellent flexibility. He failed miserably, so he ended up not bothering. He consoled himself by mentally saying that these roots were as dead as the nt-like growth surrounding the tree outside, so there was no need for the caution the princess showed. William pulled himself out of those thoughts and used the opportunity to draw a pill out of his spatial stone when Princess Jin made a little jump to avoid a twisting root sticking a few feet out of the ground. [+237 HP] [Health: 1263 ¡ª> 1500/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (37%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (52%)] If there was one positive that came out of using a pill, it was finding out that it only worsened his impurity by fifteen percent. A reduction of two percentage points from the previous minor realm. However, on second thought, was that really a positive? That meant that each pill restored a reduced amount of health. William sighed and shook his head as they approached the next split in the tunnels. As with the previous sections, this part had a simrly erged chamber that allowed the following tunnels to be almost the exact size as before. Princess Jin looked at him with a question, making him shrug with little care. ¡°Choose what you feel is best. Same as the ones before.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Princess Jin blurted out, ¡°You¡¯re the one that made it possible to get this far. Don¡¯t you want to see if you can find the best path? At this point, I¡¯m just guessing!¡± That was precisely what William wanted. Not that he would say that to her. It wouldn''t be great to let a young girl know that the one she was depending on for life was literally relying on luck, or rather, the Luck attribute. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, princess,¡± William rubbed her head with a smile, finding her frustrated look a little cute. It would have been more natural if he was taller than her, but he would take what he could to make himself look less childish. ¡°We¡¯ve gotten this far safely, right? Why change things now?¡± Princess Jin batted his hand away from her head, making himugh when she let out an annoyed growl. ¡°Fine, don¡¯t me me if we die,¡± Princess Jin faced away from him and studied the tunnels. William left her to do the only job that she had, being an excellentpass. [Lord Paddlington: Why have you not returned? You are not hurt, but I cannot sense your location.] He looked away from Princess Jin to nce at the alert, frowning slightly as if the turtle expected him to magically leave. He was under the assumption that they would need to find a way back through the hellishndscape. It was one of the reasons that he decided to go forward with this tree quest in the first ce. He hoped to find something that would let him survive longer. Nheless, William was about to ask the princess if she knew this method of escape the turtle was implying, not that he had any hopes that she did. After all, Princess Jin might have been pushing to go deeper towards the center of the tree at the start, but that had changed. [Lord Paddlington: Do you not know how? Cultivate and focus on thepletion of your task, just like how you entered the depths of the Oasis.] He blinked in surprise. He supposed that it wasn¡¯t necessary to ask the princess. [Lord Paddlington: Forget it. I will not let my Lady¡¯s hopes die like this. If you can read this, prepare yourself.] William¡¯s heart skipped when the chamber rumbled like it was about to copse. He immediately wrapped an arm around Princess Jin¡¯s waist and picked her up in a princess carry, ready to leg back to her grandfather¡¯s specter. Chapter 109: Safe... For Now Chapter 109: Safe... For Now ¡°We are fucked,¡± William said with resignation when the tunnel copsed far behind them, blocking off his original escape path. Luckily, his luckypass gave him another option. ¡°Wei Liang, go through the second tunnel on the left!¡± William grunted in acknowledgment as he hopped to the side to avoid being crushed by a particrlyrge piece of solidified dirt falling from the ceiling. They might as well be rocks at this point. ¡°Princess, do you know how to get out of this level?¡± William asked as he sped to the target tunnel. It would have usually taken him a few seconds, but the chamber crumbling around them caused a significant slowdown. He weaved in and out, jumping to avoid therge boulder-sized clumps of dirt blocking his way. ¡°No,¡± Princess Jin said quickly, ¡°Left!¡± William¡¯s feet left a small groove in the ground at the force he used to jump left, a massive spike-shaped piece of dirt crashing where he just was with lethal force. ¡°We¡¯re not going to make it out of here.¡± He didn¡¯t respond to Princess Jin¡¯s hopeless statement as he circted his Qi to do something that he never tried before. Given that he was moving more side to side instead of making progress toward the tunnel, something drastic needed to be attempted. [Martial Skill Created] [-200 Spiritual Energy] The princess yelped when she was suddenly staring at someone who was surrounded by zing Qi, flickering like mes around every inch of his body. William¡¯s body blurred as his almost suicidal attempt to infuse his entire body in Qi actually seeded. Every step caused cracks to appear on the ground, each casual push with his free hand put craters in the clumps of dirt that solidified into rock, and with a little more effort, it shattered them into sand. The painfully slow progress was quickly turned into nothing of consequence, with William reaching the tunnel even quicker than it normally would have been possible without any obstacles. Princess Jin gasped just as he escaped into the tunnel, the rumble of the copsing structures suddenly bing muted when the entrance was packed shut by the falling debris. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± He turned quickly, expecting her to be warning him about the copse spreading to this area too, but thankfully, that wasn¡¯t the case. ¡°It hurts!¡± William''s eyes snapped to the girl he was carrying, eyeing the purpling skin where he held her to his body with one arm. ¡°Fuck,¡± William cursed as he let go immediately, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me you were hurt!¡± Princess Jin held her damaged arm gingerly as she stumbled on her feet before hissing, ¡°I''d rather have my arms squeezed off than deal with what was going toe out of that portal!¡± ¡°What?¡± William was stunned. He had been about to use Observe to see the damage he had caused, but being made aware of the cause of the copse infuriated him. The turtle was at fault. It should have been obvious with thest message received from Lord Paddlington, but he didn¡¯t think it was the direct cause of this. ¡°Did you see anything else?¡± William asked as he stopped her from moving the damaged arm and used Observe and focused only on her health. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Princess Jin Health: 987/1300 (1% per hour) William felt a bit of jealousy re at seeing that she naturally recovered her health. However, it was far too slow to leave her unattended. ¡°Do you have anything to help me recover in that stone?¡± Princess Jin asked while wincing as she tried to flex the hand on her damaged arm, ¡°I promise I¡¯ll pay you back when we return.¡± ¡°¡­ That¡¯s not necessary,¡± William wondered how long she knew about the spatial stone, but since she made it sound like it wasn¡¯t a big deal, he would act the same way, ¡°I caused it, so it¡¯s only right for me to help.¡± He pulled a Vitality Restoration Pill out of the dwindling supply in the spatial stone and offered it to the princess. When she stared at it with wide eyes, as if she didn''t have an arm that needed healing, he wondered if he had made a mistake. ¡°Does the Jade Healing Sect give such high-quality pills to all its disciples?¡± Princess Jin asked with wonder. ¡°I doubt it,¡± William was relieved that this was the cause of her surprise, ¡°A Senior Sister in the sect is close to me, and she has a master who is an excellent alchemist. I was freely given plenty of these due to that.¡± ¡°A master that gives out pills of the third grade?¡± Princess Jin¡¯s eyebrows were raised higher. It took William a moment to realize what that meant. He had taken the pills he had for granted, especially since they were so readily avable. No wonder they restored so much of his health. The pills were made for cultivators in the Core Formation realm. ¡°I suppose,¡± William shrugged, acting unfazed, ¡°Are we going to keep discussing how good the pill is, or do you want to use it?¡± He nodded when she snatched the pill like he would take it back. ¡°Thank you,¡± Princess Jin said quickly before taking a seat as if she was about to cultivate. William wasn¡¯t sure what she was doing. Still, he wasn¡¯t about to interrupt since he suspected this was something else he took for granted. She took a deep breath before gently cing the pill on her tongue and closed her mouth. When her previously pale skin quickly turned a bright red,bined with the increased rate of breath as if she wasn¡¯t getting enough air, it confirmed to William that even how his body reacted to the pills was strange. It made him question why nobody had mentioned this before. He had taken these pills before in front of Elder Huang, and while they might have been of a lower grade, it should have still raised some eyebrows. William shook his head and put another unanswered question to the back of his mind as he looked away from Princess Jin. It seemed that she would take some time to process the pill. Time that he could use to see what was ahead. He hadn¡¯t had the opportunity to take in what was ahead of them in the tunnel since he blindly followed Princess Jin¡¯s choice. Now that he did, he decided that he didn¡¯t like what could be seen. Not at all. The previous tunnel they had traversed had simr roots growing out of the walls, but this was different. There seemed to be life in them, and it was in the creepiest way possible. It seemed as if the thinnest parts of the exposed roots, the size of fine hairs, were swaying as if a soft breeze made them do so. Given that there was no such breeze, it meant that they were moving under their own volition. William shivered, ncing back at the sealed-off entrance as if it would open up another option to go. Since he could still hear the muffled rumbles, digging through the dirt would not end well, even if it could be done in the first ce. He mentally pumped himself up to move forward. It was almost near the end¡­ probably. Besides, he had gained a new martial skill that was truly overpowered, even more so when considering how easily he had been wrecking spirit beasts well above his level while using the most basic martial skills. Speaking of the new martial skill. William finally had time to see what it was and why it required a massive two hundred spiritual energy to activate. Martial Skills (4): 1. Unnamed Marital Skill (100%) 2. Thunderous Palm (40%) 3. Thunderous Kick (40%) 4. Earth-Shaking Stomp (30%) [Please name the newly created martial skill] Note: If you are reading this on a website that is not Royal Road, Scribblehub, Spacebattles, or on my Patreon, you are reading a pirated version and that website does not have the permission of the author to host the story. Please instead read the story on Royal Road, here, as it ispletely free to read on Royal Road. Chapter 110: A Truly Impressive Name Chapter 110: A Truly Impressive Name William had no idea what he was supposed to name this new skill. Mainly because he had no idea what it did. Well, that wasn¡¯t true. He had an idea of what the martial skill could do. After all, he used it to basically be invincible. Or, at least, it felt like he did, but that couldn¡¯t be true. [Expand details on Unnamed Martial Skill?] [Y/N] That was helpful. Extremely so. He nced at Princess Jin, noting that she was still red all over and her injury hadn¡¯t healed. However, it was slightly better to look, so there was some progress. It seemed that he would have plenty of time to fiddle with the system without looking like a lunatic. [Expanding details] Unnamed Martial Skill - (100% Compatibility) When performing this technique, the user spreads their Qi throughout the body before infusing it evenly to greatly enhance oneself. The user will experience a transcendence of their physical limitations for the duration of the skill. However, overuse wille with great personal detriment. Cost: 200 Spiritual Energy Duration: 1 Minute Affect: Multiply [Strength], [Stamina], and [Agility] by 5 times while in Qi Gathering Realm Overuse: Wille into effect after the use of Unnamed Martial Skill two times within 30 minutes. Overuse Penalty (2): 1. 50% of base health 2. Temporary 25% reduction of [Strength], [Stamina], and [Agility.] Reduction will be removed after full recovery of health. William blinked repeatedly before rereading the message as he tried to ensure he wasn¡¯t hallucinating. It finally felt like he had a martial skill that a protagonist would be proud to use. The type that one would yell the name of every time they used it in a fight. He would need to give this a name he would be proud to scream into an opponent¡¯s face before bing an unstoppable berserker. The only problem was that naming things was not his forte. He supposed it could be something basic, like ¡®force multiplier.¡¯ Still, if and when he met other cultivators bragging about his finishing moves of ¡®flying phoenix¡¯ or ¡®void crushing palm,¡¯ he wouldn¡¯t be able to hold his head up high. [Name Unnamed Martial Skill as ¡®Force Multiplier¡¯] [Y/N] William immediately declined it. It would likelye up with that prompt multiple times as he went over the possible choices, so it was best to be careful. Who knew if this name could be changed or not? Princess Jin hissed softly, making him give her a once over to make sure there wasn¡¯t a mishap. She was still hurt, but unlike before, her arm was well on the way to full recovery. Perhaps it would take a few minutes more at this rate. William couldn¡¯t hold back the wince as he eyed the heavily bruised spot on her arm. With how easily he had crushed everything in his path and the apparent increase in strength his new skill allowed him, it was a miracle that he hadn¡¯t snapped her arm in two. Her robes certainly didn¡¯t hold up where his grip was strongest on her arm since they had disintegrated sometime during the escape from the copsing chamber. Then again, if he was putting enough pressure to damage her clothing, maybe it had some protection that saved her from more damage. He looked over her robes casually, not really expecting to find out much information, and he was right about that. However, he noticed some faint embroidery that resembled misshaped dragons. Perhaps it had been damaged from the journey so far, but it gave him an idea. William was aware that dragons held a high status in this world. Which was why it would be perfect to put that in the name. [Name Unnamed Martial Skill as ¡®Dragon Rage Technique¡¯] [Y/N] He frowned, repeating the potential name in his mind, but it didn¡¯t sound as grand as he wanted. This wouldn¡¯t be it. [Name Unnamed Martial Skill as ¡®Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons¡¯] [Y/N] William shifted on his feet as he thought this one over. It was as dramatic as he wanted, and it fit the martial skill perfectly. After all, he would basically be a berserker after using the skill, and it increased the affected attributes by five times. He was proud of the name he thought of. If he ever had a disciple or needed to show off in some spar, this would be something that would get sighs of admiration from others. Yes, this would be the name of his first created martial skill. [Name changed] ¡°Why¡¯re you smiling? ¡± William blinked, his attention back on Princess Jin. She was getting to her feet, but to his surprise, she still hadn¡¯t healed herself fully. ¡°What are you doing?¡± William ignored her question, ¡°You¡¯re not healed yet.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Princess Jin shot him a confused look, ¡°It¡¯ll take far too long for me to return to my peak state. You know a pill is only useful for healing most of the damage. The rest will take time we don¡¯t have to waste.¡± He raised his eyebrow in surprise at her matter-of-fact tone. It seemed that there was more his body was capable of doing that shouldn¡¯t be possible. Another thing to file and put in the back of his mind. As for what Princess Jin said about time, William begged to differ. He thought that it would be ideal for her to take more time. Spiritual Energy: 249/440 (20% per Hour) It was necessary for theirbined well-being for him to recover more Spiritual Energy and, more importantly, have a thirty-minute gap so he could use Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons without crippling himself in the process. At the rate William recovered his Qi, he would need at least forty-four added before he feltfortable moving forward. ¡°How long will it take?¡± William asked directly. ¡°¡­ Maybe an hour?¡± Princess Jin replied unsurely before moving her damaged arm freely in a show, ¡°But it really isn¡¯t worth the risk of waiting, Wei Liang. All the damage right now is just visual.¡± ¡°You might be right about that when only considering your arm,¡± William agreed, ¡°However, I want to be able to ess my trump card if we fall into danger. I need to have a break for my body to recover. Waiting here is the best, and smartest option.¡± It was easy to see the princess was easily convinced. She was obviously thinking of how everything worked in their favor after he activated the martial skill. Or, at least, that was how he took her nod of eptance. ¡°Good. Focus on recovering,¡± William nodded before he pointed at the hair-like roots swaying slightly, ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye on those things.¡± Given the way she stared at the moving roots with a nk face, he assumed she also had no idea why it was doing so. However, the way she lit up with excitement barely a moment after made him question that assumption. ¡°Finally!¡± Princess Jin waved a clenched fist happily, ¡°I can take care of this, Wei Liang!¡± ¡°Er, sure. If you say so,¡± William replied doubtfully. ¡°You don¡¯t have to believe me, but you better answer questions about that martial skill after I get us to the end!¡± William hummed in agreement, not finding it necessary to hide information about the martial skill since she had seen him use it. He wouldn¡¯t give out the weaknesses, but there was no harm in telling her the name. After all, this was one of the reasons he gave it such a cool name. William decided to follow her example after the princess sat crosslegged on the ground and started to do the strange breathing exercise to elerate her healing. He wouldn¡¯t close his eyes since he intended to keep watch as he told her, but that wouldn¡¯t be necessary since he wasn¡¯t going to cultivate. His intention was to practice spreading his Qi throughout his body evenly. While the system said that William had perfectpatibility with the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons, he certainly didn¡¯t feel that way. A perfect fix for that was to practice spreading his Qi to mimic what was necessary to activate his newest martial skill. Chapter 111: Sprout Bane Token Chapter 111: Sprout Bane Token William released his control over his Qi and let it flow naturally, feeling the past thirty or so minutes to be well spent. Activating his new martial skill wasn¡¯t quite at the level of his older skills yet. He didn¡¯t expect it to be, but it was ever so minutely closer after the short time he spent spreading his Qi evenly throughout his body. It was a different beast in terms of difficulty whenpared to what was required to activate his more straightforward martial skills. Those only needed him to concentrate his Qi in one part of his body, with difficulty going up slightly when he needed to shift that concentration of Qi to different parts of his body for attacks with abination of the basic martial skills. While those were almost instantaneous for William, spreading his Qi evenly took a literal second. An eternity during a life-threatening fight, and something he knew was necessary to cut down. However, that would have to be aplished when time was not limited. Spiritual Energy: 301/440 (20% per Hour) He was no longer beholden to the overuse penalty. However, he was still held to one activation of the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons. It would be ideal to have it avable for two uses in dire emergencies, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to recover the necessary Qi for well over an hour. William would have preferred to wait, but something pushed him to avoid more dys. It was simr to the feeling he had before he blocked an attack from the QiMoth Wisp without ever seeing it. He was inclined to follow that feeling. Princess Jin seemed to be just about done with healing her arm, so this happened to be perfect timing. He stood up, eyeing the still-swaying roots, and thought of the best way to get past them without letting one touch him. He could obviously use his newly created martial skill, but that would be more than a little drastic. Not to mention, it would also leave him without many options if the situation afterward turned dire. Of course, there was the option of leaving it to the princess and hoping her im of being able to handle this would be true, but he didn¡¯t want to put his hopes on that. As much as the kid tried to be helpful, she was of little assistance with much of anything other than being apass powered by her broken Luck attribute. William winced at his uncharitable thoughts, finding it to be too harsh. If this trip into the tree¡¯s center panned out, her presence would have paid off in spades. He would have likely never entered the root maze in the first ce, and if, for some reason, he had done so, he would have probably gotten himself killed by the corrupted beasts. After all, no Princess Jin meant that there was no miracle jade ball to save his life. ¡°Done!¡± He nced at the princess¡¯s happy look with a deadpan as she hopped onto her feet. ¡°Great.¡± William motioned at the obstacles in their way, ¡°Now to get past this.¡± Princess Jin didn¡¯t seem disheartened by his disregard for her im to take them past the hair-like roots. It became apparent why when she pulled out a small jade token from her storage pouch. ¡°Was I mistaken about you saying there was only one life-saving measure?¡± William was surprised that his voice didn¡¯t show his quickly rising anger. All he could think about was the unnecessary risks taken with the belief that there was only one trump card. ¡°I wish you were,¡± Princess Jin grumbled,pletely missing his barely held-back anger, ¡°It would make everything so much easier. But I don¡¯t qualify for more than one of that level.¡± William¡¯s growing anger died an early death. Not just because of the princess shutting down any misunderstanding without confusion but also due to what the jade token did. She tossed the token casually, and a faint sound of it breaking was heard before a soft, mostly transparent mist seemed to originate from where the jade token had been broken. The swaying, hair-like roots within the mist started to slow gradually beforepletely stopping after a few seconds. William blinked stupidly at the frozen roots before staring at Princess Jin¡¯s smug expression. ¡°See?¡± She preened, ¡°I told you I could take care of it.¡± He turned back to the frozen roots when he heard a soft crack. It was at that moment when the cracking started to spread exponentially. All of the roots inside the mist shattered as if they were made of ss. William had to admit that this was good. But there was a slight problem. ¡°Congrattions, princess,¡± he praised rightfully before asking the obvious question, ¡°So what are we to do about the ones that weren¡¯t affected by your token?¡± ¡°I would just use another,¡± Princess Jin said with a smug smile as she pulled a simr jade token from her storage pouch and showed it to him. ¡°¡­ How many of those do you have?¡± ¡°A lot!¡± She reached again into her pouch, withdrawing a literal fistful of those jade tokens, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how many I saved over the years, but it has to be at least twenty.¡± ¡°Saved?¡± William repeated slowly, ¡°Were these something you received regrly?¡± ¡°All the time,¡± Princess Jin paused before adding, ¡°Though I won most of the Sprout Bane Tokens from my cousins. My family only gives me one every other month, and they lose their effectiveness after a year, so it''s been difficult to make sure I have enough supply that works as intended. I thank the ancestor that my cousins are so unlucky.¡± William doubted it was because of the princess''s unlucky cousin. Instead, it was her innate Luck attributeing into y. Leaving that aside, he decided that he really needed to stock up on all these useful trinkets after he got out of this secret realm. If something so helpful was used as a disposable item, there must be an endless amount of things that would be helpful for a reasonably cheap cost. ¡­ Unless this Sprout Bane Token was not cheap at all, and the only reason it seemed so was that Princess Jin was from the Imperial family. ¡°How much would these tokens cost to buy?¡± ¡°To buy¡­¡± Princess Jin trailed off as she tilted her head in thought, ¡°I can¡¯t be too sure, but maybe one Spirit Stone? I know these are easy for most alchemists to make.¡± William hummed in acknowledgment, his mind going to the catalog given to him by the sect. If alchemists were the ones who produced these, the sect would be the cheapest way to buy them. ¡°As much as I enjoy the look on your face, we should move.¡± William narrowed his eyes at her grin before motioning to move on with a wave of his hand. It wasn¡¯t like he was dying them. Until now, he could still see the slightest twitches in the roots, which he had been waiting to stop. Princess Jin clearly knew that. The rest of the trip through the tunnel almost felt like a letdown. It wasn¡¯t a bad thing, not even close. Still, this was strangely disappointing, with the previous trips being aplete adrenaline rush. Sure, William didn¡¯t need to lift a finger to do anything, but watching Princess Jin toss the jade tokens before waiting a minute for the roots to be destroyed was mind-numbing. Even when the roots started to be thick enough to resemble ropes instead of hair, nothing changed. ¡°How does this only cost around a Spirit Stone?¡± William asked incredulously when the jade token cleared another part of the tunnel of any living roots for what must have been the tenth time. The difference this time around was that they were about to reach anotherrge chamber, though he didn¡¯t see any more forks where the paths split. ¡°It was more expensive a century ago,¡± Princess Jin exined, ¡°The Imperial Protector ordered the alchemists of the Empire to find a way to make these tokens more affordable for younger cultivators like us. The forests of the Empire are untamed by design to temper lower-realm cultivators. However, the spirit nts grew too dangerous at that time, making the point of the forests moot.¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s convenient for us,¡± Williammented before asking, ¡°This wouldn¡¯t have the same effect on the spirit beasts, would it?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± Princess Jin shot him a look that told how stupid she thought that question was, ¡°If I did, I wouldn¡¯t have had to use my only life-saving measure. There are tokens that clear mobs of spirit beasts, but they are far too valuable.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Wim raised his hand, silently saying he didn¡¯t mean to insult her, ¡°No wonder you were so adamant about continuing deeper into this maze.¡± Princess Jin nodded, ¡°I was confident in dealing with any spirit nts, but I¡¯mpletely helpless with the beasts. Hopefully, we don¡¯t have to deal with them anymore.¡± William winced, not liking the fact that she said that out loud. He hadn¡¯t been a superstitious man in his previous life, but in this world, he believed in nothing more than the Luck attribute. Chapter 112: Overflowing Greed Chapter 112: Overflowing Greed ¡°This is different,¡± Williammented as they stared at the chamber''s ceiling. Unlike the previous chambers they encountered, where all there was to see was a in dirt ceiling with multiple massive tunnels as choices to pick from, it was very much the opposite. The ceiling wasn¡¯t in or just dirt. And instead of numerous massive tunnels, there was a singr colossal tunnel that seemed overly ominous. He wasn¡¯t one to be ufortable after what he had experienced so far. Still, it was unsettling to see what was above him. The moving roots had berger the further they traveled, but what could be seen on the ceiling could only be described as a monstrous mockery of regr roots. William had briefly forgotten that the tree they were under could only be measured in miles. However, the massive trunk-thick roots writhing against each other quickly reminded him of the reality. ¡°Princess, I don¡¯t think your jade token will work on these.¡± William thought his voice was quiet. At least when considering the ear-deafening sound of the roots above them scraping against each other. ¡°I agree.¡± He nced at the princess to see her trembling. Again, with the size of the tree, he wasn¡¯t sure why she was surprised at what she was seeing. Perhaps her assumption has been that the worst would be what they dealt with in the tunnel?¡± ¡°We can still back out,¡± William said after a second. He was very much reluctant to do so after what he had done so far. Having nothing to show for it would be a shame. Of course, if he wanted to be optimistic, eliminating the corrupted beasts made all this worth it. However, he considered that a separate matter. ¡°And how are we supposed to do that? It¡¯s not like we can go back,¡± now it was obvious that Princess Jin was terrified, making him wonder how long she had been hiding the feeling, ¡°Our only hope to get out is to try and find an exit from the other side of the tree.¡± William ignored the raucous disturbance above and stared at the princess, recalling when the turtle contacted him before the tunnel copsed on them. There were other things on his mind, but he had thought he mentioned how to leave this level. However, a quick review of his memories revealed that that wasn¡¯t the case. It had somehowpletely passed his mind. He felt it was unintentional, but it could certainly be some odd subconscious decision due to his desire to get the treasure that waited for them. ¡°Uh, didn¡¯t thedy who sent us here tell you?¡± The re she had could have burnt him to a crisp. ¡°Do not be so disrespectful to the ancestor.¡± William was being purposely oblivious to excuse the surprise he was about to tell her. ¡°Right, the ancestor. After I finished the task of eliminating the corrupted beasts, she told me I could leave this level anytime. All that was necessary was to replicate what I did at the oasis to enter the next level and meet thedy.¡± Princess Jin stared at him, dumbfounded at what he said. She even forgot about scolding him for mentioning Sophia so casually, ¡°You mean thinking about being finished with the area?¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± William beamed, excited to know what she did to enter the ce where the Sophia automaton was waiting. After all, his entrance had been more of a kidnapping, so he didn¡¯t have an exact idea. ¡°So we could have left at any time?!¡± ¡°After the beasts had died? Yes,¡± William nodded before adding, ¡°If you wish, you could stop here while I continue. I¡¯ll still share whatever I get my hands on.¡± He honestly preferred for her to take this option. While it would cut off most of his chances to bring her to his side like he nned, it was undeniable that it would require the princess to be in mortal danger so he could y the hero. It already left a sour taste in his mouth, but he could justify it since it was necessary¡­ somewhat. Now, that wasn¡¯t the case. That was fine. A better option appeared in the form of exceeding generosity and unselfishness. It was weaker than saving her life, but it was a valid option. Princess Jin was clearly tempted, and just when William thought she would agree, she nced up at the ceiling before something changed in her. ¡°No,¡± she looked at him stubbornly, ¡°I won¡¯t leave you here alone. It¡¯s too dangerous.¡± William pursed his lips, unsure if he should be irritated or happy. Ultimately, he released whatever he felt by roughly rubbing her head, messing up her hair, much to her annoyance. ¡°Fine, but keep that in mind if it gets too crazy,¡± he warned as they walked toward the only tunnel in the chamber, ¡°You have to escape, especially with nothing left to save us.¡± ¡°As long as you do the same,¡± Princess Jin agreed immediately, with a condition that was not an issue in William¡¯s mind. ¡°Could you give me some of those tokens?¡± William asked when they reached the entrance of the tunnel. His outstretched hand was filled with the jade tokens he asked for without any questions. He appreciated the princess¡¯s sensibility, considering she was only a fourteen-year-old. Especially when they were faced with something unexpected as they stared into the tunnel. It wasn¡¯t noticeable in any other spot other than where they were standing at the moment. Right at the mouth of the tunnel. The first fifty or so feet looked normal and safe. Too safe, almost. There was no obstacle in the way. No packed dirt, no swaying roots, and without those two verymon things dealt with as they moved closer to the center of the tree, it made William highly suspicious and paranoid. Of course, one would be a fool not to feel that way when the light emitted from Princess Jin¡¯sntern didn¡¯t reach past that fifty or so feet. ¡°Stay close, princess.¡± That might be unnecessary, but William needed to remind himself that apanion was beside him. He was no longer alone while staring into the abyss. Spiritual Energy: 334/440 (20% per Hour) He still didn¡¯t have enough to use his new martial skill twice, so that was something to keep in mind. Still, he intended to make the most of that one use. The Qi flowing through his pathways was already spread evenly throughout his body, ready to be activated at any moment necessary. There was no chance he would ept the second needed to activate his martial skill without preparation to be his undoing. A stray thought entered William¡¯s mind, as wasmon in tense situations, no matter how hard he tried to keep focus. Princess Jin forgot to ask him about the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons. No matter, she would be able to gasp in awe about his new martial skill eventually. ¡°Wei Liang.¡± He stopped when he felt a hand grip his arm tightly. ¡°This isn¡¯t a good idea.¡± William couldn¡¯t say he disagreed. Walking toward something that stayed pitch ck even when a light shone on it was not intelligent behavior. However, he had a hunch about this that eased his nerves a little. It was suspiciously simr to the voids Lord Paddlington casually ripped into existence, though it was significantlyrger. Speaking of the smug turtle, it was more than a little concerning that it had not spoken to him since the time it caused the ceiling to copse on his head. He didn¡¯t know how strong it was, but for something to be able to stop the turtle frommunicating with him couldn¡¯t be good news. ¡­ On second thought, maybe it was wiser to avoid going into the unknown. After all, the main task here was over. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± ¡°Hm?¡± William blinked, realizing he was staring nkly into the void before him, ¡°Sorry, princess. I was distracted. Did you ask me something?¡± Princess Jin shot him an exasperated look, something that was bing all toomon, and said, ¡°What are we going to do?¡± William had the same question himself after thest-second doubts. Still, something that might be his downfall eventually made the decision like it often did recently. His greed. ¡°Are you sure I can¡¯t convince you to leave this to me?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it,¡± Princess Jin replied firmly. ¡°Then so be it,¡± William walked forward by the princess attached to him with a death grip on his arm, ¡°Let¡¯s see what¡¯s waiting for us.¡± Chapter 113: How Adorable! A Baby Chapter 113: How Adorable! A Baby He was right. It had indeed been a tear in space that had been in front of them, and with William starting to be a seasoned veteran in being teleported to ces unknown, he didn¡¯t even flinch as he passed through. However, Princess Jin didn¡¯t seem as prepared. She would have copsed if not for her hand holding onto him for support. The gasps from the girl as she struggled to stay on her feet reminded him of what she had said near the start, of how this ce would be a sight to see. In a way, Princess Jin wasn¡¯t wrong. William had seen plenty of things that should have left lifelong scars on his mind, but he was quick to suppress the memories before any real issues could pop up. After nearly being sacrificed right when he was dropped into this world, it had be an effective way to function normally. However, this scenery was something that even his worst nightmares couldn¡¯t match. After all, it wasn¡¯t possible for his mind to be cruel enough to conjure up everything he was terrified about after experiencing this world while enhancing it to a level that slowly broke his mental defenses. He wasn¡¯t able to suppress this at any level. The very first thing that caught William¡¯s attention was the seemingly infinite number of brown and green vines that were attached to something on the ground. He didn¡¯t pay much mind to what it was attached to since his eyes immediately tracked to where they originated from. His head tilted until he was staring right at the sky. One that seemed to be boundless stretched overhead, not a rxing blue or eerie white that he was familiar with, but unfathomably dark. It should be simply called ck, but that felt hriously inadequate. William shook slightly, or maybe it was the princess trying to get his attention. He wasn¡¯t sure. The sky here was everything he feared about the void, and it felt like it was pulling him in. He wanted to break away, but it felt like that decision was taken out of his control. ¡°-P OUT OF IT!¡± He sucked in a lungful of air, suddenly finding his vision filled with Princess Jin¡¯s concerned eyes. Whatever spell was put on him by the sky was broken, and he couldn¡¯t help but think she had again saved his life. The n to be a hero isn¡¯t going exactly as he nned. ¡°We need to leave!¡± Princess Jin was afraid, ¡°This was a mistake. Someone must have sabotaged the text my family possesses!¡± William blinked slowly. It was difficult to muster the effort to reply to the princess. Instead, in contrast to his screaming internal resistance, he could feel his face slowly tilting up, as if his subconscious mind couldn¡¯t wait to meet disaster. He grunted when his head was forcefully turned to the side by a hard p that made his cheek sting. It was hard enough to snap his mind out of whatever suicidal tendencies this ce put him in. ¡°Are you insane?¡± Princess Jin forced him to face her again, ¡°Don¡¯t look up unless you want to die!¡± William had no intention of doing so, but neither was he keen on having his face this close to the princess. Still, he didn¡¯t dare look away from her eyes. ¡°What happened?¡± He asked directly. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Princess Jin said with a shaky voice, ¡°It looked like something was being pulled out of your body the more you stared at the ceiling.¡± ¡°Ceiling?¡± William repeated incredulously, ¡°That¡¯s no ceiling, princess. It¡¯s the damned abyss.¡± It sounded a little dramatic, but he felt the need to let her know how insulting it was to call that a simple ceiling. ¡°I don¡¯t care,¡± Princess Jin spat, ¡°Stop arguing like an idiot and leave. I¡¯ll be going with or without you.¡± William let himself be pushed back, presumably to the tear in space that brought them here. However, nothing, especially getting to a much-needed escape, would ever be so easy. ¡°NO!¡± The princess was looking past him with despair overtaking her features. It wasn¡¯t hard for him to guess that the tear had disappeared. It almost made the princess seem adorable for having such naive hopes. ¡°Why are you not affected?¡± William asked, trying to make her think about anything other than the lost exit. It didn''t work. Then again, he did bring attention to the fact that they were stuck here. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know,¡± she repeated the phrase, though this time it looked as if her mind was desperately trying to figure out how to leave. William could remind her of what they had spoken of before they entered the tear in space, but since cultivating was necessary for that, it would be wasted words. Neither of them would have the correct mindset to be able to cultivate with the worries in their mind. ¡°I¡¯m going to take another look,¡± William stopped Princess Jin¡¯s protest with a sharp look, ¡°It¡¯s not like we have another option. Be ready to snap me out of it if something goes wrong.¡± He didn¡¯t expect that to happen. Unlike before, it didn¡¯t feel like his thoughts were sluggish or affected by an external force. William didn¡¯t waste time and looked up, ready for his worst fears to return. However, what he saw wasn¡¯t the abyss he expected, but the ceiling Princess Jin mentioned. It was still dark due to the poor lighting, even with thentern active in the princess¡¯s hand. Still, he could see a rough, brown, bark-like texture on the ceiling when there were pulses of green light. ¡°You¡¯re fine!¡± Princess Jin sounded surprised. William hummed in confirmation as he followed one of the green pulses, originating where a vine started from the ceiling before racing down the entire length and disappearing into what it was attached to at the bottom. ¡°Princess, did you miss what¡¯s in front of us?¡± William¡¯s voice sounded faint. He gulped audibly as the dark surroundings gained a green tint with each synchronized pulse, but there was one area where the color didn¡¯t match. It was a deep, menacing red. And every time the green pulses of light disappeared into the charred body the vines were attached to, the red color grew ever so slightly stronger. ¡°I didn¡¯t look at anything after what happened to you.¡± ¡°Well, I think we''re fine on that front now,¡± William backed away slowly, pulling the princess with him, ¡°You might be right. We need to leave immediately.¡± Princess Jin turned to see what had spooked him but didn¡¯t seem to understand his fear. ¡°I find it concerning you are more terrified of an unborn beast than having your life almost ripped out of you.¡± He had a reason for that. While it clearly hadn¡¯t beenpletely formed, this was clearly a fetus that would grow into one of those giants that caused an apocalypse simply by fighting. Even if it wasn¡¯t a baby quite yet, there was zero chance he would ever want to be near it. Besides, this thing was massive. As in,rge enough to make it clear to anyone just howrge it would grow when fully formed. William didn¡¯t forget how the sound that left the giants¡¯ mouths had nearly killed him. If this fetus somehow had the ability to cry like a human baby, it might actually erase his life before he even knew it due to how close it was to him. ¡°Princess, try to cultivate and leave,¡± William said tensely, ¡°If it works, I¡¯ll follow soon after.¡± She immediately gave him a jerky nod before taking a seat, likely understanding from his tone that this wasn¡¯t the time to ask questions. He hoped she was sessful because the longer he stared at the fetus, the more it felt like it was staring back. IMPORTANT (PLEASE READ): There has been a massive increase in people who steal from RR and post the book on Amazon. What makes it harder to detect easily is that the entire story is run through an AI like chatgpt. When I intend to post on Amazon in the distant future, this novel will be heavily edited to make it read more like a book instead of a webserial. What these pirates are doing is making a novel far worse than what you can find on free sites like RR since an AI will make the novel a chore to read with the changes in prose. More importantly, they are stealing the hard work of authors and trying to make a quick buck out of it. I know several authors that were affected, and most were able to get the stories taken down, but it really depends on readers/authors keeping an eye out for this shit since it requires human detection. Some telltale signs are AI artwork, in font for titles, and no author page on Amazon (When you click the novel''s author, it goes to a search result of authors with simr names instead of their page.) If any of you are readers on Amazon and happen toe across a novel that you recognize, please DM the author and let them know so they can start a takedown. This mostly affects novels with small to medium following on RR (up to 2000 followers), but that isn''t always the case. I think there has been a novel that had a simr following to mine (around 5000), however, that was taken down quickly. I can only assume they are targeting this range of follow count to stay undetected for longer. Sorry for including this in the chapter, but I felt it was important enough to do so. And thank you for reading! Chapter 114: Not So Adorable Baby Chapter 114: Not So Adorable Baby It felt like the seconds that passed were more like hours as William waited impatiently for Princess Jin to figure out if leaving this way was possible. There was a decent chance that she was too rattled to effectively cultivate, making the whole thing moot. If that was the case, William would have to find out what would be the best option for escape into safety. There was a better chance that he could settle into the correct mindset to cultivatepared to Princess Jin, but if he was sessful, that would mean that she would be left behind. He shook his head as he stomped on the intrusive thoughts that entered his mind, but unlike before, he wasn¡¯t sessful in erasing them. Leaving the princess behind would solve a lot of his problems. Assuming it would lead to her death, William would have a higher chance of keeping his strength a secret. It would no longer be necessary to put his hopes on Princess Jin¡¯s affection toward him and be willing to keep what she had seen a secret. Honestly, that was only a viable n in his mind since there weren¡¯t any other options that included the princess being alive. However, if William was forced to leave her here, it was only because he had no other choice. He didn¡¯t want her to lose her life, but joining her in death when it wasn¡¯t necessary was stupidity of the highest order. The benefits that came along with that were not his intention. ¡­ Right? ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Wei Liang. I can¡¯t do it.¡± William looked down to where the princess had taken a seat. She stared at him, trying to put a brave face on but failing miserably. The most telling were her ssy eyes, which he was surprised to see since they had been at the brink of death before and this level of hopelessness hadn¡¯t set in. He was disgusted with himself. He semi-seriously considered leaving behind the girl who refused to run, no matter how misguided that was. No, there has to be a way out of here with her alive, and he would find it. ¡°Yourpanion will be safe.¡± William stiffened in surprise, noting that the princess didn¡¯t react to the voice before looking in the direction it came from. Right at the charred fetus with far too many vines connected to it. ¡°She does not have the mark on her. You do. Leave this ce. When you exit the secret realm, she will be freed.¡± He stared at the fetus nkly, wondering if it could read his mind, too. It wouldn¡¯t be of a surprise with how much of an open book his mind apparently was. ¡°Why are you looking at it like that?¡± Princess Jin had got back to her feet and was eying the fetus. ¡°Well, that answers my question,¡± William muttered, ¡°It spoke to me.¡± ¡°It spoke?¡± Princess Jin repeated with surprise. He nodded, wondering if he should even bother to engage. It was a good sign that it spoke to him instead of casually ending his life, but that didn¡¯t mean he would trust what it told him. Leaving the princess still wasn¡¯t an option. ¡°What is your decision?¡± William tilted his head slightly. That likely confirmed that it couldn¡¯t read his mind. A rare positive. ¡°You say she will be safe. How can I trust that?¡± ¡°You have the mark. Not just any mark, but one rted to her. If nothing else, you can trust that yourpanion will not be harmed because of that.¡± ¡°Are you discussing me?¡± Princess Jin interrupted worriedly. William waved off her concern, not wanting to speak to her since the fetus-like thing would also hear it. ¡°So you know the Dread Empress,¡± William ignored the princess¡¯s gasp, ¡°Still, you could be lying. There was a tear in space that brought us here. Why can¡¯t you open it again to let us go?¡± ¡°That is not under my control. The Heart is not essible to visitors. You were not anticipated.¡± He froze in ce. Heart. That was a familiar word. Something the turtle mentioned once or twice in passing after he got the suicidal quest. It was going to lead him there. It was the additional main quest, the one Sophia practically forced on him. The one the turtle would help himplete. To take the fragmented realm stone. However, while that was true, the way it spoke also implied the Heart of this realm was not located on the level with the corrupted beasts. Perhaps the fighting giants changed that? After all, they did dig themselves from somewhere below before throwing haymakers at each other. But that was still a flimsy possibility in William¡¯s mind. If the turtle was so confident in leading him to the Heart, and the fetus¡¯s ims of this being the Heart were to be believed, why was the turtle blocked from taking him out? Shouldn''t it have easy ess to this ce? ¡°Shall I take your silence as a refusal?¡± He stiffened when the red glow around the fetus deepened in color, ck streaks seeping into the edges as if it seemed to be preparing for an attack. ¡°Wait!¡± William said quickly, ¡°I didn¡¯t refuse!¡± The fear in his tone must have been too apparent since Princess Jin became even more jumpy than she already was. ¡°Take this!¡± She screamed as she chucked a handful of jade tokens at the fetus, making William¡¯s eyes widen in shock. He held his hand out uselessly at the thrown tokens, watching them sail directly to the fetus, knowing that his luck might have run out. Rather, Princess Jin¡¯s Luck was finally working against them. It was calling in the debts that were built up after leading them directly to this ce and likely giving William miracle opportunities in his fights so far. ¡°YOU WILL REPE-¡± He blinked as his vision exploded with blue text. It was a log of what had happened to him since he entered this ce. If the wave of exhaustion hadn¡¯t washed over him, he would have likely reacted more violently. [Entering spatial tear] [User¡¯s mind subverted by external force] [WARNING | Soul extraction in process] [ALL ATTRIBUTES TEMPORARILY REDUCED TO 1] [WARNING | Current attributes unable to support body] [HEALTH | -20 per second] William knew that he had survived the health that he had apparently been hemorrhaging, but it still made his breath hitch as he read the alert. [-1 HP] [Soul extraction interrupted] [Attributes restored] [-1380 HP] [Body stabilized] [User¡¯s mind no longer under external influence] He was staring at the alert that told him of the singr lost health point. A quick review of his memories revealed that it was caused by Princess Jin. ¡­ William''s life had been saved by a well-timed p. ¡°Nothing happened to it!¡± Princess Jin said worriedly, not knowing the crisis he was dealing with mentally, ¡°Wei Liang! What¡¯s it saying now?¡± William registered that he was dangerously low on health, which was nothing new but still not ideal in the current situation. He was well-practiced in the routine that followed a massive loss of health. His hand was already filled with several Vitality Restoration Pills as he turned his attention to the fetus that had almost taken his life without him being wise to it. A terrifying opponent¡­ was what he anticipated until he actually saw the thing. Chapter 115: Archer Princess Chapter 115: Archer Princess ¡°What do you mean nothing happened to it?¡± William asked incredulously, ¡°Those tokens practically killed it!¡± That was a bit of an exaggeration. The fetus was fine physically, but it was far less menacing. In fact, the whole ce was far less menacing, mainly because thentern in Princess Jin¡¯s hand was far more effective in being the light source it was meant to be. The pulsing green light that traveled down the vines disappeared. And so had the red glow around the fetus itself. All that was left was a strangely sad sight. It was still unsettling to see a charred fetus with vaguely humanoid features connected to an uncountable number of vines. However, it was brought up a feeling of pity rather than fear. ¡°¡­ What do you mean?¡± After a long look at the fetus, Princess Jin said, ¡°Nothing has changed.¡± She paused before shaking her head in frustration, ¡°That¡¯s not important! What¡¯s it saying?¡± The dots were slowly being connected in William¡¯s mind, but he still wasn¡¯t sure he wasing to the correct conclusion. ¡°It¡¯s saying nothing, princess. Ignore it for me and tell me something. Did you see any glowing lights before you threw the tokens? Was yourntern working as intended?¡± Princess Jin pressed her lips together, clearly not happy with being told to ignore what she thought was a threat. Still, she answered his questions, but not before throwing the fetus a wary nce. ¡°There were no lights other than myntern. Did you see any?¡± She asked, pausing a moment before continuing worriedly, ¡°Maybe I was under an illusion?¡± ¡°No,¡± William said slowly, ¡°I think you were fine. I was the one that was affected.¡± He wasn¡¯t sure if it was an illusion, but it certainly had a tangible effect, so it definitely was something. Health: 119/1500 That dangerously low health was the best proof of how tangible it was. ¡°You didn¡¯t see any pulsing lights. The ceiling for you was just that, a ceiling. Not a terrifying abyss. And you weren¡¯t almost killed by having your life sucked out of you,¡± William met Princess Jin¡¯s eyes, ¡°I was. It¡¯s safe to say you were never in harm¡¯s way, princess.¡± ¡°¡­ Why?¡± His mind immediately went to Sofia, grumbling about how he raised his minor realm too much. The only thing that made sense was that Princess Jin was saved by her weakness. He had assumed he would still be safe since he was below the Foundation Establishment realm, but that wasn¡¯t the case. He had only advanced one minor realm since he met Sophia, but maybe that had been enough to kill him. At this point, it was all guesswork since there was no way to confirm where the cutoff was. One thing was sure. Princess Jin was in the fourth level of the Qi Gathering realm, which let her be unscathed. It seemed like she had been far more helpful than simply being apass for him. He was d that she insisted on apanying him instead of leaving. ¡°I¡¯m not sure why,¡± William felt a burst of affection as she stared at him confusedly, ¡°But thank you.¡± ¡°For wh-¡± A squeak escaped her mouth as she cut herself off, stiffening in surprise when he drew her into a tight hug. ¡°You saved us,¡± William released her, ignoring how she couldn¡¯t decide if she should be infuriated or bashful. It ended up being an ineffective re while her face was flushed pink. He cleared his throat to break the silence and motioned at the now-unthreatening fetus. ¡°So, now that our lives aren¡¯t in danger, how should we get our treasures?¡± At this point, it wasn¡¯t the treasures he wanted, though it would be a nice side benefit. He mainly wanted to get his hands on the fragment realm stone. Princess Jin¡¯s head snapped to the fetus as greed appeared in her eyes, ¡°I forgot about that.¡± ¡°I would be surprised if you didn¡¯t,¡± William nodded slightly as he nced at the pills in his palm. He needed to take them and worry about the impurity increaseter. However, Princess Jin would see him take them. She would know how unnatural his healing was unless he decided to act like he was struggling. Not something he was keen on doing since they were technically still in enemy territory. It would be a tragic embarrassment if he was killed because he was distracted by acting. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything obvious,¡± Princess Jin murmured as she shuffled closer, though it was only a few feet. She hadn¡¯tpletely lost her mind from greed like he often did. William popped a pill into his mouth while she was distracted. [+550 HP] [Health: 119 ¡ª> 669/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (52%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (67%)] ¡°Maybe we need to cut the vines?¡± Princess Jin wondered out loud before looking at him in question, ¡°What do you think?¡± William felt the pill''s effects settle as he replied, ¡°We could try that. But how about you take the lead?¡± Was it shameful to send the weaker girl into possible danger just to distract her? Yes, but he wanted to keep some secrets as actually secret. It was likely a lost cause to make Princess Jin keep her mouth shut, but he would like it if he wasn¡¯t aplete open book. ¡°Okay,¡± Princess Jin took a deep breath before handing thentern to him, ¡°Take care of this.¡± William wordlessly took the offeredntern. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Cost | 20 Spiritual Energy per hour] The light emitted wasn¡¯t interrupted as he immediately took over, supplying thentern with spiritual energy. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± William asked dumbly when she pulled out a miniature bow. He knew what it was in the general sense, but he was questioning why she hadn¡¯t done so before. ¡°My Qi Ling Bow,¡± she said reverently, ¡°My maternal grandfather gifted this to me.¡± [+550 HP] [Health: 669 ¡ª> 1219/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (67%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (82%)] He used the opportunity to swallow another pill, noting that he would conveniently stay under the limit that would take him into stage three of impurity. Not that he expected to remain under, of course. William¡¯s slight happiness at being able to stay in the same impurity stage was disturbed by a bright sh of light. It was so bright that he almost thought lightning was involved. They were in a ce where natural lightning wasn''t possible, so he thought it was an attack. He was right about that. But the attack wasn¡¯t against them. It came from Princess Jin¡¯s bow. A bolt shot toward the vines, disintegrating the first one it touched before jumping into the closest surrounding vine and doing the same thing to it. By the time the bolt disappeared, it had disconnected four vines and ckened another, likely because it didn¡¯t have enough power left in the attack. ¡°W-What?¡± William looked between the disconnected vines and the princess¡¯s proud face, ¡°You were able to do that all this time?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± she preened, ¡°I am the Princess Jin.¡± ¡°So you hid behind me all this time when you could have been helping?¡± William continued with a louder voice, anger rising when he thought about how he took on all the beasts that attacked them. ¡°Well, not exactly,¡± Princess Jin said sheepishly, ¡°I was more helpful as thentern holder. And even if I wasn¡¯t, I couldn¡¯t do this for long.¡± He narrowed his eyes before saying, ¡°Do it again.¡± [-5 Spiritual Energy] Spiritual Energy: 302/530 William used Observe, but only focused on how much spiritual energy she had. It was lower than he anticipated, but he guessed the cost of supplying thentern took its toll. Princess Jin aimed her bow at another area of the vines before drawing the string. This time, he watched closely to see how it worked. She didn¡¯t use any physical weapon. Instead, it looked like her Qi formed one on the draw, and it was in the shape of a poorly made arrow. [+281 HP] [Health: 1219 ¡ª> 1500/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (82%) ¡ª> Stage 2 (97%)] William didn''t miss the opportunity to take thest pill needed before storing the remaining ones back into his spatial stone. As he restored his health, another bolt of Qi shot toward the vines. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Spiritual Energy: 202/530 He noted the high cost of using the bow and had to admit that the princess was right in choosing not to help him. If she had run out of Qi, losing the light thentern provided would have been less than ideal. The bolt cut five vines this time around before disappearing, making him raise an eyebrow at Princess Jin. ¡°Uh, I can¡¯t really control the attack when it¡¯s too far from me,¡± Princess Jin blushed, ¡°It attacks whatever is close to it at that point.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William blinked in surprise. Now, he was even more convinced that her helping him would have been a disaster. ¡°Well, since this takes too much energy, what not try to use your Sprout Bane Tokens? These vines don¡¯t seem that strong.¡± It was finally Princess Jin¡¯s turn to stare at him dumbly. ¡°Oh.¡± William smiled, ¡°Yes, oh. Let¡¯s give it a try.¡± Chapter 116: Cutting It Loose Chapter 116: Cutting It Loose He pulled out one of the tokens she had given him previously and chucked it at a group of tightly packed vines, hoping that most would be taken care of in one try. Of course, that was just wishful thinking. It wasn¡¯t like he expected that to happen. Then it happened. William¡¯s jaw dropped when the vines withered into shrunken, ck, dead versions of themselves. Different from how the previous attempts shattered the targets, but still very effective. This was great but far too convenient for him to ept without caution. If this ce was the Heart, why was it so easy to destroy anything that existed here? Even if Sophia said he would need to be weak to survive, that didn¡¯t mean any random cultivator that came across this ce should be able to cause such destruction. William didn¡¯t doubt that type of weakness would have caused the Heart to be destroyed long ago. Unless that fetus was actually telling the truth when it was talking to him. About how only people with some type of mark would be allowed in. Of course, he had no idea how he was marked, unless it was something to do with how much of the oasis¡¯s water he had used. After all, the corrupted beasts certainly targeted him like he was marked by something. ¡°Amazing!¡± Princess Jin squealed in excitement, ¡°We can get this done much faster.¡± William shoved the additional mystery out of his mind and nodded at the princess. ¡°Aim at the more packed clusters. Hopefully, we¡¯ll have some tokens left after this.¡± Princess Jin paused with her arm in a throwing motion before picking a better target that fit his suggestion. A momentter, anotherrge cluster of vines turned into withered husks, disconnecting from the fetus in the process. ¡°You know it won¡¯t make a difference if every single one has to be destroyed,¡± Princess Jinmented as she aimed her next throw, ¡°I¡¯d still run out of tokens.¡± ¡°True,¡± William agreed, keeping close watch of the fetus in case it reacted to its tethers being destroyed, ¡°But let¡¯s think about that issue if it happens. I¡¯m hoping it won¡¯t be necessary to destroy all of them.¡± It was barely noticeable, but there was a small gap between the fetus and the ground. Of course, small was rtive. In this case, it was around ten feet, a fraction of the size of the fetus. Another cluster of vines was destroyed by Princess Jin. Still, it didn¡¯t even make the fetus move an inch, showing just how much strength the vines held in them¡­ or it could be that there were still far too many vines keeping it supported in ce. They made quick work of a considerable amount of them, the odd mist released from the tokens filling the air briefly before leaving behind dead vines. It felt like a strange game at a carnival since they aimed for static targets, giving zero resistance by retaliating or moving to avoid their destruction. William thought it was an odd way for the quests he received to bepleted. Then again, it should have been expected to be this easy. Sophia did imply that the weaker he was, the easier it would be to seed. Still, this was too easy. ¡°Oh right, Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin spoke up with it looked like around a tenth of the vines had been destroyed, ¡°You never told me about that martial skill.¡± William¡¯s surprise at herment disturbed his aim so much that the token he threwpletely missed the vines hanging above them. He watched incredulously as it traveled in a perfect arc, dodging all the existing vines, sailing only through the already destroyed areas before finally reaching the peak anding back down untouched. Only, the ce it wouldnd was directly on top of the fetus, right in the middle of where the vines entered its body, creating an odd greenish-brown wall made of tightly packed vines. His heart skipped a beat, suddenly understanding that Princess Jin¡¯s Luck hadn¡¯t gone into a slumber. It was too perfect, having her speak up at just the right moment to get him to miss so badly that it wouldnd in a spot that could either spell disaster or solve everything at once. The princess stumbled back into him when she finally realized where it wouldnd, and he didn¡¯t act like a wall to support her. Instead, he pulled her back with him as he chose to be overcautious and put even more space between them and the fetus. William heard the faint sound of the token breaking as he frantically tried to spread his Qi evenly through his body, wanting to be prepared to go all out if needed. Everything had been going in their favor so far, but who knows if this would be the thing to finally trigger a final burst of defense. He waited with bated breath to see if there would be any reaction, and that went on for a few seconds until Princess Jin stated the obvious. ¡°That was anti-climactic. I was hoping it would at least make our job quic-AH!¡± It sounded like steel wires had snapped. William stumbled back with her as a wall of dense air mmed into them. It had been the fetus tilting slightly from having over a third of the vines breaking before they quickly deteriorated. The newly created gap allowed him to see the quickly disappearing mist in the middle. It had likely been used up, which meant no more vines would break unless they failed due to the weight they were supporting. ¡°That¡¯s good, right?¡± The princess whispered as if speaking louder would disturb something. ¡°I would say it is,¡± William agreed warily, still keeping his Qi ready to activate his newest martial skill. ¡°¡­ So, should we throw more tokens in there?¡± ¡°Well, we certainly can¡¯t go back to aiming at the vines above like idiots, can we?¡± William wondered why the obvious choice of bombarding the ce where the vines were the most packed didn¡¯t register in either of their minds. ¡°If you have already somehow forgotten, I threw a handful of Sprout Bane Tokens at that thing,¡± Princess Jin said with narrowed eyes, ¡°When nothing happened, I assumed there was no point in targeting that spot.¡± William thought the same thing, really. However, it seemed that direct contact was needed on the vines. Princess Jin had thrown the tokens against the fetus, so the mist released barely touched the vines attached to its top. He grunted at the princess, pulled a handful of tokens from the spatial stone, and threw them into the created gap. This time, with great uracy. They crashed into the vines still connected to the fetus and broke apart. The mist then did quick work. William could see the vines being eaten of their vitality before snapping with a metallic crack. He thought he was ready for the anticipated boom that woulde along with the fetus crashing to the floor, but that didn¡¯te to pass. Instead of a boom, there was a sickening squelch. Simr to what William imagined would happen when a particrlyrge human the size of Fatty Xu got squished into a pancake. However, since this fetus wasrger than a decently sized house, it was exponentially more disgusting to his ears, and the smell that came along with the oozing viscera was likely to be scarred into his brain. Princess Jin gagged loudly, making him lose any sort of control he had left as he dry heaved right beside her. There was one thing he noted even as he tried to keep the contents inside his stomach where it belonged. The blood of the fetus was red, not gold like the fully grown giants. Chapter 117: Golden Heart Chapter 117: Golden Heart It was strange, feeling regret about something he hadpletely forgotten about. The memory of wanting to bathe in the giant¡¯s gold blood returned with a vengeance. The realization that the tree grew from the blood made his greed rear its ugly head since it made him think it was a supercharged version of the oasis water. However, that was no longer something William wished for. The red blood seeping out of the fetus smelled rancid, enough that it still made Princess Jin unable to hold back her disgust. He had stopped breathing. The only reason he had stopped dry heaving along with her. ¡°Princess, I need you to use that bow of yours,¡± William said slowly as he eyed the active side quests for the first time in ages. Side Quests (5): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation 3. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable) 4. Mission: Investigating Strange urrences 5. Take the heart from Magmaheart Goliath Embryo Out of the five side quests active, three of them were likely never going to happen. Making Elder Huang kneel after he was typically kind to him was something only an emotionless monster would do. Visiting the Jade Healing Clinic was better left in the past, even if it was possible to restart after leaving the secret realm, mainly because the experience points it would reward him wouldn¡¯t be worth it. As for the mission, he doubted that it would ever bepleted, but out of the three, it had the highest chance of being active. [Remove Side Quests 2 and 3] [Y/N] He had forgotten that this was something he could do. He epted, figuring that less clutter was a good thing. [Side Quests removed] ¡°Why?¡± William looked away from the screen to see the princess looking at him with teary eyes, likely from the smell. But at least she had stopped gagging, which he noticed was aplished the same way he had done so, by not breathing. ¡°I would rather not get close to that,¡± he waved his hand in the general direction of the slowly bleeding out fetus, ¡°And you¡¯re the only one that has a ranged attack.¡± William also had another reason for her to be the one to make a move. He expanded the side quest to confirm he remembered the details correctly. [Quest: Take the heart from Magmaheart Goliath Embryo] [Details: Princess Jin wants to take the heart from the Magmaheart Goliath Embryo. Find the womb and protect Princess Jin while she extracts the heart before time expires.] [Reward | 3 Treasures suitable for early Spirit Severing Realm cultivators] [Penalty | Decreased reputation with Princess Jin | Impurity increased to Stage 3] He was correct but had also forgotten some details that the side quest revealed. Those giants were apparently called Magmaheart Goliaths. And the thing in front of him wasn¡¯t a fetus. It was an embryo. William shuddered, wondering if he had already forgotten howrge the giants actually were. What they had killed had been in the earliest stages of development, and he could only imagine howrge it would need to be for it to be called a fetus. He shifted uneasily when he saw the word ¡®womb¡¯ used in the details. He nced at his surroundings and wondered if that meant the embryo would grow to fill the space. Thankfully, the princess took him out of his thoughts with a question. ¡°No, I mean, why do you want me to use my bow? It¡¯s already dead.¡± The only way to answer that truthfully was to tell her that the system told him she needed to extract the heart, but then he would need to exin what the system was. ¡°That¡¯s true, but do you see anything here that might be worthy of being called a treasure?¡± William asked with a raised brow, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that whatever we want is inside that thing. You know how I said that we have to extract the heart? What if your ancestor meant that literally? You might get lucky and reveal the heart if you use your bow.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Princess Jin scrunched her nose before reluctantly nodding, ¡°Hopefully, I won¡¯t hit the heart by ident.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine,¡± William assured as she took out her bow. He praised Sophia for having a descendent with such fantastic Luck. However, he had no idea how to convince her to extract the heart since that would involve approaching the foul-smelling embryo. Maybe he could join her when they inevitably had to dig through the embryo¡¯s flesh but avoid touching the heart if he was the one who found it. Of course, that was easier said than done. Going near that embryo wasn¡¯t something he wished to do. ¡°Look!¡± William blinked, seeing the princess point at the embryo excitedly. It had two ratherrge holes in the side of its body. Holes that he could easily crawl into with little difficulty. And holes that led to something that was shining a bright gold. Princess Jin had used her bow while he was still wondering how to extract the heart. ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re looking for, right?¡± She said with a bright smile, one that was enhanced by the golden glowing from inside the embryo¡¯s flesh. ¡°¡­ It certainly looks like it,¡± William said numbly, ¡°So one try was all you needed. How¡­ lucky.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what my cousins tell me,¡± Princess Jin¡¯s smile wavered, clearly unhappy about that. That wasn¡¯t his intention. ¡°There, there,¡± William patted her shoulder awkwardly, ¡°I meant that in a good way.¡± He got the hint that his poor attempt atforting her was not appreciated when she stared at him strangely. He retracted his hand from her shoulder and said, ¡°Well, I guess you have the honor of taking the heart since you found it.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Princess Jin¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, ¡°Are you sure? I don¡¯t mind giving it to you. You did do most of the work to get us here.¡± ¡°I insist. Besides, let¡¯s not pretend that you didn¡¯t lead us here. How about this, you take the heart, and I¡¯ll take any other treasures we might find. Is that fair to you?¡± William didn¡¯t care much about the gold heart in the embryo. The moment he saw that the side quest required Princess Jin to be the one to extract it, he had filed that in his mind as something off-limits for him. Besides, giving that up apparently gave him three treasures for cultivators in the Spirit Severing Realm. That cultivation level was far too distant for him to even think about. Still, he was confident he could trade it for something useful. If that wasn¡¯t possible, getting the value of the treasures in Spirit Stones through the sect should be easy. ¡°Thank you,¡± Princess Jin beamed before giving him a quick hug, ¡°I promise I won¡¯t forget this favor.¡± William blinked in surprise, wondering if he had inadvertently aplished his goal of getting a closer rtionship with the princess by ident. The next thought he had was why she felt so thankful. Was this gold heart so precious that it required this level of gratitude? ¡­ He had to admit that was a rather dumb question. Of course, it was. After all, this embryo would grow into a massive giant that could reshape thendscape without meaning to, purely due to the aftershock of its punch. ¡°Do you know what this heart can do?¡± William asked curiously. ¡°I have no idea,¡± Princess Jin still had that bright smile on her face, ¡°But I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be amazing.¡± He opened his mouth to question her confidence but ended with yelling, ¡°Wait!¡± She was running toward the embryo as if to avoid giving him the chance to change his mind. However, he was more stunned at how unhesitant she was with the idea of digging through the rancid-smelling corpse. Clearly, it didn¡¯t phase her when the reward was potentially massive. William imprinted that in his mind before chasing after her. If a little girl could put aside her squeamishness, so could he. Chapter 118: Feel The Power Chapter 118: Feel The Power ¡°Are you crazy?!¡± William hissed as he pulled the princess back. Right before it looked like she was basically about to dive head-first into the hole she made in the embryo with her bow. ¡°How do you know you won¡¯t die the moment you touch this thing?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± Princess Jin said far too leisurely as she tried to escape his grip, ¡°It¡¯s a chance one of us has to take.¡± William had nothing to say to that, knowing that she was right. However, it brought up the memory of what he did to test the oasis¡¯s water. Without freeing the princess, he pulled out one of his low-level spirit fruits, the lightning berry, and tossed it into the hole leading to the golden heart. Nothing happened. ¡°You can store spirit fruits in your storage space?¡± Princess Jin has stopped trying to escape him, ¡°Is that a spatial stone?!¡± ¡°¡­ Fuck me,¡± William sighed in resignation. He didn¡¯t think this would be how she would find out. In fact, he didn¡¯t think she would ever find out after she had assumed that all he had was the regr storage space. ¡°Excuse me?!¡± Princess Jin puffed up indignantly, ¡°I¡¯m an Imperial princess! Not a brothel worker!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it like that!¡± William threw up his hands in exasperation, ¡°It¡¯s an expression, princess. Don¡¯t tter yourself.¡± He didn¡¯t know how it was possible, but she seemed even angrier than before. But he quickly headed any arguments off. ¡°Can we focus on what¡¯s important here? That spirit fruit didn¡¯t rot after touching the flesh. You¡¯re probably safe.¡± Princess Jin obviously wanted to speak more about the newly discovered spatial stone, but eventually, she let out a puff of air and nodded reluctantly. ¡°You¡¯re right. I guess I was just surprised you were able to keep possession of it.¡± ¡°Me too,¡± William muttered, though it was likely a different reason than she was thinking. It had more to do with hiscency after time had passed. Then again, it wasn¡¯t like there was much of an opportunity for it to be taken from him since he had been sucked into the secret realm shortly after he received the spatial stone. ¡°Alright,¡± Princess Jin turned back to the embryo, ¡°Wish me luck.¡± William had to stop himself fromughing. As if she needed him to do that with her Luck attribute. Still, it was only polite to do so. ¡°Good luck, princess. I¡¯ll be here if help is needed. Oh, and store thentern. The heart is giving off enough light.¡± He thought about entering the embryo with her but figured there was no point in throwing himself in harm¡¯s way when it wasn¡¯t necessary. He would have a better chance of acting if he wasn¡¯t trying to frantically save himself first. That didn¡¯t stop William from tensing in anxiousness when Princess Jin jumped into the hole. His Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons was ready to be activated in an instant. If necessary, he would have ripped through the flesh to get to the princess, or at least, he would have attempted to. Thankfully, that wasn¡¯t necessary. Princess Jin stood still near the edge of the hole, waiting for something to happen, but when nothing happened, she yelled to him, ¡°I¡¯m going in. If you think something feels wrong, tell me.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± William replied immediately, ¡°Same to you. Don¡¯t let greed overtake you, princess. Nothing is worth giving up your life.¡± He could see her nodding her head, though it was more like he saw her hair fluttering from the movement of her nodding in agreement. However, the following few seconds were torture. The Qi he kept evenly spread out in his body pulsed erratically as his emotions fluctuated from his anxiety. He was straining his ears to hear the slightest hint of struggle, but all that aplished was making him almost activate his martial skill when all he heard was faint steps. ¡°I¡¯m close to it!¡± Princess Jin was yelling, but her voice was muffled due to where she was, ¡°It¡¯s hard to keep my eyes open. The glow is almost blinding.¡± William¡¯s entire body twitched as he held himself from acting. He saw his arms glow with the Qi roiling just underneath before it returned to normal. ¡°Keep talking. princess!¡± William yelled to her, ¡°Tell me what you¡¯re doing, even if it¡¯s just taking a step!¡± ¡°Sure, you want me to talk about how I¡¯m closing my eyes?¡± William rolled his eyes at the sarcasm. ¡°If that¡¯s what you want to tell me, sure.¡± He waited a few seconds for a reply before his paranoia rose again. ¡°Princess?¡± ¡°I-I think I¡¯m near it. It¡¯s¡­ warm.¡± William frowned as he stared up at the hole she went through. The golden glow was brighter than it was a second ago. ¡°It¡¯s under my hand!¡± Princess Jin sounded ecstatic, ¡°W-Wei Liang! I need to cultivate!¡± The moment she said it was under her hand, William decided that staying out of the embryo no longer helped anyone. He hopped up to the hole and narrowed his eyes to minimize the harsh glowing from the heart. He could see the outline of Princess Jin¡¯s body blocking out some of the glow. Still, it was so minuscule inparison that she was almost drowned out anyway. It made him question what their original n was. It should have been obvious that the embryo''s heart would be massive. Still, he had agreed, even pushing for Princess Jin to head inside alone. He found it difficult to believe she would have a way to move it by herself. No matter. He was here now. ¡°Princess, do you need any help?¡± William fully expected her to deny him or not reply at all. He suspected the golden heart had a simr effect to the oasis¡¯s water when she said she needed to cultivate. It was thetter she did. Princess Jin said nothing. He could see her slight form sitting crosslegged on the flesh of the embryo with her hand attached to the gold heart, somehow entering the required state to cultivate. William could only assume that she was required to do it with little choice left to her. He had experienced the rush when he gained an overwhelming amount of experience points, but he had the system keeping him safe. Princess Jin did not. There was a faint connection between the glowing heart and her body, her hand slowly gaining a golden glow simr to the heart. William was afraid that she might not be able to handle the influx she might be receiving since there was nothing like the system helping her. He took a step forward but froze instantly when the intensity of the glow increased significantly. It usually wouldn¡¯t have been something that would have made him stop, but the princess¡¯s cry of pain was very effective. William wanted to ask her if she was alright, but that would be counterproductive. The distraction that might cause could turn things for the worse. However, if she actually needed help, his inaction might spell the end for her. He didn¡¯t have a learned skill of sensing if Princess Jin¡¯s Qi was in havoc. More importantly, if it was causing her to lose her health. Thankfully, Sophia designed the system to provide one for him. He used Observe on the princess, hoping that he would see nothing wrong. [-5 Spiritual Energy] William quickly nced at her health, noting that she wasn¡¯t hurt. However, the problem with Observe was that it was a snapshot. It wouldn¡¯t constantly keep him up to date. ¡°AHHH!¡± [-200 Spiritual Energy] The bloodcurdling scream the princess suddenly released made him instantly activate his new martial skill. There was no showing off. There was no time to announce the grand name he had given the martial skill. mes of Qi burst into existence around William¡¯s body, disintegrating the flesh of the embryo around him as he rocketed toward the princess. Chapter 119: No Pleasantries Chapter 119: No Pleasantries It took less than a second for William to reach the princess, but that short amount of time was enough for everything to change. The almost blinding golden heart disappeared, with the harsh glow nowing from Princess Jin herself. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face protruded with greenish-brown veins that looked far too much like the vines that had been attached to the embryo. She was writhing uncontrobly, making it almost impossible for William to keep her in his arms when he picked her up. The only thing that didn¡¯t change was her screams. The same bloodcurdling scream that made him forget about everything and rush to her continued without pause. William struggled to keep Princess Jin in his arms while being hyperaware of his surroundings. He wasn¡¯t sure if the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons was causing the embryo''s rapid disintegration or if it was the princess interacting with the heart. In the end, it didn¡¯t matter. Getting out of the embryo was the priority. Even the fraction of the second he spent picking Princess Jin up caused the embryo to melt around him, making his feet sink into the flesh he was standing on. William propelled himself with a strong jump, ripping apart the melting flesh beneath his feet. The Qi surrounding his body helped immensely to stop the flecks of blood from sttering his exposed skin, but since he was actively turning the flesh around him into slop with his movements, it didn¡¯t stop enough. By the time he escaped the flesh of the embryo, William was painted red with blood, but the princess was strangely cleanpared to him. However, that was no boon. It was because of whatever happened between her and the heart. Princess Jin was still shining a harsh gold, but the intensity had increased drastically to a point where William couldn¡¯t even tell her features apart. It was impossible to see her individual fingers, let alone anything on her face. The only reason he even knew that the princess still had a human-shaped body was due to him carrying her. Her screams had stopped shortly after William left the deteriorating embryo, but that scared him even more than what she was trying to destroy her vocal cords. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Name: Princess Jin Age: 14 Level: 58 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (5th Level) Health: 1400/1400 Spiritual Energy: 664/830 Spirit: 166 Strength: 38 Stamina: 44 Agility: 45 ¡°Princess?¡± William¡¯s voice broke the silence, adding to the odd gurgling the embryo was making as it deteriorated, ¡°Do you hear me?¡± Using Observe on her gave him a sense of relief. She was still alive and in full health. Of course, it wasn¡¯t a great sign that she was unresponsive to his question, but it reassured him that it might be able to save her¡­ somehow. And William didn¡¯t miss how Princess Jin had increased her level by twelve and entered the next minor realm, with all the extra stat points she gained added to her Spirit attribute. While it was good to know he was right about what the benefit of the heart would be, this seemed to be woefullycking. This minor benefit was not worth the pain the princess had gone through, though as far as he knew, she might still be feeling that nightmarish pain. ¡°Fuck me,¡± William cursed softly, ¡°What the hell do I do now?¡± He impulsively used his martial skill, depleting his Spiritual Energy. Princess Jin¡¯s state was out of his control. And even more worryingly, the side quest to help her extract the embryo''s heart hadn¡¯t beenpleted. William nced at the embryo, finding it was quickly shrinking in size but not in the way he had assumed. Instead of it deteriorating like he had thought, it was more fitting to describe it as all the mass beingpressed into something morepact. He spat out a curse and disappeared from his spot, using his massively increased attributes to get as far from the embryo as possible. A few secondster, he came to a spot near a wall made out of bark, just like the ceiling. He turned to see how far he ran and frowned when he saw the embryo a little over a mile away. Not as far as he had hoped. However, the glowing from Princess Jin¡¯s body was bright enough to clearly illuminate it at this distance. Forgetting that concerning feature that the princess seemed to be stuck with, he went over the hastily drawn-up n to avoid letting the embryoplete whatever it was in the process of. William remembered what it said before the princess threw her tokens at it. Specifically, the word it was cut off frompleting. Repent. He expected another fight for his life, and he hoped to every higher being that existed that the embryo would finish whatever it was doing soon. Around twenty seconds had passed since William activated the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons. Still, it seemed like far too much had happened in that amount of time. Still, it felt to him like it wasn¡¯t fast enough. Only around forty seconds left before the martial skill deactivated, and he was left with his default strength. William did not want to be left with that when the embryo of an apocalyptic-level being, at least to him, didn¡¯t seem to be dead. He could do nothing, hoping it would all turn out in his favor, but he didn¡¯t have a death wish. ¡°Princess, I¡¯m going to leave you here until I know it¡¯s safe,¡± William nced over her body before having to look away from the bright golden glow, ¡°Wish me luck.¡± He didn¡¯t waste any more time and shot back to the copsing embryo. His palm was open and ready, and his eyes showed murderous intent. A stark difference from when he hesitated to get himself dirty. There was none of that now, though it might be because he was already covered in bloody slop. William let out a guttural roar, something he didn¡¯t even know this body was capable of, as he thrust his palm with every ounce of power the Fury of Five Heavenly Dragons gave him. Since he wanted to pulverize the embryo into meat paste if possible, he would have loved to use his other martial skill, Thunderous Palm, toyer with his attack, but it was impossible due to the fact that every bit of his Qi was in use through his body. His palm crashed into the soft flesh wall, shockwaves rippling from where his attacknded as the embryo exterior shook wildly. He could hear the aftermath of his attack ripping apart the embryo internally, but that was just the beginning. The force behind William¡¯s palm caused it to pierce into the flesh, and he fully expected his entire body to shoot through the embryo like a bullet. He predicted that at the start since he knew how soft the embryo was. However, instead of his entire body piercing through the embryo and causing havoc, William was sted back by a massive explosion. He rag-dolled through the air for a second before he found himself, quickly righting his body tond on his feet. It was a relief that his mouth had been sealed shut during the explosion. Because if it hadn¡¯t, a significant amount of rancid flesh would be taking up space in his mouth. William held back the reflex to gag as he quickly wiped his eyes to rid himself of the blood caked on them. [Name: Weakened Magmaheart Goliath Seedling | Level: ?] He stiffened at seeing the system information above the humanoid being standing in the middle of where the embryo had previously been. The only thing left now was a circle of blood spatter surrounding this¡­ seedling. ¡°I said you would repent. I offered you freedom as respect to the one that provided your mark. You spat on it.¡± William shuddered, the rumbling voice only adding to the sense of urgency that was lit inside him. It was already there before when the embryo hadn¡¯t died, but now it had been raised to another level. This beast was in a higher realm. It was likely in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and there was no chance he would live after his martial skill was deactivated after that one-minute time limit. That meant there would be no pleasantries exchanged. He couldn''t afford it. William had to destroy it without dy. Chapter 120: No Time Chapter 120: No Time In the next instant, he was a few feet away from the Seedling, which let him get a close-up view of what he was trying to kill. It was a replica of the massive giants William had seen fighting but proportionally shrunken into the size of a seven-foot man. Charred skin, tiny glowing orange lines running down its body, and shockingly red eyes ring at him. That didn¡¯t stop William from trying to cave its head in. He bared his teeth as he threw a haymaker at the Seedling, probably the dumbest thing he had done so far. ¡°Gah!¡± William yelped as he wasunched back. His attempted punch had been casually blocked, or so he had thought, until hended on the ground and looked at the Seedling. The arm that had blocked his haymaker was leaking an orangish red liquid. It was damaged in a way that more fit andscape than a living being. The arm was cracked like the ground would be after an earthquake, with magma escaping from those cracks. It looked terrible, but William could see the arm visibly healing itself. The desperation it brought up in him was unmatched. There had to be less than thirty seconds before his martial skill was deactivated. And he had to throw himself into hand-to-handbat with a younger version of the being that seemed specialized in that type of fighting. ¡°Now, you harm me further.¡± William ignored the Seedling¡¯s attempt to speak to him. He intended to use the precious few seconds left to cause as much damage as possible. And in the back of his mind, he dearly wished to do enough damage to end its life. William forced his mind into a calm state, grounding himself. Heunched forward, propelling himself with a speed that still surprised him. His fist aimed straight for the Seedling¡¯s face, but with surprising agility, the creature raised its undamaged forearm, deflecting his attack with a sickening crunch. Both of the Seedling¡¯s arms were now a cracked mess. However, William didn¡¯t allow himself to be pushed away. He easily dodged the soft counter since he was expecting it. If this was the Seedling¡¯s maximum agility, it bodes well for him. Immediately afterward, William spun on his heel, aiming a roundhouse kick at the midsection. He didn¡¯t care if the attacknded or if it was blocked once again. It would do just as well to further damage the Seedling¡¯s arms. The beast chose thetter option. Seeing the impending blow, the Seedling crossed its damaged arms, taking the full force of the kick where it couldn¡¯t afford it. The thunderous boom from the impact was immediately followed by the beast letting out an earsplitting shriek. William¡¯s kick had destroyed its forearms. Everything below the elbow no longer existed, leaving a thick flow of orangish-red blood oozing from the open wound. However, he didn¡¯t rest at the seeming sess. It wouldn¡¯t surprise him if the Seedling could regrow the missing limb. William¡¯s eyes narrowed when it seemed the beast was finally tired of being passive. It had refused to counter him for some reason, and he had started to think that interrupting the embryo from fullypacting might have been the key to staying alive. After all, the system told him the name of it was Weakened Magmaheart Goliath Seedling. There must be a reason for that. The other option was that the Seedling didn¡¯t want to harm him, but this was something he doubted. Perhaps before Princess Jin threw her tokens at it, but not now. Not after it said he would repent, whatever that meant. William¡¯s eyes widened when the Seedling whipped his arm up, spraying the blood leaking from the end at him in an arc. He hadn¡¯t been ready for such a thing, thinking that an attack would involve physical contact, not some blood flinging. That was a mistake. [-250 HP] ¡°FUCK!¡± William screamed in pain when it felt like moltenva was sprinkled on him, and his robes caught fire. He jumped back to put some space between himself and the Seedling and quickly ripped off the smoking clothes, not that it was in a state worth saving even before it caught on fire. ¡°Leave. But the girl will stay to return what she stole. Yourst chance.¡± That didn¡¯t sound like Princess Jin would get out alive after the beast was done with her. Since he was already this far, what was the point in backing out now? William had a real chance at taking this thing down, and he wouldn¡¯t be foolish enough to let its blood touch him again. He didn¡¯t know why the blood didn¡¯t harm him when his fists made contact with it while on the Seedling¡¯s body, but he didn¡¯t question it. Besides, he noted something interesting after he was hit by the blood. His hand was unharmed. The Elemental Gauntlet, something he had forgotten he was wearing, protected him from the molten blood. Something to keep in mind. Heunched himself at it again, intending to not let off until it was a corpse. ¡°You made your choice.¡± William feigned a high kick, targeting its head, causing the Seedling to raise its mutted arms to block the attack. But at thest moment, William switched tactics, dropping low and aiming for the knees, wanting to take out the remaining limbs to make easy movement close to impossible. The Seedling was caught off-guard. It let out a rumbling grunt of pain but didn¡¯t fall. However, the left knee was heavily damaged to the point where he felt another kick in that exact area would make the leg entirely useless. The Seedling¡¯s red eyes were narrowed, and it shifted to protect the damaged knee from him. With a bellowing roar, the Seedling thrust its arm at his face, the gaping wound at the end suddenly letting out heat that was visible to the eye. That was what William was waiting for. Seeing the small opening, William lunged right at the arm, using the hand protected by the Elemental Gauntlet to grab the open wound and push it out of the way. The very next moment, a barrage of rapid punches was aimed at the Seedling¡¯s exposed torso. Each thud of his fist against the creature''s charred flesh was like the beating of war drums. The Seedling grunted with each impact, the cracks on the torso expanding every time until the orangish-red blood flowed copiously out of the newly created wounds and dripped down its body. Sensing the shift, William pressed his advantage. He used the short training from Qin Yu and the frantic mob fights he experienced to its limits. William unleashed a flurry of attacks,bining punches, kicks, and quick counters to the weak response of the Seedling, pushing it back step by step. For each block the creature sessfully made, two or three attacks from Williamnded the intended target. It was in a miserable condition. Its arms were even further destroyed, over half of its torso utterly red with blood, its legs mangled from taking repeated kicks but somehow still whole, and more importantly, its face finally caught a little damage. Out of all the parts of the body William targeted, the Seedling was extremely careful with never letting an attacknd on its face. He had taken advantage of that by repeatedly targeting the head, never hoping to actuallynd an attack on it, but instead on the part of the body the beast offered up as a sacrifice. It wasn¡¯t hard to understand that keeping its head safe was paramount for the Seedling. William¡¯s attacks hadn¡¯t been sessful innding on the head till a moment ago when the rest of its body was too damaged to block his attacks. The end was near. He could sense it, and apparently, so could the Seedling. Suddenly, the beast pushed forward with a roar of frustration. It looked like it was trying to body him, but the attempt wasughable since it was so slow in his eyes. William didn¡¯t stay idle. He rushed to meet the Seedling, intending to use the beast''s momentum against itself. It wouldn¡¯t be much, but maybe that extra bit of force behind the impact of his fist would finally end this. The Seedling¡¯s red eyes red at him hatefully as it likely realized that it was over. Its life would be taken from it when his fist impacted its forehead. [-1000 HP] ¡°GRAHHH!¡± William found himself staring at the ceiling, blood bubbling past his teeth as his mouth opened, soundlessly crying in pain. He had no idea what had happened. How it went from victory to inches away from death. ¡°It seems you are finished.¡± His ears twitched as he fought through the unexpected pain and pushed himself off the floor to stand on his feet. The Seedling was hundreds of feet away from him. Its attackunched William this far from it. It slowly walked toward him, stumbling from the damage its legs had taken. ¡°You will help rece the nutrients yourpanion denied me.¡± Ah, his martial skill had been deactivated. Right before he was about to kill the Seedling. Chapter 121: Buying Time Chapter 121: Buying Time Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 62 Experience: 2550/7750 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (6th Level) Health: 250/1500 Spiritual Energy: 189/440 (20% per Hour) William stopped looking at the screen after seeing the amount of spiritual energy he had left. He needed eleven more to activate the Fury of The Five Heavenly Dragons again. That would take a little over seven minutes to recover. He might as well be dead. William reached for his spatial stone, intending to take out much-needed Vitality Restoration Pills to give himself more time. The Seedling was a major realm above him, and even a ncing blow would take away more health than he had left. He no longer had the robustness given to him by the martial skill increasing his Strength attribute by five times. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that the Seedling was not keen on letting him pull out the pills. ¡°Fuck!¡± William gasped as he awkwardly dodged the spray of blood shot right at him. The way it melted small holes into the ground made him extremely happy he hadn¡¯t been hit by that. It would have meant death with his low health. ¡°If you move, I will end your life.¡± He honestly wasn¡¯t more concerned about his life after that ultimatum. That wouldn¡¯t be possible. It was over whether he restored his health or not. He only wanted to take those pills to increase the chance of living by a minuscule percentage. ¡°What is this ce?¡± William spoke to the Seedling for the first time. He had to try something, anything, to buy some time. ¡°You refused to leave. Why?¡± He didn¡¯t mind that his question was ignored. As long as the thing kept speaking to him, it was fine. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what you mean,¡± William said obliviously. Anything to waste more time. The Seedling didn¡¯t appreciate that. He felt a surge of pain in his legs as he put pressure on them to frantically avoid the blood thrown at him. ¡°Why?¡± The Seedling repeated calmly. As calmly as was possible in its rumbling voice. William winced as he adjusted his position before shutting out the pain. He avoided looking at the damage since all that would aplish was to make him think about the pain he should feel. The Seedling slowly making its way to him made that unwise. Even though it had an awkward gait, it made steady progress toward him. It would take no more than a minute to reach him. Far less than the time required to recover enough Spiritual Energy. And he knew from the Seedling''s quickness during their fight that if it was necessary to move faster, it would be more than capable of doing so. ¡°I couldn¡¯t leave her behind,¡± William admitted, no longer trying to avoid the question. ¡°She would have been safe,¡± the Seedling sounded puzzled, ¡°You had my word.¡± ¡°How was I to know you would keep that promise?¡± Even as William asked that question, he wondered if his greed made him reject the offer. However, that was only a brief thought thatsted only a fraction of a second. William knew he would have dly taken it if there had been a way to escape with Princess Jin. ¡°You have the mark, but you seem oblivious to it. You were offered freedom, but you denied it. You were given another opportunity, but you chose to reject it¡­ again.¡± William flinched, feeling all the more foolish at the disappointment he could hear. At least, that¡¯s what it sounded like to him. Having the thing that he was trying to kill talking down to him in such a way brought up a feeling of ultimate shame. ¡°Not only have you spit on the mark you are fortunate to possess, but you go as far as allying with that spawn to destroy mydy¡¯s efforts.¡± ¡°Yourdy?¡± He frowned in confusion before he continued while showing respect, ¡°Do you mean Empress Sophia?¡± ¡°Good. At the very least, you know mydy¡¯s name. However, this makes your actions even more sacrilegious.¡± The Seedling had closed the distance and had stopped less than twenty feet away. It was far too close for him to have any hope of dodging any attack. Spiritual Energy: 191/440 (20% per Hour) He still needed around six minutes to have any hope for survival. He certainly couldn¡¯t hope for continued life if it was left to the Seedling, which was understandable given that he did his best to kill it. But there was something more than a personal grudge it seemed to have against him, which was made obvious with the repeated questioning. ¡°Did Empress Sophia give me this mark you keep mentioning?¡± ¡°If you were unaware, it must be for a reason. You will not enlightened by me. There is no reason to with your body about to be consumed.¡± [-10 HP] William grunted in surprise when vines wrapped around his arms and legs before lifting him around twenty feet in the air. He looked up in shock, having thought that he and the princess had destroyed all of them. When he saw that the vines seemed to have regenerated where they took the most damage, he quickly nced at the rest, expecting much of the same. Thankfully, it was not. It was a smallfort that they were still lifeless. If he was still living in six minutes, it would be nice to not have to deal with vines attacking him from above. What concerned him the most was how easily the vines overpowered him. It confused him as to how they suddenly had such strength when they were so easy to destroy previously. Perhaps the Seedling no longer in an embryo state was the factor. William tensed when he saw the beast slowly make its way to where Princess Jin was located. ¡°Wait! What are you going to do to her?¡± He was ignored, which made him struggle even more against the vines futilely. Plenty of things were running through his mind at the moment, mostly how Princess Jin had finally changed her mind about continuing and how he was the one who wanted to push on. It was all due to the rewards that were promised to him. Instead of the treasures he desired, he would be gifted with the sight of Princess Jin getting killed or, worse, devoured for nutrients, as this beast mentioned. That would soon be followed by the same fate falling upon him. ¡°Empress Sophia is her ancestor! Why would you be so eager to kill her descendant if you hold her in high regard?¡± ¡°DESCENDANT?¡±The Seedling stopped, turning to re at him with fiery eyes, ¡°Mydy will thank me for ridding the world of filth such as her. An Empire of traitors, picking apart mydy¡¯s gifts like vultures and seeking to usurp thews she ced on the world.¡± William had no idea what the beast was talking about. Princess Jin practically worshiped Sophia, and from the little he knew about the Tanxia Empire, they still protected the mortals from wanton ughter. However, it wasn¡¯t like he knew the inner workings of the Empire. ¡°I don¡¯t know about what the Empire has been doing, but the princess loves Empress Sophia,¡± William saw it didn¡¯t change the Seedling¡¯s re, ¡°And she was helping meplete a task the Empress assigned to me!¡± ¡°Task?¡± He grabbed onto the one thing that seemed to have caught the beast¡¯s attention. ¡°Yes, task!¡± William nodded rapidly, ¡°Empress Sophiamanded me to take control of a fragmented realm stone. To stop people from breaking apart this secret realm.¡± When the Seedling¡¯s red eyes dimmed, as if its anger had lessened, he thought there might be an opening to save their lives. Chapter 122: A Strange Acceptance Chapter 122: A Strange eptance ¡°It is impossible for one such as you to know of the stone. Even more so of its wretched state. Unless what you say is true.¡± William kept his mouth shut, waiting for the Seedling to continue. In fact, he would wee it the longer it took to speak. Spiritual Energy: 196/440 (20% per Hour) Just a little under three minutes. All he needed was to keep it talking for just a little more time, and there was a real shot he would be able to pull through this. ¡°Did mydy tell you why you need possession of the stone?¡± ¡°Not directly, but I can make a good guess. Empress Sophia mentioned that the secret realm is being drained. I can only assume that would stop if I have control of the realm stone.¡± More seconds passed in silence, with William again rooting for it tost longer in his mind. ¡°It will not be necessary,¡± the Seedling dered, ¡°The time has note for such drastic actions.¡± He stared at it, wondering why it was suddenly willing to do something counter to what Sophia wanted. It had been ¡®mydy¡¯ this and ¡®mydy¡¯ that the whole time until now. William would have loved to sate his curiosity but smartly kept his mouth shut when the Seedling fell silent again as it stared at him, as if studying the meaning of his existence. He didn¡¯t care. A sentence was repeated in his mind. Whatever was needed to waste time. Besides, it was easy for William to focus on other things, though he wished it hadn¡¯t been something that was a little worrisome. The horrific damage he caused to the Seedling¡¯s body was recovering quickly, not enough where all the wounds would be healed, but it would be in his best interest to reactivate his marital skill when possible to kill it without dy. ¡°You will be spared.¡± William blinked, wondering if he had heard correctly. ¡°What?¡± The Seeding ignored him. ¡°But yourpanion is required to stay. The damage caused must be reversed. I am sure if what you say is true, she will be d to sacrifice her life to help mydy¡¯s goals.¡± Spiritual Energy: 199/440 (20% per Hour) It was almost ready. Just a bit more time. ¡°That was not Empress Sophia¡¯s goal!¡± William said loudly when the Seedling seemed to be done talking to him. It was focused back on Princess Jin, ¡°The only thing she ever mentioned was getting the realm stone. How did that turn into killing my friend?¡± He was ignored. It was standing over the princess, and more worryingly, the constant golden glow that her body emitted suddenly changed. It started pulsing. ¡°How much can she help anyway?¡± William tried to keep the panic out of his voice as he nced at his Spiritual Energy, ¡°She¡¯s too weak to rece whatever was broken.¡± The Seedling gave him a quick nce, and though its face didn¡¯t have any features other than the red eyes, it felt to him like it was amused. ¡°You underestimate the potential inside a soul. This one, in particr, will be the key to restoring what was taken by the abomination ced by the traitors.¡± ¡°Then use me!¡± William yelled when a tether was created between the princess and the Seedling. One that originated from where Princess Jin¡¯s heart was located. ¡°Mine should be of better use to you!¡± All he needed was a few more seconds. It would give him more than enough time if it took his offer. ¡°I think not. Even if you did not possess the mark and it was more ptable to use you, your soul can notpare.¡± Spiritual Energy: 200/440 (20% per Hour) Finally. A precious second was wasted as he prepared his Qi, spreading it evenly through his body as quickly as possible. In that time, the tether made of light grew stronger, and the glow that Princess Jin¡¯s body gave off dimmed minutely. [-200 Spiritual Energy] The familiar mes of Qi erupted around his body, returning the strength that had been sorely missed. William grunted in surprise when the vines constricting his limbs actually put up a fight when he tried to free himself. However, that was only for a moment. He let out a frustrated growl as he ripped the vines to shreds before forcing himself to fall to the ground faster. All actions that wasted time. The Seedling only spared him a nce, but instead of preparing for battle, it continued whatever it was doing with Princess Jin. ¡°If you truly wish to help the Empress, you will not interrupt.¡± William no longer found it in himself to care for what it said. He was already well within striking range, and his fist was heading right at the Seedling¡¯s head. He very much intended for that head to turn into a bloody mist. It sounded like his fist collided with a rock, and it sounded like it, too. Thankfully, he was nearly indestructible with the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons active, so it was moreparable to a sledgehammer meeting a rock. The Seedling¡¯s face was rocked back violently, the strange orangish-red blood pouring from the newly created open wounds. William was disappointed that this was the extent of the damage, but he would do his best toplete his goal of killing this damn thing in the subsequent attacks. Besides, the movements of the Seedling were slowed down to the extent that even his regr state without the martial skill activated would be enough to deal with. ¡°It is already toote for yourpanion. This will only end her life at a quicker rate.¡± That was inconsequential, even if true. The other option was to let the princess die slowly. Right as it finished its sentence, Williamnded another punch under its jaw, shattering the bottom part of its face before it crumbled into pieces, falling away from its face. For the first time, he saw an emotion other than anger in the Seedling¡¯s eyes. Fear. William felt a dark satisfaction at causing that. It meant he was on the right path. With a roar, he pummeled the Seedling¡¯s ruined head, his fists crashing into it relentlessly as he released his frustration. ¡°Empress Sophia will punish you. Even death will not be able to save you.¡± ¡°I doubt that,¡± William snarled as he wrapped his hand around the Seedling¡¯s neck in a crushing grip, ¡°I might have made some mistakes with our interaction, but refusing to follow Sophia¡¯s wishes brought us to this point.¡± Its voice already sounded faint. As if it barely had the energy to convey those few words. Not even twenty seconds had passed since he activated the martial skill, and he would end it now. The Seedling barely had a head to speak of after the damage it had taken, with most of it missing or the few areas left damaged beyond recognition. It was more of a crater filled with blood than a body part resembling anything a humanoid would possess. ¡°Either way, it would have led to my end.¡± William was a little thrown off by that admission, but it didn¡¯t stop him from what he had nned. He used his other hand to grip what little was left of the jaw before pulling up with a titanic amount of effort. The vines that had constricted him at the start were nothingpared to the needed strength now. With a savage snarl that made William sound more like a beast than a human, he ripped the head off the Seedling¡¯s body,ughing psychotically when he immediately felt the life in them disappear. [+217000 XP] [Trait Activated | -21700 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x7 He ignored the system alerts and dropped the head to the ground before stomping hard enough to shatter it into rubble, leaving an imprint below. As for the body, the golden tether still connected it to Princess Jin. However, the decapitated body was visibly losing its form. It took no longer than a few seconds before it disintegrated into sand. William watched it drop between his fingers before looking at the princess, discouraged when her state hadn¡¯t changed. He shuddered at the rush he got from ending the Seedling''s life. He slowly sat next to the princess before pulling out the Vitality Restoration Pills. All he could do now was wait and hope that the sacrifice of his cultivation for the foreseeable months would be worth it. And it would be, as long as Princess Jin recovered from whatever was happening to her. Chapter 123: Goodbye Cultivation Chapter 123: Goodbye Cultivation Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 69 Experience: 140975/8625 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (6th Level) Health: 240/1500 Spiritual Energy: 0/440 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 90 (88) Strength: 90 (88) Stamina: 80 (78) Agility: 90 (88) Luck: 90 (88) Points: 158 William stared at the screen as he rolled a single pill between his fingers with his left hand while the rest was held in the other. He knew he should take them immediately but still felt some reluctance even though death was at the end of the countdown of his martial skill''s activation time. There was a reason for his stupidity. Impurity: Stage 2 (97%) 9 Weeks, 4 Days, 22 Hours Remaining With a small sigh, William hoped the experience point reduction wouldn¡¯t be horrific. He popped the pill into his mouth. [+550 HP] [Health: 240 ¡ª> 790/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 2 (97%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (12%)] [Trait Modified | Impurity Poisoning] [Stage 1 ¡ª> Stage 2] [10% XP Reduction ¡ª> 75% XP Reduction] He stared nkly at the system alerts, wondering why he dared to have hope. This was much worse than his worst-case scenario. He pulled up the time required to rid himself of the trait naturally. Impurity: Stage 3 (12%) 1 Month, 6 Days + 10 Weeks The ten weeks must be the time required for stage two, with the additional one month and six days solely applicable to stage three. This meant that every pill taken right now added forty-five days to the clock. William grimaced and stared at the pills in distaste. He still needed to restore his health. [+550 HP] [Health: 790 ¡ª> 1340/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 3 (12%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (27%)] That was it for now. If he was in immediate danger, he would be willing to take one more pill to restore all of his health. Since that didn''t seem to be the case, it made his heart burn at the thought of using the pills inefficiently. He stored the remaining pills in the spatial stone and wondered what to do now. There was an expectation in him that once the Seedling was killed, they would be freed from this ce. Obviously, that was not the case. Perhaps it was necessary to leave without the princess like the Seedling suggested at the start. But even now, he was hesitant to believe anything it said. It was hard to after the first thing it had tried to do was extract his soul. On top of that, he had no way of knowing if this ce was truly safe or if something was waiting, hidden until he had left. ¡°You better pull through, princess,¡± William murmured as he stared worriedly at her golden form. Her state had changed in the past few seconds, but he didn¡¯t know if it was good or bad. Her body had gone from emitting a blinding golden glow to something more viewable. It was finally possible to see her features again, but instead of a glow, her entire body, clothes included, had a golden sheen. What gave William a slight sense of relief was her expression. She had her eyes closed, with a soft smile on her lips in stark contrast to her bloodcurdling screams thest time she had been conscious. [-750 HP] [Trait Added | Attribute Penalty - 25% Reduction on Strength, Stamina, and Agility] He groaned in pain as he felt, and heard multiple bones in his body shatter. The penalty should have been expected, but it hit him at a time when his emotions put him in a state that no longer required heightened awareness. He again drew the life-extending, yet poisonous, pills from the spatial stone. This time, it would be necessary to heal himself fully to eliminate the new trait, purely for safety reasons. [+550 HP] [Health: 590 ¡ª> 1140/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 3 (27%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (42%)] [+360 HP] [Health: 1140 ¡ª> 1500/1500] [Impurity Increased] [Stage 3 (42%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (57%)] [Trait Removed | Attribute Penalty] William wished good riddance to that trait. He didn¡¯t need yet another thing that dragged him down. When he first got the system, he had assumed that he would asionally get traits that would be of help, but it seemed that every single trait he received shit on his parade, if there was one to be had. He shook his head, getting his mind off penalties, impurities, and other bad news out of his mind. There was one positive to be happy about. Princess Jin seemed to be getting better. If bing less of a glowstick by the second was a good thing. The only issue was that her skin was also gaining more of a gold tint by the second. He was tempted to use Observe on her as soon as he could, but since it was doubtful he would be able to help even if something turned out to be wrong, he held back his impulse and forced himself to build his Spiritual Energy back to two hundred. Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons was now his trump card, and William always wanted it as a possible option in reserve. Nobody and nothing would expect someone like him to be able to take down a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator or spirit beast. ¡°Let¡¯s give it an hour, princess,¡± William said, mainly to himself, ¡°Maybe something will change then.¡± The time passed slowly, and the only reason he could track it in the first ce was his constant nces at the amount of Spiritual Energy he possessed. Every three ticks was equal to two minutes. And he tracked that closely, primarily since he had nothing better to do. He had been tempted many times in that hour to cultivate. The excessive amount of experience points he possessed and hadn¡¯t been put to use was a source of irritation, especially since the next advancement of a minor realm would mean his Soul Damage trait would be rendered ineffective. The paltry two percent reduction on his attributes would reduced to zero, and more than the actual reduction of the penalty, he wanted to know if it came along with any other surprises. Mainly the limitations that the Soul Damage put on his body and soul. However, for once in recent memory, William didn¡¯t let his desire for more to run his mind. He repeatedly decided that being cautious was more of a priority. That had now changed. After an hour of zero danger to their lives, that determination was rapidly being questioned. Seen as unnecessary. Instead of spending his time staring between his system screen and Princess Jin, he could have likely advanced two or three minor realms. Spiritual Energy: 93/440 (20% per Hour) Still around an hour and a half till his Spiritual Energy would reach the amount needed to activate the Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons. And it would be even more glorious with higher base attributes. That settled it for William. He gave this dead ce another once over before straightening his back and closing his eyes. He slowly sank into the state needed for cultivation before circting his Qi. His smile turned into arge frown once he sensed the new stage of impurity changed his Qi into something almost unrecognizable. Chapter 124: To the Eighth Chapter 124: To the Eighth William¡¯s Qi was sludge. That was no metaphor. It quite literally seemed like sludge to his senses. William had spent minutes trying to see if everything was functioning as expected. Strangely, it was. Every time he circted his Qi, it traveled around his pathways with the same ease he was ustomed to. His meridians were either in apact state with a title speck of light in the center or, in the case of his Stomach Meridian, filled with a thick fog of Qi. Other than the horrific appearance of his Qi, everything seemed fine. Still, he hadn¡¯t forgotten about the trait the Impurity Poisoning gave him. After his current stockpile of experience points was used up, there would be a severe drought until he could get help with it. He shoved that depressing thought out of his mind and pushed himself to focus on the task at hand. Time slowly passed as circted his hideous Qi through his pathways. Over and over, to the point where even the trance cultivating put him under couldn¡¯t hide the strangely significant amount of time that passed, until he sensed the qualitative change in his Qi pathways that he was looking for. William snapped his eyes open as the system started throwing him the alerts that came with the mass advances in levels. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 48 minutes: +8 XP] [Trait Activated | -6 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x10 [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (6th Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (7th Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1500 ¡ª> 1600] [Modified | Max Level: 69 ¡ª> 79] [Modified | Max Attribute: 90 ¡ª> 100] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 80 2. Eligible for Level 80 [Impurity Reduced] [Stage 3 (57%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (38%)] He nced over the alerts without much emotion since this had been expected and experienced before. He was a little happier than before since his impurity had decreased, but it wasn¡¯t anything worth celebrating. Experience: 49002/9875 He still had enough experience points to get to the next minor realm, but that wouldn¡¯t be enough to make a real difference in his impurity levels. However, what he was excited about was the new maximum attribute limits. Mainly because he could increase his Spirit Attribute. [+10 Spirit] [Maximum Spirit Reached] [Modified | Soul Damage (Minor)] [Attribute Reduction | 2% ¡ª> 0%] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 440 ¡ª> 500] The additional Qi added to his pathways was quickly directed to the Stomach meridian, which it epted greedily. There was no sign of the thick fog of Qi inside the meridian copsing into the tiny speck of light. William turned his attention from the meridian to the system screen, frowning in disappointment when he saw that the only thing that changed was the attribute reduction. The Soul Damage trait itself was still active, even though it didn¡¯t seem to have any adverse effects that could be seen on his stats. Of course, just because the effects weren¡¯t visible didn¡¯t mean there were none at all. One thing William knew definitely existed was his limitation on Dao. It was hard to forget when experiencing one had almost shredded his soul. Spiritual Energy: 225/500 (20% per Hour) At least there was one shining spot. Increasing his Spirit attribute gained him sixty additional capacity in Spiritual Energy, including the ten freed with no attribute reduction in effect. It immediately gave him ess to his trump card. Plus, since he still had the experience points to spare, it only made sense to get himself to the next minor realm purely for more capacity. The only thing that might have made him dy the advance was Sophia¡¯s warning to stay weak. But it was already toote for that. Not only had he killed the thing that knew where the realm stone was, but the turtle meant to be his guide was nowhere to be seen. On top of that, he had already advanced to the seventh level of Qi Gathering. What difference would it make if he advanced one more? That quest was already considered a lost cause in William¡¯s mind. The penalty that the quest had, the possible discovery by unknown actors, would likely be his future. Since these ¡®unknown actors¡¯ were likely affiliated with the Empire, especially since Sophia and the Seedling shared their dislike of them, it would only help be as strong as possible. Elder Yu had implied that the Empire searched for geniuses, and perhaps William¡¯s agebined with high cultivation would make him more attractive to them. He nced at Princess Jin before he intended to cultivate but froze in shock. He blinked repeatedly, wondering if he was hallucinating again. The system was showing him the base information on her as usual. It was something that he had gotten used to ignoring unless necessary. Only a drastic change would grab his attention, like if the level no longer showed a number. Which was precisely what happened. [Name: Princess Jin | Level: ?] ¡°Why am I even surprised?¡± William grumbled out loud. It seemed that Princess Jin¡¯s Luck was still very much in y. Whatever was happening to her caused her to jump to the next major realm. At the very least, it meant that she was likely safe, so it was one less thing for William to worry about. He needed to stopparing himself to freaks of nature and be satisfied with his small gains. Even if this whole thing turned out to be Princess Jin¡¯sing out party, that didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t also benefit in the end. Besides, this could turn out to be just what William needed. If Princess Jin wasn¡¯tpletely ungrateful, she would be in his debt for helping her gain such an immense benefit. It might also make his advancement in the secret realm look unremarkable next to hers, as if it was the crumbs from Princess Jin that he took advantage of. In all honesty, that wasn¡¯t even necessarily wrong. This was possible due to Princess Jin¡¯s Luck. If not for that, this would have never even happened. So why was William still feeling sour? He supposed it was natural due to being unable to stamp out the jealousy. He shook his head to try and refocus. Princess Jin was getting her reward. She considered him a friend, and he liked the kid enough that it was returned. This was a good thing. William closed his eyes and turned his senses inward, grimacing at the polluted Qi in his pathways. Nheless, he circted it like normal. This time, it took well over an hour. And it wasn¡¯t even close. He directed his Qi through his body repeatedly, to the point where he almost thought the impurity was finally affecting him by blocking his advancement. Thankfully, the Qi pathways went through the qualitative change before he misunderstood. The crystalline walls of the pathways were now shining, though the actual Qi contained within did nothing to tter the new look since it mostly looked like ck sludge. William opened his eyes slowly with a smile to see the system alerts. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 2 hours: +20 XP] [Trait Activated | -15 XP] [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] x4 [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (7th Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (8th Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1600 ¡ª> 1700] [Modified | Max Level: 79 ¡ª> 89] [Modified | Max Attribute: 100 ¡ª> 110] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 90 2. Eligible for Level 90 [Impurity Reduced] [Stage 3 (38%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (25%)] He had no reason to save his unused stat points, and with so many avable, he found it hard to believe there would be a point that he would ever have a shortage of them. It would cost him a hundred points to max out his attributes, and even after that, he would still have over a hundred to spare. [+10 Spirit] [Maximum Spirit Reached] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 500 ¡ª> 550] [+20 Strength] [Maximum Strength Reached] [+30 Stamina] [Maximum Stamina Reached] [+20 Agility] [Maximum Agility Reached] [+20 Luck] [Maximum Luck Reached] William looked at his screen and wondered if he was one of the few cultivators that was so well-rounded. And if that was true, he also wondered if that was a good thing. Even before Princess Jin had suddenly jumped into the higher major realm, her Spirit attribute was much higher than his maximum allowed. That made him more than a little frustrated with the limits ced on him. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 83 Experience: 8757/10375 Cultivation: Qi Gathering (8th Level) Health: 1700/1700 Spiritual Energy: 375/550 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 110 Strength: 110 Stamina: 110 Agility: 110 Luck: 110 Points: 118 Traits (2): 1. Soul Damage (Minor) 2. Impurity Poisoning (Stage 2) - 75% XP Reduction It was pretty to look at, but William had to admit to himself that only his Luck attribute excited him. He was getting ever so close to matching the monstrous Luck attribute Princess Jin and Li Xinyue possessed. With what he witnessed with the princess, it would be his greatest ally. William¡¯s body stiffened when he heard a faint crack from above. He immediately got to his feet and looked up, trying to see if there was anything to be wary about. He possessed more than enough Spiritual Energy to activate his trump card, so he wasn''t concerned unless he was facing a beast in the Core Formation Realm or higher. He chuckled when he saw it was a withered vine falling down. Itnded soundlessly a few feet away and crumbled into dust. It was not the first time something like this happened, but this was the first time a sound apanied it. William nced at the princess in habit as he took a seat. He stumbled, mouth open in shock, before he ungracefullynded on his bottom. ¡°What the hell, princess?!¡± [Name: ? | Level: ?] Chapter 125: Princess? Chapter 125: Princess? He didn¡¯t say anything after his outburst, instead spending time closely studying the princess. It didn¡¯t seem like anything changed about her physically. However, her body''s gold sheen had almost disappeared, returning her skin to its normal pale state, and her clothes possessed actual colors again. Absorbing the heart somehow increased Princess Jin¡¯s cultivation to the Nascent Soul Realm¡­ or higher. If she was in the Foundation Establishment or the Core Formation Realm, he would still be able to see her name instead of a question mark in its ce. William couldn¡¯t believe it. That was such a massive jump that it was impossible not to consider the option of the system malfunctioning again. It was either that, or it could be that Princess Jin¡¯s body was upied by something that was at a higher cultivation. He immediately jumped to his feet and put some space between himself and the princess, heart thudding at the thought of the Seedling using Princess Jin¡¯s body as a puppet. The guess wasn¡¯t much of a stretch since it strangely epted its death. That must have been why the Seedling willingly epted all the strikes that destroyed its body. It already had its hooks into the princess when that damn tether was created. The hatred that spiked inside William was unmatched. It put a haze over his mind, making him think of drastic actions that he luckily didn¡¯t have the chance to act on. The system distracted him with an alert. [Side Quest Completed | Take the heart of the Magmaheart Goliath Embryo] [3 Treasures awarded] He stared at the alerts stupidly. That meant Princess Jin was still in control of her body, right? And where were the treasures that were supposedly awarded to him? As if answering his skeptical thoughts, Princess Jin groaned loudly. Her fingers twitched before clenching to form a loose fist, but his attention was quickly drawn to a bright gold spot that appeared over her heart. William would have been afraid that this was another issue about to pop up, but the system alert of the quest beingpleted erased those worries. All that was left now was curiosity. A bright sh of gold blinded him briefly, but he could hear the soft sounds of several things hitting the ground. He heard the princess sigh softly as if relieved of some sort of pressure. When his vision was returned to normal, or rather, mostly darkness since Princess Jin¡¯s body was no longer acting as a source of light, he was given the answer to his question about treasures. They were the only things that could be seen as they let off a soft light that was bright enough just for the treasures themselves. One was reminiscent of a crystal ball half a foot wide. Its color was the same as its glow. It was a deep red, but the sphere itself had asional wisps of bright orange appearing on the surface. He was hit with the image of the massive giants hatefully ring at each other with ming eyes before he wiped it from his mind fearfully. Another was a charred cube with a rough surface that was as tall as him. It gave off a soft white light that only showed the frightening ck color the cube possessed. The same color he saw on the giant¡¯s skin. Thest treasure was the one that caught William¡¯s attention the most. It had a golden glow. The same color that Princess Jin¡¯s body emitted for so long, something he was confident caused her ridiculous cultivation growth. The same color of the tether that connected the princess¡¯s body and the Seedling. And more importantly, the same color of the blood he remembered spilling out of the giant. It was a palm-sized puddle of a liquid that was gold. William had to fight every instinct in his body from licking up that puddle like a thirsty dog. All the answers to his impurity levels were right in front of him, or so his mind was screaming at him. It didn¡¯t take long for him to realize that it was highly unlikely there was such a simple use for the liquid. The side quest that had just beenpleted mentioned explicitly that the three treasures he would receive would be suitable for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators. That was four major realms above his current cultivation. These three treasures might as well be three quick ways to die for William. After that bout of madness was suppressed, he was careful to avoid getting too close to the treasures as he attempted to draw them into his spatial stone. The only reason he even bothered to try was because of Sophia. If an immortal cultivator upgraded his spirit stone, it should be able to store treasures for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators. It did. William let out a little chuckle in happiness when he seeded. At least he didn¡¯tpletely lose out to Princess Jin whenparing their gains. ¡°Why are you so pleased, Wei Liang?¡± His smile froze at the voice saying his name. It sounded like Princess Jin, but something intangible was added to make him feel more friendly toward the speaker. However, it was so obvious that it was easy to ignore. This must be what Sophia mentioned about being easily influenced by women with higher cultivation. Thankfully, Princess Jin was given her power and didn¡¯t grow into it, leaving her with no clue how to use it subtly. ¡°I¡¯m just d you¡¯re awake, princess.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Princess Jin sounded amused. When she snapped her fingers to casually create a floating ball of light, he saw that she was indeed amused, ¡°So it has nothing to do with the treasures you stored in your spatial stone?¡± It took everything William had to hide the spike of fear. Was this where he would be betrayed? ¡°A little bit,¡± William shrugged, ¡°But honestly? It¡¯s mainly because you¡¯re safe. You have been unconscious most of the time, princess, but you won¡¯t believe how many times we were close to death..¡± ¡°I was aware of everything.¡± She was blunt, this time with an even brighter smile. ¡°¡­ What?¡± William asked slowly, wondering if she truly meant everything. If so, he should be more than safe with the amount of times he fought desperately to save her. Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t get an answer since he heard a familiar crack from above, except this time, it was followed by several more. Before he could make a move, he was staring up at a pretty face that had a serious look. ¡°Looks like it¡¯s my turn to save you,¡± Princess Jin announced proudly. A dense veil of Qi appeared around them, disintegrating the falling clumps of dirt and dead vines into nothing. William supposed this was her way of returning the favor, but did it have to involve him in a princess carry? However, a sudden void appearing in the ceiling changed his mind. It reminded him of how his soul was almost extracted when they arrived. If he needed to be in a princess carry to avoid experiencing that again, then so be it. Chapter 126: Giant Lord Paddlington Chapter 126: Giant Lord Paddlington Princess Jin seemed more concerned about disintegrating the falling debris than trying to find a way out. Of course, it wasn¡¯t like William knew what she was thinking, so that could just be what it looked like from his point of view. He waspletely helpless, with everything depending on what the princess did next. She was holding him in her arms so tightly that the most he could move was his head. Still, even that was limited due to the sudden changes in speed the princess made as she went on a merry destruction spree. Likely having fun with her newly gifted cultivation. William had experienced plenty of times in this world when he was powerless. The demonic cultivators that had been about to sacrifice him to get that woman a slight boost in cultivation. Daoist Chen effortlessly making an illusion so realistic that it might as well be reality itself. Lan Yin slicing off Cao Rui¡¯s body in half due to his thoughtlessness and cowardice. There were many more that could be listed, but somehow, having Princess Jin have him in a princess carry nearly topped all of that. William narrowed his eyes when he saw a small movement in the void, his shame quickly forgotten as he smiled widely. ¡°Princess!¡± William said with excitement, ¡°We¡¯re saved!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Princess Jin casually extended the Qi shroud to vaporize a mass of vines near them, ¡°What do you mean?¡± He took a moment to be envious of the princess¡¯s imperious look. Clearly, she didn¡¯t care about the ceiling crumbling above them. Nor the familiar void that was the cause of the deterioration. William had initially thought it was more trouble, hence his fear, but that changed when he saw the faint outline of a little turtle appear briefly. He only wished the turtle would seed instead of causing more problems likest time. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything that¡¯ll make it angry,¡± William warned before pointing up, ¡°Your ancestor¡¯s creation is here to get us out.¡± He saw Princess Jin frown in confusion before looking to where he was pointing. ¡°What do you mean by crea¡­ THE TURTLE?¡± William was gaping in surprise, along with Princess Jin. The Lord Paddlington he knew was a tiny, foolish-looking thing, which made it easy for him to forget the power it contained. That became near impossible when, for some reason, the size of the turtle changed dramatically. When Princess Jin looked up, it had been at the perfect time to see Lord Paddlington¡¯s face staring down at them. Only, it was no longer in the tiny form that looked harmless. Its face spanned the entire width of the void, which had expanded to take up every bit of the space the ceiling had to offer. Even though William was fairly confident Lord Paddlington meant to help them, it didn¡¯t stop his heart from skipping a beat in fear. It wasn¡¯t looking at them with its signature gummy smile. There was a severe look on its face. Another thing that he never expected to see on the turtle. ¡°Is this the same thing that dropped me here?¡± Princess Jin¡¯s Qi red around her before she took out her bow and pointed it at Lord Paddlington. ¡°What are you doing?!¡± William hissed, ¡°Even if that heart made you stronger, I can assure you that it is far beyond you!¡± Princess Jin scoffed, ¡°You think so? Watch this.¡± ¡°What the hell!¡± William yelped as he shut his eyes, turning away from the bow to avoid the searing light from blinding him. The arrow her Qi created looked like it could demolish arge city block, more simr to an artillery attack instead of something from a tiny bow. The fact that Princess Jin¡¯s bow could handle the power of her new cultivation realm shocked him almost as much as her audacity in trying to attack Lord Paddlington. Her family must have strongly believed in her future to give such a weapon to a cultivator in the Qi Gathering Realm. Too bad that belief didn¡¯t take into ount the princess going stupid once she got some power. ¡°I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS.¡± William felt like his ears exploded from the sheer loudness of Lord Paddlington¡¯s voice. He had thought the Seedling was loud, but at least the way itmunicated was with some sort of telepathy. Lord Paddlington definitely did not. He opened his eyes when Princess Jin let out a pained grunt to see a massive flipper reaching down from above. As if that wasn¡¯t rming enough, seeing Princess Jin fighting against the suppression she was obviously feeling, if the dimmed Qi signified anything, made him want to smack her head for being foolish. ¡°Princess!¡± William yelled over the roaring Qi around them, ¡°Back down! It doesn¡¯t mean any harm!¡± He was ignored. He could only watch helplessly as she used the bow and bolts made of Qi struck the flipper with thunderous cracks. ¡°YOU WERE FORCEFULLY LIFTED INTO YOUR REALM. THIS WILL NOT HARM CORE FORMATION WEAKLINGS, LET ALONE ONE SUCH AS ME.¡± William almost fainted from the length of that sentence. If Lord Paddlington¡¯s personality stayed true to what he experienced, it was ying with the princess. Talking when unnecessary was the definition of wasting time. When Princess Jin still seemed resolved to resist till the end, and the turtle¡¯s flipper somehow slowed its descent, he had to say something to save his ears and sanity. ¡°Lord Paddlington!¡± William yelled from the princess¡¯s arms, ¡°Take us out of here!¡± Princess Jin looked at him, almost as if she was betrayed. ¡°FINE. RUIN MY FUN. I SUPPOSE IT IS NEARLY TIME FOR THE ABOMINATION TO SURFACE.¡± William saw the massive flipper disappear, showing a regr-sized Lord Paddlington waving at them with a gummy smile. The next thing they knew, a void opened beneath them. Princess Jin tried to use her new cultivation to fly away, but her inexperience, along with the void dragging them in, made that impossible. He was happy about that. He didn¡¯t me her distrust of the turtle, and honestly, he didn¡¯t trust it either, but it was better than being stuck. They dropped into the void, and the next instant, they were standing on a very familiar surface. After dealing with a fiery hell followed by endless dark tunnels, the desert seemed akin to paradise. ¡°Er, could you let me down?¡± William asked after a second when he found himself stuck in the princess¡¯s arms. Princess Jin almost dropped him as she red. ¡°So you actually knew the turtle.¡± ¡°Obviously,¡± William said, pleased to use his legs again, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have told you to stop attacking it otherwise. It¡¯s not like I wanted to die after all the work I did to keep us alive.¡± Princess Jin stared a little longer before sighing. ¡°I apologize for not listening. The only thing I could think of was how it took me away from my conversation with the ancestor.¡± William pressed his lips thin to avoid smiling and clenched his hands. Even though the princess seemed a little silly, especially if her previous foolishness of attacking the turtle was considered, she was now someone with far higher cultivation. It wasn¡¯t wise to tousle her hair like he wished to. ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± he waved her off, ¡°Lord Paddlington didn¡¯t seem to mind.¡± ¡°So¡­ Lord Paddlington, was it?¡± William shared a smile with her. It was a ridiculous name, no matter how strong the turtle was. ¡°It is indeed Lord Paddlington. A name that my master gifted me.¡± He stiffened, his smile quickly vanishing as he warned the princess to rx with his eyes. However, he assumed she didn''t get his hint when she grabbed him and tossed him away. Chapter 127: Completed Chapter 127: Completed William feared for her life when a massive explosion kicked up enough sand to obscure his vision. ¡°Princess!¡± He yelled in concern, speeding back to her position, something that took a few seconds with how far she had thrown him. ¡°When master told you to take the realm stone, I don¡¯t think she meant it like this.¡± The sand thrown up from the explosion settled, revealing a crateryered thinly with ss. And right in the middle was an unconscious Princess Jin with a small turtle casually sitting on her stomach. ¡°Is she alright?¡± William asked with worry. ¡°For now,¡± the turtle nodded its tiny head, ¡°She is far too twitchy from being uplifted. ¡± William carefully made his way into the crater, silently marveling at its size before stopping next to the princess. It was bing far toomon to see her unconscious. ¡°Congrattions, by the way. You actuallypleted my master¡¯s task without my help. I didn¡¯t expect that.¡± He frowned in confusion. ¡°Sorry? I wish I did, but I didn¡¯t find the realm stone. That Magmaheart Goliath Seedling knew where it was but refused to give it to me.¡± ¡°I really thought it was already dead,¡± Lord Paddlingtonmented, ¡°Since it still had sentience, it made sense that it refused. Giving you the stone would have killed it.¡± ¡°¡­ But I never got the stone in the end.¡± ¡°It would be hard to when the parts needed were absorbed by this girl,¡± Lord Paddlington patted Princess Jin¡¯s stomach with its flipper. William''s mind nked before he slowly processed what that meant. However, one question was ring to the front. ¡°Then why hasn¡¯t the quest beenpleted?¡± ¡°Quest?¡± The turtle asked curiously before its tiny eyes blinked, ¡°Ah, right! The quest! My master told me to mark itplete if you satisfied the guidelines.¡± William stared at Lord Paddlington, wondering why it came to have that power. ¡°What is she to you?¡± Its flipper was patting the princess again. ¡°A friend?¡± William said unsurely before changing his tone when it seemed unsatisfied, ¡°She¡¯s a close friend. A blood brother¡­ er sister. Whatever the correct term is. We are very close.¡± ¡°I see. Then, I can assume you have some type of influence over her. Which means you have control over the fragmented realm stone.¡± William wasn¡¯t sure how that made any sense, but he nodded as Lord Paddlington spoke. ¡°More importantly, you have removed it from this secret realm. It will soon fall apart, just as master wanted. I consider that enough.¡± [Main Quest Completed | Seize control of fragmented realm stone] [+30 Levels Awarded] [Heaven-Tier Martial Skill Awarded | Select 1 Choice] [Level Up | 5 Stat Points Added] x7 [WARNING | User¡¯s cultivation forced into 9th Level of Qi Gathering] [Level Up | 5 Stat Points Added] x9 [ERROR | Qi Gathering Realm limit reached. User cannot be forced into Foundation Establishment Realm] [+14 Levels will be held in reserve] [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (8th Level) ¡ª> Qi Gathering (9th Level)] [Modified | Health Overall: 1700 ¡ª> 1800] [Modified | Max Level: 89 ¡ª> 99] [Modified | Max Attribute: 110 ¡ª> 120] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (3): 1. Spirit: 100 2. Eligible for Level 100 3. Reduce Impurity to Stage 2 [Impurity Reduced] [Stage 3 (25%) ¡ª> Stage 3 (17%)] ¡°Is it always like that? I would be annoyed to see all that blue.¡± William was still in shock that the quest waspleted. After knowing how badly polluted his Qi pathways were, his intense desire to reach level hundred and rid himself of his soul damage had been suppressed, primarily due to necessity. What was the point of trying to get experience points when he would only get to keep a quarter of it? Of course, despite experience points no longer a worry, his impurity was still too high. He would need to wait around two months before he could advance, but it could be done instantly when the time came. Thepleted quest might have saved him months of extra effort. ¡°Not always,¡± William replied to Lord Paddlington, ¡°This only happens when I advance a minor realm.¡± He was tempted to see what martial skills were avable for him, but with the turtle staring at him unblinkingly, it would be wise to wait and go through them carefullyter. Plus, it would be helpful to have someone guide him while learning the skill, something he doubted the turtle would do. It was more likely it would lead him on the wrong path for its own amusement. ¡°That¡¯s not too bad.¡± William met Lord Paddlington¡¯s stare, waiting for it to say something more. It never came. ¡°So what now? Can you send us out of the secret realm?¡± ¡°I could, but it would take some energy that is better saved.¡± He sighed, knowing that should have been expected. As unhelpful as ever. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Can you tell me how we can leave?¡± ¡°Just wait. Once the foundations of this realm start to fall apart, the protections will activate and kick you out.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William nodded slowly, ¡°That¡¯s convenient.¡± ¡°I suppose it is. Too bad this ce will be destroyed. I might miss it.¡± It didn¡¯t look like that was the case. To William, the turtle almost seemed eager for the destruction. This was a little nostalgic, having to stay on his toes to try and be on the good side of beings far stronger than him. The secret realm had been a nice change of pace since all he had to do was try and kill everything around him, but thest few encounters were a little too much for the continuation of his life. Returning to ying nice instead of having to use his fists was wee. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you take whatever you miss? I doubt anything could stop you. Even the serpent in the forest would find it hard.¡± ¡°Too much work to take them. And I should be insulted that you think the little snake can match me,¡± Lord Paddlington said with amusement, ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for my inability to destroy a Magmaheart Goliath with the rules my master created, I would have erased the pitiful beasts the Empire ced in this realm with ease.¡± ¡°I should have known that was the case,¡± William agreed instantly. He wondered what the rtion the Goliath had to the serpent. While the Seedling didn¡¯t follow Sophia¡¯s wishes to the letter, it still tried to follow it in a roundabout way. And it definitely hated the Empire with how often they were called traitors. A lull of silence fell as Lord Paddlington seemed content to look around the crater as if it had never seen sand before, and William was happy to let it do so uninterrupted since he wanted to pass the time as quickly as possible. That was until he was reminded of someone he had overlooked. ¡°When you say we will be kicked out of the realm, does this include everyone who entered? Or just Princess Jin and I?¡± ¡°Everyone,¡± Lord Paddlington replied, ¡°The protections start the removal of all that are tagged as visitors. It does not matter if you are a human, beast, or a nt.¡± ¡°Oh, good,¡± William said with a sigh of relief. He hoped that Ren Bo was camped in a safe area and he would see the annoying kid when they got out. He nced at the unconscious Princess Jin before frowning slightly. If Ren Bo continued pestering her, it wouldn¡¯t matter that he had stayed alive in the secret realm. The princess would probably kill him by ident due to her newfound strength¡­ or it might even be identally on purpose. ¡°You keep staring at her.¡± William flinched when Lord Paddlington¡¯s face was suddenly a few inches from his. ¡°Don¡¯t get too attached. Absorbing the realm stone might have increased her cultivation, but its consequences make it too dangerous. She was lucky it was further damaged after it was fragmented. Otherwise, it would cause instant death. Still, I don¡¯t expect her to live longer than a few days.¡± ¡°What?¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in shock, ¡°Are you being serious?¡± Lord Paddlington nodded, ¡°There should have been more than enough Qi to elevate a cultivator well into the Spirit Severing Realm. However, advancing to that realm requires far more than just Qi. The excess should still be inside her, and it will soon create problems that will kill her.¡± William¡¯s racing heart quickly slowed at hearing the good news. He knew what the turtle was talking about. That must have been how he was rewarded with those three treasures. They must have been formed by this excess Qi. He looked at the princess with admiration, wondering if her Luck had be even more monstrous. ¡°Hm? You are calm. Perhaps you are not as close to this girl as you say.¡± Lord Paddlington sounded like someone that was fishing for gossip. He had no desire to satisfy that, and luckily, the secret realm agreed by interrupting. William almost fell over when the ground started to shake like the world was ending, reminiscent of the time when the Magmaheart Goliaths cracked open thendscape during their fight. ¡°Finally!¡± Lord Paddlington eximed with bright eyes, ¡°I can end that miserable beast¡¯s existence!¡± William watched as the turtle left them behind in the crater to meet whatever it was talking about. He noted the direction it was flying before picking up Princess Jin and jumping out of the crater, but went in the opposite direction. He ran even faster when he nced behind him and saw that a familiar hand wasing out of the sand. Staying behind for any reason when he knew what that Goliath was capable of was foolishness. Interlude: Ren Bo Hates Everything Interlude: Ren Bo Hates Everything ¡°I told you to shut up!¡± Ren Bo activated the array with a sneer, electrocuting the beast sealed inside. The squeals of pain it let out was soothing to his soul, and he wasn¡¯t afraid to show it as he gave it a toothy grin. He had no idea what this spirit beast was called, but it had to be one of the ugliest things he had seen. Then again, it wasn¡¯t like he had seen many live spirit beasts before, with most being rendered into ingredients for alchemy. That was the main reason he bothered to keep the thing alive. It certainly wasn¡¯t because he wanted to keep it as a pet. Ren Bo shuddered in disgust at that image. His elegant self with his beautiful concubines surrounding him, but having this ugly beast ruining the atmosphere in the background. It was a hideous thing with red fur, a yellow scaled underbelly, and little ck marks that resembled immature horns pocked on its body. He sneered again before increasing the pain the array would inflict on the beast in anger at its audacity to ruin such a beautiful thought by existing. ¡°That¡¯s right, scream!¡± Ren Bo snarled before the roars of the beast suddenly stopped. It had fainted. Again. He rolled his eyes and retook his seat, the chair being one of the few things that survived the trip through the vortex. It was hard to keep himself in check when he remembered how much wealth he had lost when his storage pouch failed to survive the vortex. Elder Zhiqing often repeated his warnings of trusting his storage pouch too much, of how it was too unstable to hold anything of actual value, but Ren Bo had always dismissed that. He had bought his storage pouch from the best maker in the Tianxia Empire. None of the pouches the maker had created failed within ten years. Of course, Ren Bo assumed that the maker didn¡¯t think someone with a storage pouch would need protection against dimensional travel. Such travel was nearly unheard of for Qi Gathering cultivators, which was understandable. Unfortunately, he was brought into one of the few that allowed cultivators of his level. He recognized this secret realm. Or, at least, he could match it with the rumors he had heard. Princess Jin''s confidence as she entered the vortex was another massive clue that helped him identify this ce. It was one of the Shards the Imperial family used to train their elites. Ren Bo had been dropped in the middle of some ruins, and he had no intention of wandering out of it. He wouldn¡¯t gamble his life hoping that this was one of the few Shards that a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator like him could survive. And even if that was the case, he was not a fighter. However, since he was not a fighter, the sect gave him plenty of defensive items for protection. Unfortunately, the vortex destroyed most of those, leaving him with the minimal things he always had on his person. That was why he had his formerly pristine robes in tatters, with them barely protecting his modesty while scars marred his exposed skin. Many pests had bothered him right from the start. Still, he couldn¡¯t afford the distraction of taking a Vitality Restoration Pill. He would have gotten devoured by some low-level spirit beast as he tried to heal himself. The need for constant awareness had changed a few days ago when this big dumb beast had wandered in. Ren Bo had almost died at the hands of this stupid thing, giving him a special hatred for it. He had nevere so close to death before, and he intended to make it regret living for the rest of its short life until it was processed into ingredients. His fingers twitched. The thought of how it almost split him in half made him want to torture the beast even while unconscious. But that might be going too far. Killing it would be counterproductive. The pests that frequently attacked him from the start had all but disappeared once Ren Bo captured this enormous beast. He was still able to see them in the distance at the edge of the ruins, right before the tree line, but they never came closer with the captured beast as a deterrent. It was convenient, though he didn¡¯t have to like it. Ren Bo sneered at the unconscious beast again as he traced the long scar across his chest. Such signs of struggle might be attractive to women in sects that focused onbat, but the Jade Healing Sect was very much the opposite. Alchemists from his sect had perfect bodies, and it would take help from an Elder to erase these scars. Unless a higher-up in the sect took pity on him, they would not be healed. And that was unlikely since he was already in an unfavorable position. He shuddered as the image of Elder Yu came to the front of his mind. Ren Bo was many things, but unaware he was not. He knew that he had a problem around beautiful women. He knew he was more proficient in pushing them away than attracting them. However, just like the negatives of Goddess Li Xinyue¡¯s constitution, he had little control over his own. While Li Xinyue had mortals often making fools of themselves and frequently getting killed by going too far, Ren Bo had the same problem with women stronger than him. It had never been so severe to the point of salivating after every beautiful cultivator he had seen, but the presence of Brother Liang changed that. He liked Wei Liang, he really did, but something about him caused Ren Bo to lose his inhibitions the longer they spent time together. The most disastrous was when he spoke with far too much familiarity to Elder Yu. Ren Bo still cowered in fear when he thought of his actions with the terrifying Elder. If he had spoken to any other Nascent Soul Realm cultivator in such a way, even if it was within his own n, there was little doubt all that would be left of him was a smear on the ground. Elder Yu seemed to understand his predicament when she pulled him aside for a ¡®talk,¡¯ but he wasn¡¯t naive to what was demanded of him. It wasn¡¯t told directly, but Ren Bo was to be the keeper of Wei Liang. He couldn¡¯t understand the logic behind that decision. A sentinel would have been a better choice unless this was some sort of mutual training Elder Yu had nned. Wei Liang seemed a little dense to him. A typical meathead with little knowledge of what made alchemy special. While the sentinels of the Jade Healing Sect weren¡¯t expected to be skilled in alchemy, they were supposed to know the basics. He could easily teach that, and the future sentinal''s strange effect on him was a bonus. Ren Bo would gain control over his loss of inhibition, and Wei Liang would be morepetent. Too bad Wei Liang was probably dead by now. Unless Princess Jin was alive and somehow saved him, which was a possibility. Ren Bo couldn¡¯t stop the scowl from forming on his face. Wei Liang was generally likable, but one thing that was grating on his nerves was the future sentinel¡¯s ability to surround himself with Goddess-level cultivators. ¡°He¡¯s probably dead,¡± Ren Bo said out loud, reminding himself Wei Liang¡¯s annoying ability was the least of his concerns. He didn¡¯t know what punishment awaited him if he survived the Shard. Even if it was out of Ren Bo¡¯s control, having the person he was supposed to protect die almost immediately after being assigned was not a good look. He was confident it wouldn¡¯t be too severe since he was a talent that the sect was nurturing, but so was Wei Liang, who was the only prospective sentinel in the entire sect. Ren Bo¡¯s worries were halted when the world started to shake. Violently. The chair he was sitting in toppled over, but right before it did, he jumped out of it. The unconscious beast blinked awake as it let out soft growls of confusion at what was happening, but Ren Bo was focused on the faint roars heard in the distance. He couldn¡¯t see what was making that sound, but he could tell it was almost impossibly far away. He was d it wasn¡¯t near him. His instincts told him that it would mean death. ¡°Oh, will you shut up!¡± Ren Bo looked away from the horizon to the struggling beast when it started to growl loudly. He happily activated the array to punish it. Strangely, it continued to fight and became more frantic as it nced up. He followed the beast¡¯s gaze and smiled. A vortex was forming above him. It was time to go home. Chapter 128: Goodbye Ugly Snake Chapter 128: Goodbye Ugly Snake ¡°Return to your ce, giant.¡± William winced as a vaguely familiar voice boomed behind him. His breath hitched in surprise after he turned to see who was talking. It was the serpent that let him off with a little p on his wrist for stealing, except it was far more massive than he remembered it. The serpent was floating in the sky with its lengthy body fully visible. There were no trees to coil around, unlike in the forest. The Magmaheart Goliath¡¯s head was out of the sand, with its shoulders slowly following as it pulled itself up. It roared in reply at the serpent. ¡°You are receable. Do not force my hand.¡± William winced again before deciding to put more distance between him at the fight about to break out. If the sound of just its voice was ufortable, then anything else might be deadly. ¡°W-What¡¯s happening?¡± He nced down at Princess Jin, who was waking from the nap the turtle had put her in. ¡°Lord Paddlington happened. If you ask why I¡¯m running, there will be a fight behind us.¡± The princess turned her neck to see the standoff and whispered, ¡°The Lord Protector.¡± ¡°This might sound like a stretch, but trust me when I say we must stay away. Don¡¯t try to help the serpent, princess.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t n on doing so,¡± Princess Jin said firmly, to his surprise, ¡°Let me down.¡± William slowed his pace and did so immediately, blinking in surprise when she turned and pulled him behind her. Immediately after, a loud boom deafened him before a st of airbined with sand particles acting like tiny razor des mmed into her. At least, that¡¯s what he assumed the sand would have been like if Princess Jin hadn¡¯t used the Qi shroud to protect them from any effects. Another boom was heard before the princess grabbed him, and his vision blurred. By the time it became clear, he had found that they were far enough that it was hard to make out any distinct features of either the serpent or the giant. But the plumes of sand kicked up from the repeated attacks from their fight were more noticeable than the fighters themselves. ¡°We should be far enough to avoid the aftershocks.¡± William nodded silently before asking something that had been bothering him, ¡°How are you already used to your new cultivation?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± she replied tly, ¡°I only trust myself with the basics, and even then, I can feel how much Qi is wasted with my every move. It will take me years to adjust. Still, an excellent trade-off, if you ask me.¡± ¡°True,¡± William agreed before he trailed off again. The princess¡¯s focus was on the serpent in the distance. It looked small to him, but the eyesight of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm would be exponentially better than his. ¡°Ancestor Sophia gave you a task.¡± ¡°What?¡± William¡¯s voice cracked. She still wasn¡¯t looking at him, but it felt like a massive weight had been put on his shoulders. No matter how friendly they were on the surface, Princess Jin was still part of the imperial family. With Sophia, the Seedling, and Lord Paddlington having feelings about the Empire ranging from disappointment to hatred, this wouldn¡¯t end well for him. ¡°I heard you mention it.¡± Before William could fully process the horrifying realization that the princess truly meant it when she had said she was aware of everything, the Qi shroud came back to life around her, except the intensity was at unmatched levels. The previous times she had done the same, he couldn¡¯t feel much more than a slight tingling on his skin, but this time it felt like he was doused in Qi. ¡°You have benefited greatly. Did you find the boy?¡± William stiffened at hearing the serpent¡¯s voice speak as if it was right beside them. He could still see the plumes of sand in the horizon, so it was simply some type of voice projection. ¡°The Oasis of Respite gave me some opportunities, honored protector,¡± Princess Jin¡¯s voice didn¡¯t show any sign of the visible strain she was under to maintain the thick Qi shroud, ¡°As for the boy, I never came across him.¡¯ He stared at the princess in surprise. ¡°Shame. No matter. Inform your Elders that the situation is out of control. I need their help.¡± Princess Jin paused momentarily before saying, ¡°Yes, honored protector.¡± William kept his mouth shut even though there was no furthermunication from the serpent. The princess still had the Qi shroud ring around her, keeping him submerged for protection. There was a faint shriek heard for the first time at this distance as arger-than-usual plume of sand billowed in the distance. The serpent must have finished the fight. Unfortunately for it, it seemed like this was the moment Lord Paddlington was waiting for. ¡°THANK YOU FOR TAKING CARE OF THE ABOMINATION, UGLY SNAKE. YOUR MASTER IS A GENIUS FOR BEING ABLE TO COPY THE EMPRESS¡¯S MARK.¡± William grunted in pain before he felt the Qi surrounding him thickening even more. He gave Princess Jin a grateful look when he found that it dulled his senses, or at least his hearing. ¡°I HAVE BEEN WAITING. FOR TOO LONG.¡± The princess might have saved his hearing, but it didn¡¯t stop either of them from flinching in surprise when the sky was blotted out. All he could see was the underside of Lord Paddlington¡¯s shell. ¡°TAKING YOUR LIFE IS ONLY THE START.¡± ¡°Stay close, Wei Liang,¡± Princess Jin ordered with a strained voice, pulling him into a loose hug, ¡°I have a feeling Ancestor Sophia¡¯s creation will overdo it if the past actions mean anything.¡± He couldn¡¯t agree more. Lord Paddlington was unnecessarily showy, especially when the only witnesses were himself and the princess. Even though the princess seemed strangely distant to the idea of the serpent meeting its end, he wasn¡¯t keen on her seeing so much. It might bring an outburst of emotion that would be detrimental to his future in the Tianxia Empire. [Lord Paddlington: Do not move.] William barely finished reading the system alert when Lord Paddlington made its move. Nothing exotic orplex. No shy techniques or even an attack with Qi involved. Just a simple movement of its flipper. Of course, to him, it felt like the world was ending. The air disced by Lord Paddlington¡¯s flipper descending stripped a few meters of sand from the surroundings, with Princess Jin being the only reason he hadn¡¯t been blown away along them. He could see that she feared what was toe when the flipper actually crashed into the desert, and a tiny part of him felt the same, but he trusted that the turtle didn¡¯t want them dead. Thankfully, William had been right. It sounded like a muffled explosion when Lord Paddlington¡¯s flipper made contact with the ground. The plumes of sand that were kicked up during the fight between the serpent and the giant were quickly dwarfed, making anyparison between them unfair to even think of. A massive wall of sand formed at the spot of impact, rising all the way till it hit Lord Paddlington¡¯s shell in the sky before it quickly rippled outward. It was like the desert was getting turned inside out. ¡°I¡¯m almost depleted,¡± Princess Jin said quickly, ¡°Reinforce yourself!¡± William paled in fear as he frantically tried to ready his Qi for the use of his trump card. But it was impossible. A second was far too much time. The wall of sand reached them in a fraction of that and was about to m into them before a transparent barrier protected them as it passed by. ¡°¡­ Looks like we weren¡¯t forgotten, but that might have been just the beginning.¡± He nodded, staring at the destruction before them. The desert was no longer a desert. All the sand was gone, and the ground was demolished beyond reason. It was more simr to the hellscape they had just got out of. [Lord Paddlington: We will meet again. Watch yourpanion closely. You will require her in the future.] William nced at the alert before he felt the ground shake violently. Lord Paddlington pulled its flipper up before mming it back down even with even greater force, and this time it seemed like it broke the entire realm. The sky started to shift colors, the ground formed meters-thick cracks as far as the eyes could see, andva spewed into the air. He wasing to the realization that the turtle wasn¡¯t satisfied with waiting for the secret realm to fall apart. It wanted to expedite it. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± Princess Jin yelled over the sounds of the apocalypse around them, ¡°Grab onto me! We¡¯re about to leave!¡± William wasn¡¯t hesitant and wrapped his arms around the princess before his eyes followed where she was looking. There was a familiar vortex directly above them. They started to be lifted into the air, just in time to avoid the chasm that opened where they were standing. He shuddered when he sensed someone watching him and looked up to see Lord Paddlington staring directly at them. Right when they reached the opening of the vortex, he saw the turtle open its mouth. A ball of light formed between the opening, glowing brighter than the sun. Thest thing William saw before darkness surrounded him was a massive beam of energy barreling down to the already-broken ground, likely seeking toplete the destruction. Chapter 129: Returning to Tianxia Chapter 129: Returning to Tianxia With Princess Jin as a travelpanion this time around through the vortex, he could stay conscious throughout the trip. Not that there was anything interesting to see. There were asional swirls of something hazy that they passed through without issue, but other than that, it was all just darkness. William suspected the princess had something to do with that. There was nothing as obvious as the Qi shroud that kept him undetected by the serpent. Still, he could feel the slight tingle on his skin that apanied foreign Qi touching him. ¡°We¡¯re almost there,¡± Princess Jin said quietly as she stared into the distance, ¡°Trust in me, Wei Liang.¡± He did. Even more so after her actions before they left the secret realm, but he didn¡¯t get the chance to reply. William saw a white light appear ahead. It seemed to be at the edge of his vision, but before he knew it, the darkness of the vortex disappeared to reveal a stretch of grassynd below them. Four people seemed to have been waiting for them since they immediately stood up and stared at them. William and Princess Jin were steadily descending to the ground in a controlled matter, again, because of her new capabilities. Ren Bo apparently had other means. ¡°Stay still, you stupid beast!¡± A very familiar spirit beast was snarling ferociously as it tried to dislodge the boy using it as a mount. The boy and beast sped past them as they dropped like a rock. But that was more than enough for William to see Ren Bo¡¯s status and the beast he was riding. [Name: Ren Bo | Level: 41] [Name: Draebern | Level: 49] He could see that whatever Ren Bo went through in the secret realm, it hadn¡¯t been the smooth ride he had assumed the boy would experience. Scars littered his body, with his robes in tatters and looking like they would disintegrate the more he fought with the Draebern. William nced at Princess Jin, who looked like she couldn¡¯t be bothered to try and help Ren Bo. She already disliked him when she was in the Qi Gathering Realm. Now that she might as well be a literal goddess, as Ren Bo was fond of calling her,pared to her weaker self, it wasn¡¯t surprising that she didn¡¯t lift a finger to help. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t necessary. A person on the ground made their move. The snarls of the Draebern abruptly cut off, and so was its head. Ren Bo was casually lifted off the still-falling dead beast and directed tond on the ground gently. The dead Draebern, on the other hand, crashed into the ground with a sickening crunch. William and Princess Jinnded soon after, with the two men and two women bowing deeply to the princess. ¡°Congrattions onpleting your first Shard, Princess Jin!¡± ¡°Brother Liang! Goddess Prin-URKH!¡± William winced when Ren Bo started clutching at his throat before he dropped to all fours. Still the same old Ren Bo with little to no self-control. If anything, it got worse if he thought being so familiar with the princess was eptable when four cultivators bowed to her. ¡°Mind your manners, boy.¡± A woman named Ying said harshly without changing her position. He quickly nced at their basic status, and they all had something simr. Their names were viewable, but their level had question marks. What threw him off was that all the names were a single word. These must be the guards that Princess Jin mentioned, and they were now weaker than her. This would be an interesting interaction. ¡°Thank you, Kai,¡± Princess Jin said with a slight nod, ¡°Rise. All of you.¡± William fidgeted in his spot when a few guards gave him odd looks as if they were evaluating his worth. That didn¡¯tst more than a moment before they all focused on the princess. ¡°We have alerted the Lord of your return, Princess Jin,¡± Kai reported, ¡°He would have waited for you, but he is needed in the city. The Imperial Protectors have been involved in the investigation of the unscheduled entry into the Shard. They have been waiting for your return.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Princess Jin acknowledged stiffly, ¡°How serious is it?¡± ¡°It initially involved the rank and file, but something has changed recently,¡± Kai¡¯s voice wavered, ¡°The Lord Protector himself has arrived.¡± William assumed that this ¡®Lord Protector¡¯ was not the serpent. Not when Lord Paddlington has likely taken its life. Perhaps this was a title given to the one with the highest position outside the obvious. That gave him chills. If that guess was true, someone with power only dwarfed by the Emperor and perhaps the Empire¡¯s Elders had arrived. Princess Jin didn¡¯t bother to hide her nervousness as she took a deep breath. ¡°Very well. Let¡¯s return to the city. I¡¯m in dire need of a change of clothes. And so are mypanions.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Kai said immediately before turning to a woman named Mei and ordering, ¡°Prepare the spirit boat for travel.¡± William wasn¡¯t fazed at the sudden appearance of a luxurious spirit boat ten times the size Ren Bo had pulled out before the secret realm. Nor did he protest the rough way Ren Bo was picked up. ¡°Wait! My ingredients! Bring that beast along!¡± They must have felt some pity for him since the decapitated Draebern, both the body and the head, disappeared. Likely into a storage pouch or a spatial object. ¡°We will be at Xuanjing City shortly, Princess Jin. May I have permission to give you ess to the spirit boat?¡± Princess Jin wordlessly held out her hand. Kai pressed his thumb in the center of her palm before he flinched back like he was electrocuted. ¡°N-Nascent Soul?¡± Kai stammered, ¡°How? Princess-No, Your Highness, have you truly reached the Nascent Soul Realm?¡± It looked like Kai didn¡¯t trust his own senses. William didn¡¯t me him. He had personally experienced the ridiculous way Princess Jin had risen to her current cultivation, and even he could barely believe it. ¡°It seems that I have, though I sense that something is missing. I need to ask grandfather about it.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Kai nodded, still in awe, ¡°I¡¯m sure the lord will be ecstatic! Your Highness, this means you will be free.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s not get too far ahead of ourselves,¡± Princess Jin held up a hand to stop Kai from speaking further, ¡°Give Wei Liang ess so we can stop wasting time.¡± ¡°Yes!¡± William had been standing quietly to the side, and he stayed quiet as he held out his hand. His eye twitched when Kai put more pressure on his palm than was necessary. ¡°Your Highness, this boy had his arms around your venerable self.¡± ¡°And?¡± Princess Jin moved to stand between Kai and William, acting as a sort of barrier as they walked to the waiting spirit boat. ¡°You are no longer as before, Your Highness. The penalty for such a thing is the removal of the limbs.¡± William already felt like Kai had something against both him and Ren Bo. The eagerness in the man¡¯s voice when talking about limb removal only confirmed this further. When he first came to this world, he got a quest to make Elder Huang kneel because the man spoke rudely. He wished a side quest was offered now. One that involved Kai and something much worse than simple kneeling. It would be deserved for casually suggesting that cutting off his arms like it was reasonable. This was besides the fact that William could probably regrow the arms with pills. Kai didn¡¯t know that. ¡°I¡¯m not aware of Wei Liang acting so brazen,¡± Princess Jin stared threateningly at Kai, ¡°This must be your hallucination, and I will not appreciate it if anyone else says something so untrue.¡± Kai received the message and straightened his back before nodding firmly, ¡°Understood, Your Highness.¡± William really should continue to stay silent. There was no reason to speak to someone who clearly held ill will toward him, but he knew that staying quiet would be an expected thing shortly. Especially if individuals ranked as high as this Lord Protector were near him. After almost meeting death multiple times to save Princess Jin¡¯s life, he wasn¡¯t in the mood to let this nobody speak down to him. Still, he couldn¡¯t be entirely without tact. A minor insult would be enough since Kai was of a higher cultivation than William. Something simple like not speaking to the man with the proper respect that he expected from weaker cultivators. ¡°Are any of my sect¡¯s Elders here? Contact Elder Yu if you haven¡¯t done so already.¡± The re Kai shot him could kill, and if Princess Jin didn¡¯t separate them, William was sure it would. He didn¡¯t regret it. Nor did he care that he didn¡¯t get an answer. His goal was aplished. When they boarded the spirit boat and the guards were busy makingst-second preparations to fly, Princess Jin was finally left alone for a moment. ¡°Did you really need to do that?¡± Princess Jin asked, giving her attention to William for the first time since they left the secret realm. ¡°Yes,¡± William shrugged, ¡°He spoke of mutting me. If anything, he¡¯s lucky I¡¯m weaker than him right now.¡± If he hadn¡¯t been convinced that Princess Jin was on his side, her following action certainly did. ¡°What¡¯re you doing?!¡± William gasped as he tried to arch his back to get away from the princess. ¡°You¡¯re just so cute!¡± Princess Jin squealed as she hugged him tightly, ¡°You try to act so tough, but you look like an angry kitten!¡± He would have protested more. But when Kai looked at them with visible irritation, he decided to let it be. Besides, he should have known the sudden gap between their cultivation levels would have emboldened Princess Jin to do this. She had wanted to even before they were sucked into the vortex. Chapter 130: Heaven-Tier Martial Skill Chapter 130: Heaven-Tier Martial Skill William opened his eyes when he heard a muffled grunt. Ren Bo stared at him pleadingly as if he could help with his predicament. ¡°You should be gagged, Ren Bo,¡± William said quietly, ¡°You actually have a chance of returning to Xuanjing City with your life this way.¡± The trip back to Xuanjing City was only supposed to take an hour tops, but that was far too much time for Ren Bo not to put his foot in his mouth. Less than a minute in, one of the guards had ended up gagging him before tying him to the railing next to William. It also didn¡¯t help that all of the guards learned Princess Jin was in the Nascent Soul Realm. The fawning that ensued was nauseating as they praised the princess. Mainly about how they always knew she had a great future and how she had always been the genius of Xuanjing City. He would have interjected to try and save Princess Jin from the extreme brown-nosing, but it seemed that she was enjoying it. It was in the middle of this that Ren Bo decided it was a great time to have one of his outbursts. So yes, he really did think that leaving him gagged and tied up was for the better. William ignored the muffled protests and closed his eyes again, pretending to be meditating. He had intended to use the time to review the Heaven-tier martial skill he had yet to pick, but after seeing how Princess Jin and Ren Bo were both in their version of a rxation state, it killed his mood. He felt that he deserved a little break, too, and instead of reading what martial skills were avable to him, he should do something he enjoyed. Besides, knowing his impatience and asional rashness, there was a chance he might pick a martial skill that seemed impressive at first nce but didn¡¯t meet his long-term needs. The smart choice was to have someone knowledgeable guide him, as he had nned when he received the reward in the secret realm. Of course, that resolve onlysted a few minutes before he was fed up with listening to the guards try to one-up each other about how special Princess Jin was. There was nothing else to do other than eavesdrop. Besides, when had he ever done the smart thing when it wasn¡¯t absolutely necessary? William expanded the reward to see the choices. [View the 5 Heaven-Tier Martial Skills} [Y/N] [epted] [WARNING | Heaven-Tier Martial Skills are shown without consideration of any limitation due to the user¡¯s cultivation base] [Choosing a Heaven-Tier Martial Skill will also give ess to the skill¡¯s corresponding Earth-Tier and Human-Tier Martial Skills] He paused his reading, wanting to smack himself for thinking he would be able to use a Heaven-Tier Skill immediately. Of course, he needed to learn them like everyone else. Human-Tier Martial Skills were the lowest level that could be found. It wasn¡¯t to say they were all bad. There were Human-Tier skills that needed to be learned before graduation to the corresponding Earth-Tier skill and then to the Heaven-Tier skill. Those were the good ones. Of the martial skills William learned from the Jade Healing Sect, they were all the kind that would be considered trash. After he mastered them, that would be it. There was no skill manual or jade token that would teach him the next level so that they would be useful when he had a higher cultivation realm. The only choice was to create an Earth-Tier skill himself if he really wanted to. Which he didn¡¯t. Not with the basic skills he had learned. It would be a waste of time when it would be far quicker to learn an entirely new skill. However, the martial skill he created from scratch, or rather, entirely by ident, would be an excellent candidate. If he could multiply his base attributes by five times, even when he was in the Foundation Establishment Realm, it would be a game changer. It would be an evenrger trump card than it already was. Anything that would let him fight with cultivators in a higher major realm would be invaluable. William continued to read the system messages. [WARNING | epting a Heaven-Tier Martial Skill will incapacitate the user for a variable amount of time] [Listing Heaven-Tier Martial Skills] [Name: Divine Dragon w] [Description: A swipe of the hand that summons a dragon w made of Qi, which can grab and crush enemies from afar. The w can also bebined with the user¡¯s Dao, creating unique variations that increase the effectiveness of the skill. Overuse of the skill will cause the user to take on draconic traits.] [Name: Celestial Lotus Palm] [Description: A palm strike that creates arge lotus flower made of qi, which can envelop and trap targets inside. The lotus flower can also release a fragrance that can calm the mind and heal the body or a poison that can corrode the soul. Using either fragrance or poison will cause the user to experience the reverse of the targets inside the lotus flower.] [Name: Divine Phoenix Feather] [Description: A skill that allows the user to transform into a phoenix, which can fly and dodge any attack. The phoenix can also heal any wound and regenerate any lost limb, making the user virtually immortal while the skill is active. The overuse of the skill will attract the attention of the Immortal Phoenix, who will seek to im your soul for its descendants.] [Name: Heaven Shattering Fist] [Description: A punch that unleashes a shockwave of pure Qi, capable of shattering mountains and cracking the sky. The shockwave can travel for hundreds of miles, destroying anything in its path.] [Name: Nine Suns Palm] [Description: A palm strike that emits up to nine beams of golden light, each representing one of the nine suns in the ancient legend. The beams can pierce through any defense and burn anything they touch, including the very soul of the targets. A heavy price is exacted after each use of this skill, crippling the user to a state equal to the weakest of their cultivation realm until healed.] He reread the avable skills a few times before quicklying to ept that there would be no choices made today. Not even he was rash enough to choose any of these with the penalties they had. That didn¡¯t prevent his heart from speeding up in excitement. The only martial skill without a penalty, Heaven Shattering Fist, seemed like a ridiculously overpowered punch. Not much different from what he was doing now in his fights, only scaled up to the power of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm or whatever was needed to use these Heaven-Tier skills. That meant that the Heaven Shatters Fist was likely the safe choice between these five and probably the one with the lowest ceiling in terms of power. William didn¡¯t immediately discard the idea of choosing it, but it certainly put it at a disadvantage. He could only see it being closed if the penalties of the other skills simply weren¡¯t worth the benefits. Another thing he noticed about the skills was that most of them seemed to be ranged attacks. The thing that he was sorely missing in his repertoire. Sophia hadn¡¯t been lying when she said he would be offered Heaven-Tier skills mostpatible with him. ¡°Wei Liang, get up.¡± He opened his eyes to see Princess Jin before him in pristine new clothes while holding folded robes in her arms. ¡°We¡¯re less than a minute away.¡± He looked around and saw that he was the only one unprepared to disembark. Ren Bo was no longer tied up beside him and had acquired in white robes that covered his new scars. The boy still looked miserable, though. ¡°Is that for me?¡± William asked as he pointed at the clothes in her arms. ¡°It is,¡± Princess Jin leaned down as she handed them to him, her voice dropped to a whisper, ¡°Make no mention of the Heart or the destruction of the Shard. We must be careful in front of the Lord Protector.¡± William didn¡¯t get the chance to reply and was left holding his new clothes. He was already going to do what the princess suggested, but it was good to know they were on the same page. Chapter 131: Too Many High-Level Cultivators Chapter 131: Too Many High-Level Cultivators He quickly threw on his recement robes and joined the princess at the front, looking down to see the spirit boat approaching the city walls. The gold dragons coiled around the entrance gate pulsed, making some of the mortals panic before they noticed the massive spirit board floating above them. ¡°This was not what I had hoped to see,¡± Princess Jin said in a low voice. ¡°What do you mean?¡± William asked as he noticed the asional cultivator gaping at the spirit boat. ¡°Spirit boats are not allowed entry into the city. Grandfather will not overtly show such favor to keep therge ns appeased. Either the Lord Protector has takenmand, or the ns already know of what happened.¡± ¡°Why would it be an issue if the ns know?¡± William didn¡¯t get an answer and wouldn¡¯t get one since Princess Jin didn¡¯t seem interested in answering. ¡°Head to the pce.¡± He snapped his head up, looking away from the cultivators staring at them, and narrowed his eyes in the direction where it originated. Even from outside the city, he could spot the pce without issue. There was nothing else that towered over the city quite like the gaudy, gold-decorated pce. ¡°That was my grandfather¡¯s voice,¡± Princess Jin said faintly. He stayed silent, still not really understanding why this was a problem. It was starting to seem like an internal family issue that he had no business knowing, but even that made little sense to him. After all, Princess Jin¡¯s grandfather provided her that life-saving token. Surely, that meant they were on good terms. The spirit boat had passed over the gate and was slowly floating toward the pce. It cast arge shadow over the mortals going about their daily lives, causing most on the bustling street to grind to a halt. The princess hadn¡¯t been lying when she said there was a strict no-fly zone above the city. The residents wouldn¡¯t have been so shocked if this happened asionally. William could see the Phoenix¡¯s Nest to their right and the Treasure Pavilion directly before them. It felt like a lifetime ago that he had seen them. He thought about Mei Lingxi, the overly flirtatious manager of the Treasure Pavilion who had gifted him the Elemental Gauntlet. Something that he still wore on his hand and was just as useless as ever because he didn¡¯t have enough Spiritual Energy. That made little sense unless its effects were more than he had ever imagined. ¡°Do not make eye contact with anyone unless they are speaking to you. Follow my lead.¡± William blinked, realizing that they were already at the pce grounds. The spirit boat was slowly descending to the ground. He gave the princess a slight nod before trying to smoothen his robes, suddenly nervous about what and who he was about to face. The question to Kai hadn¡¯t been purely to enrage him. While that was a wee side benefit, he would wee someone from the sect to be there. He might not have any close rtionships with the Inner Court Elders in the sect, but it would beforting to have someone of authority from where he belonged. When the spirit boatnded on the ground softly, a guard directed Ren Bo to disembark. Which was apparently jumping over the side of the spirit boat. The boy had finally been untied and ungagged, but he thankfully kept his senses. It seemed that the fright of who was waiting for them killed any stupidity in him. He winced, realizing that Ren Bo wasn¡¯t forgiven for his antics. The jump was high enough that it would sting for the kid, but nothing too serious. However, the same jump would be nothing for him, so he pushed against the railing, ready to get off the spirit boat and face whatever was toe. ¡°It¡¯s best not to be so uncouth,¡± Princess Jin stopped him by cing a hand on his shoulder. William stiffened when he felt her Qi thinly surround him before he was smoothly lifted off the deck. Princess Jin was right in front of him as they descended to the ground before gentlynding. A sharp contrast to what Ren Bo had experienced in disembarking the spirit boat. At this point, he thought the bullying was going too far, but he didn¡¯t dare to open his mouth. Not with the people that were waiting for him. Four people were before him, all with their basic status hidden with question marks. It meant they were all at the Nascent Soul Realm at the minimum. William met Elder Yu¡¯s eyes, and a bit of his nerves disappeared when she gave him a slight nod before looking away. She was the only one that he recognized, with the rest of them being men he didn¡¯t recognize. They couldn¡¯t look more different from each other. There was one that looked like an old man who seemed suspiciously weak with the way he used the cane to support himself. He stood beside Elder Yu, slightly behind the two other men present. Those were the two William had a hard time not staring at. Even with Princess Jin¡¯s warning of not making eye contact, it felt like something was forcing his eyes to look at them. Nothing was alike between them. Their appearances, their outfits, their auras. One had a soft gaze, the other a harsh re. One wore elegant robes that showed off his style, the other wore practical clothes that served its purpose. One man was a stunning vision of beauty, the other a ssic model of manliness. William wanted to cry in relief when he saw Princess Jin bow deeply to them, with the guards and Ren Bo following. He had never been so happy to bow to anyone before. Anything to avoid looking at them. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯tst long. ¡°No need for such formality, children,¡± A voice said warmly, ¡°You all deserve to stand straight for safely leaving the Shard.¡± ¡°Yes, what an achievement.¡± Whoever said that was not nearly as impressed, ¡°But Brother Xue is right. Rise, there is no time for this nonsense.¡± William did as ordered, finding that all eyes were on Princess Jin, even Elder Yu¡¯s. She looked at the princess with tant surprise, the most expressive he had seen the Elder. They must have finally clued into the fact that she hade back from the secret realm many, many major realms above than before. ¡°Jin¡¯er¡­ how? What happened to you?¡± ¡°Grandfather,¡± Princess Jin bowed slightly, ¡°I was lucky.¡± That was an understatement, but William was more focused on the old man the princess called grandfather. This was not the same person as the specter that appeared after the life-saving measure was used. He nced at Princess Jin before putting it aside. This was not the time to be distracted. ¡°Lucky is one word to describe it,¡± the man with the permanent scowl said roughly, ¡°Girl, with how much you benefited, you must know why we aren¡¯t able to contact the serpent inside the Shard.¡± ¡°The Lord Protector of the Shard?¡± Princess Jin asked curiously, ¡°I spoke to him briefly. He directed me to the Oasis of Respite, but I never saw him after that.¡± ¡°Liu Feng,¡± the far too beautiful man interrupted, ¡°Do you really think this is the time? You sense what is in store for the princess.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve lost contact with a Shard, Brother Xue!¡± Liu Feng roared, ¡°That takes precedence over all!¡± ¡°Peace, my friend. Maybe she isn¡¯t the only one that has answers.¡± William stiffened when they turned to them. ¡°Princess Jin will be undergoing Heavenly Tribtion within the next hour,¡± Lian Xue revealed, ¡°It¡¯s best to have her taken to an area where she has the greatest chance to seed. But the Lord Protector is in the right. He must put the well-being of the Empire before all, even a valued member of the Imperial family. If the princess isn¡¯t sessful in her tribtion, we may lose the only source of answers.¡± These were all flowery words. Even though the princess told him to stay quiet, it would be foolish to do so when this Lian Xue kept looking at him pointedly. He wasn¡¯t being forced to speak out, but it was hard not to under the invisible pressure. William moved forward a step, ignoring the warning look the princess gave him while making sure to get Elder Yu¡¯s expression. She seemed indifferent. That was enough for him. ¡°Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I have seen whatever Princess Jin has. I will be able to answer whatever questions you might have for her.¡± Chapter 132: The Grand Elder Is Kind Chapter 132: The Grand Elder Is Kind ¡°Marvelous!¡± Lian Xue said with a bright smile, ¡°Brother Feng, do you want to send one of the Imperial Protectors to escort Princess Jin to the capital?¡± The Lord Protector didn¡¯t reply immediately, switching his focus between William and Princess Jin. ¡°Girl, is he telling the truth?¡± ¡°Yes, Lord Protector,¡± Princess Jin confirmed without hesitation, adding, ¡°I believe he would be more suited. There were times I had been unconscious, fully expecting to meet my end, but Wei Liang protected my life.¡± William thought that was a nice addition. Might even get him some points in his favor for saving someone from the imperial family, even if it was the branch family. Now, he had to think about a coherent story that wasn¡¯t far from the truth to avoid being caught lying. The Lord Protector grunted in acknowledgment before turning to Lian Xue. ¡°I¡¯ll escort her myself. The Elders will hound me for centuries if I let anything happen to such a young Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. The boy is your responsibility anyway, Brother Xue. Keep me informed.¡± ¡°May I apany Jin¡¯er, Lord Protector?¡± Princess Jin¡¯s grandfather asked nervously. ¡°No, you will need to stay to represent the Empire. If Princess Jin survives the tribtion, I will summon you for the adoption ceremony.¡± William could already tell that the Lord Protector was a brusque man with little patience for small talk, but that didn¡¯t seem conducive to Princess Jin¡¯s mental state. He could see that she was struggling to contain her fear after learning that she would experience a heavenly tribtion, and the casual talk of her failing did not help. He hadn¡¯t researched the heavenly tribtions closely since it wouldn¡¯t be anything that he would encounter at his cultivation level. Still, the mostmon, well-known fact was that it was the barrier between the realms of Spirit Severing and Dao Seeking, with another tribtion an order of magnitude stronger experienced before bing an Immortal. There was nothing, from what William could remember, about the heavenly tribtion being required to advance into the Nascent Soul Realm. And with how pale Princess Jin¡¯s face had turned, she was as clueless as him. The Lord Protector seemed finished with being involved in any conversation as he stormed in William¡¯s direction. He almost thought it was something he did, but realized the man was looking at the princess. That should have been obvious. But the man¡¯s intensity made William more nervous the closer he was. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± the Lord Protector sped his palm on Princess Jin¡¯s shoulder, ¡°I would rather not have the heavenly tribtion form above the city-¡± He froze like a frightened animal when the man cut himself off and suddenly stared at him like he had personally offended the Lord Protector¡¯s past nine generations of family. ¡°You-¡± the Lord Protector let out a disgusted sound, ¡°You are reckless, boy. If I had more time, I would flog you for such stupid behavior. Taking on so much impurity at your age, tsk.¡± William was left staring at nothing when the Lord Protector and Princess Jin disappeared before his eyes. ¡°Yanhua.¡± He flinched, turning to see Lian Xue staring at him with narrowed eyes, just as unhappy with him as the Lord Protector. ¡°You were the one that tested this disciple. Did you not teach him the basics of alchemy? This is clearly pill impurity that has built up inside him.¡± ¡°This is my mistake, Grand Elder,¡± Elder Yu dipped her head slightly, epting the me. It felt to William like his ears started ringing. Too many things had been revealed to him in just three exchanges. Elder Yu¡¯s full name was Yu Yanhua. This ridiculously beautiful man, barely a level below Elder Yu¡¯s appearance, was the Grand Elder of the Jade Healing Sect. And for some reason, Elder Yu readily epted me for something Ren Bo had helped him with. She must know that this was the case. ¡°Your mistake, but the consequence will only fall on this child!¡± The Grand Elder seemed irate for William, making him want to open his mouth to defend Elder Yu. But just as he was about to, he was interrupted. ¡°I will dedicate my time to Disciple Wei until this is corrected.¡± ¡°You are a sentinel, Yanhua,¡± the Grand Elder waved off her offer, ¡°It would be better if someone specialized in healing takes the task.¡± ¡°Er, Elder Yu? Grand Elder?¡± William asked hesitantly, continuing when he had their attention, ¡°I was aware of the consequences of taking too many pills. Ren Bo handed me the book that exined it when I was in the clinic.¡± ¡°¡­ I see,¡± the Grand Elder looked at Ren Bo, who had seeded in making himself invisible till now. Luckily for him and unlucky for William, the Grand Elder turned back, ¡°Then you know that with the amount of impurity in your body, it will take years for you to cultivate at a reasonable speed. Even then, that isn¡¯t guaranteed.¡± William did not know that. Nor did he believe it. He honestly trusted the system with the status of his body and thoroughly believed that in a short two months, he would be mostly fine. However, it wasn¡¯t like he could tell the Grand Elder this. ¡°It was unavoidable, Grand Elder. If I didn¡¯t take the pills, I doubt I would have lived to escape the Shard.¡± The Grand Elder hummed as he crossed his arms, tapping his well-manicured fingers on his forearm. ¡°So be it. Even if you didn¡¯t have talent yourself, it would only be right to help you as much as we can due to you being a child of my sect. Princess Jin¡¯s clear affection toward you can only help. I will ask Brother Feng for assistance if necessary.¡± William stared at him a little dumbly, never having expected someone to offer so much help. Then again, it only made sense since this was the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s Grand Elder. He must genuinely want the best for the disciples. ¡°Thank you, Grand Elder,¡± William¡¯s voice wavered. He likely didn¡¯t need the help, but it was nice to know there was a cushion to soften his fall if necessary. ¡°And Yanhua,¡± the Grand Elder looked at Elder Yu apologetically, ¡°I should not have assumed. I hope you forgive me.¡± ¡°You were not incorrect,¡± Elder Yu shook her head, ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for Ren Bo, Wei Liang might have left the Outer Court ignorant of the dangers.¡± The Grand Elder chuckled, ¡°Then we are both at fault. Let¡¯s not embarrass ourselves in front of our disciples any further. Allow me a moment to take care of Disciple Bo. He looks more frightened the longer he¡¯s near the guards.¡± William willingly bowed his head to show respect as the man practically glided to Ren Bo, leaving him with Elder Yu beside him. ¡°How many pills did Elder Huang give you?¡± Elder Yu asked suddenly. He paused before saying unsurely, ¡°Maybe twenty-five? Thirty?¡± ¡°So you used it like a sweet treat,¡± Elder Yu said nkly, ¡°I¡¯m not sure how you managed to take around twenty pills of that quality. It¡¯s toote to change what has alreadye to pass, but be ready for some painful rehabilitation. I will not allow a prospect like you to stall at the Core Formation Realm because of foolishness.¡± ¡°¡­ I promise that I feel fine, Elder Yu.¡± William couldn¡¯t tell her that nothing would happen to him, but he did want to reassure her somehow. That was a mistake. Elder Yu gave him a look that showed just how furious she was before it disappeared, as if he imagined it. ¡°I will judge that after your Qi pathways are inspected.¡± William nodded quickly, expecting that her anger would disappear soon enough. He guessed she thought it was as serious as the Grand Elder assumed. That was not the case. ¡°The Grand Elder is kind,¡± William said, hoping that praising the man would improve Elder Yu¡¯s mood. ¡°Yes.¡± He decided to shut up after that. Somehow, she became even more closed off than usual. Chapter 133: Wei "The Pill Popper" Liang Chapter 133: Wei "The Pill Popper" Liang William was saved from himself when the Grand Elder returned with Ren Bo after dismissing the guards. It baffled him that Kai bothered to waste the energy to give him a look before leaving, but with the system not bothering to acknowledge the man''s existence by giving him a quest to humiliate him, he tried to let it go. Keyword was tried. He narrowed his eyes slightly at Kai as they locked eyes. Not enough to seem uncouth in front of the Grand Elder, but plenty to show the guard that he wouldn¡¯t be cowed. He idly wondered if the secret realm raised his tolerance of risk. Kai was likely a Core Formation Realm cultivator, and could easily punt him out of existence. ¡°There¡¯s no reason to stay here any longer,¡± the Grand Elder announced, ¡°Both of you are in need of recovery, and I¡¯m not keen on letting my sect¡¯s children remain in such a state when unnecessary. Return to the Outer Court with Elder Yu. I will go to the Inner Court and call on the needed Elders for healing.¡± William was confused. He thought there would be a questioning. And he wasn¡¯t the only one who was confused, so he was happy not to have to voice that confusion. ¡°Senior Lian, what am I to say to the Lord Protector?¡± He had almost forgotten that Princess Jin¡¯s grandfather was still present, and he was convinced that he wasn¡¯t alone in his forgetfulness. The Grand Elder gave him a look of surprise and said, ¡°I suppose Brother Feng would give you trouble if I skipped the formalities.¡± ¡°Grand Elder?¡± William was starting to think he never intended to ask questions. ¡°Come now, you didn¡¯t think I would expect you to know why the Empire lost contact with the Shard, did you?¡± The Grand Elder paused before putting on an exaggerated look of suspicion, ¡°Unless you do know?¡± William shook his head, not wanting to talk himself into a blunder. The Grand Elder beamed, ¡°There we go. Brother Feng is under pressure, so he is willing to look into every avenue, no matter how slim.¡± He stayed silent as the Grand Elder assured the nervous Prince of Xuanjing City that everything would be fine before dismissing him. It brought up the question of how influential the Grand Elder of the Jade Healing Sect really was. It seemed to William that the man had a tremendous amount of sway over the Imperials, to the point where he casually discarded an order by the Lord Protector. ¡°Good. Now that this is settled, let¡¯s get you both back to the sect.¡± The Grand Elder raised his arm, pointing at nothing in particr before bringing his arm down in a smooth motion. It would have looked silly if not for the tear in space opening as if his finger sliced it into existence. ¡°Even now, creating portals amazes me,¡± the Grand Eldermented as he looked at them with a slight smile, ¡°Step through. It will lead you directly to the clinic.¡± ¡°Thank you, Grand Elder!¡± Ren Bo didn¡¯t dy and practically jumped in, looking eager to escape. William took a moment to give the slightest of bows to Princess Jin¡¯s grandfather before asking, ¡°Can I be updated on the princess¡¯s status? She may be far beyond my cultivation now, but our experience in the Shard caused us to form a close bond.¡± ¡°¡­ Yes,¡± the Prince replied stiffly, ¡°Though it would be better to ask Senior Lian. He will be able to get far quicker updates from the capitalpared to me.¡± He bowed again in thanks, confused why the old man seemed displeased at him, before turning to the Grand Elder with questioning eyes. ¡°That won¡¯t be an issue, Disciple Wei,¡± the Grand Master said with a chuckle, ¡°But focus on your recovery first. I have no doubt the Empire will spare nothing to prevent your princess from withering away. There will be a long rehabilitation ahead for her. Surviving the heavenly tribtion is only the start. She will then need months to heal the damage from the heavenly lightning before they dare to call it a sess.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William flushed red, suddenly realizing why the Prince of Xuanjing City was displeased. His words implied far more than just friendship with the princess. He was just trying to seem familiar to her. Even Elder Yu had a slight smile on her lips and his blunder. ¡°Thank you, Grand Elder,¡± William decided to copy Ren Bo before he tried to be clever and find a new way to fail. He stepped through the portal and found himself staring at the clinic in the Outer Court. He looked around, taking in the peaceful atmosphere with groups of disciples walking across the well-maintainedndscape to their destination. His lips formed a smile as he thought of staying here for the foreseeable future. It wouldn¡¯t be as busy as living in a mortal city, but after what William had been through, being busy was the opposite of what he wanted. With how concerned the Elders were about his impurity build-up, they would probably be amenable to his desire to turtle up inside the sect. ¡°Little Brother Wei?¡± William stopped admiring thefortable, campus-like atmosphere to look at the person who called his name. He was familiar. [Name: Zheng Tao | Level: 74] The memory snapped into ce. This was the disciple who told him to be safe and pick a farming mission, preventing Ren Bo¡¯s ky friend, whose name he couldn¡¯t remember at all, from dragging him to a mission that was above him at the time. ¡°Brother Zheng,¡± William greeted warmly, ¡°Good to see you again.¡± ¡°What happened to you?¡± Zheng Tao looked him over in concern before rattling off more questions, ¡°This is from a mission, isn¡¯t it? What mission did you pick? Didn¡¯t I tell you to pick farming as your first?¡± ¡°I was too greedy, Brother Zheng. Thankfully, I¡¯m fine now.¡± ¡°So you say.¡± William and Zheng Tao flinched at the unexpected voice and turned to see Elder Yu staring at them with a portal closing behind her. ¡°Zheng Tao, I see you have met the sect¡¯s newest disciple before.¡± ¡°In passing, Elder Yu,¡± Zheng Tao said with his hands sped together as he bowed, ¡°I met this Little Brother at the Mission Hall.¡± ¡°Yes, I heard,¡± Elder Yu said drily, ¡°Did you also know he has taken around twenty Vitality Restoration Pills? And they were in the third grade?¡± ¡°Twenty? Third grade?¡± Zheng Tao looked more horrified with each word, ¡°Little Brother, what made you take so many pills meant for Core Formation Realm cultivators? Do you want to cut off your cultivation path?¡± He paused before looking like something struck him, ¡°Did you already seed in doing so??¡± At this point, William was worried that Zheng Tao might have a heart failure. He remembered the older discipleing off as responsible at first impression, but he had underestimated how much. ¡°He has not,¡± Elder Yu cut in, stopping Zheng Tao from going into a spiral, ¡°Not yet, at least. I will soon be checking to see how much damage has been done, but I need your help.¡± Zheng Tao was still looking at William with a horrified face. Still, he nodded. ¡°Of course, Elder Yu.¡± ¡°I need you to ensure Wei Liang¡¯s education isplete.¡± ¡°That goes without saying, Elder Yu,¡± Zheng Tao puffed up with pride, hisrge, bulky bodybined with his naturally fierce face making it look a little funny, ¡°I¡¯ll prepare a lesson n right now!¡± William was surprised when he immediately started to speed walk towards the library without another word. ¡°Zheng Tao might not be the most talented disciple, but he is hard-working and reliable. I expect you to learn from him seriously.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Yu,¡± William wouldn¡¯t do anything else. He intended to hole himself up in the Outer Court to study anyway, and this was an even better option to learn the fundamentals. ¡°Good. Elders from the Inner Court should arrive soon to check your body¡¯s condition. Let¡¯s hope you have somehow got lucky and escaped the worst effects.¡± William followed Elder Yu into the clinic. He wondered what she would say if she knew how he had survived so far. It was all luck. Someone else¡¯s luck, but it was still luck. Chapter 134: The Name Chapter 134: The Name ¡°Wait here.¡± Elder Yu led William into an empty room with a bed and nothing else. A familiar setup to when Ren Bo had extracted the impurities out of his body long ago, or rather, long ago in his view. She moved as if she was about to turn to exit the room but changed her mind at thest moment. Her hand made a grabbing motion at him before a frown showed on her face. After repeating the action without what she expected to ur, she invaded his personal space and touched the spatial stone hanging off his neck. ¡°What happened to the stone?¡± William leaned back a little to make some space, not that it was effective. He quickly said, ¡°Nothing.¡± ¡°I was prevented from removing the pills. I can¡¯t even tell it apart from a regr stone,¡± Elder Yu said with more fascination than anything else, ¡°The low-grade spatial stone I gave you isn¡¯t capable of that.¡± The way she was staring at him suggested that this wouldn¡¯t let go. Call him crazy, but the need to tell a half-truth was higher than ever. Even with the Grand Elder having epted that there was no way he could possibly know why the Shard had gone dark, one mention of Sophia and he would be strapped to a chair and interrogated, or whatever the equivalent was here. On top of that, William didn¡¯t think it was wise to speak of Sophia since the Grand Elder was so close to the Empire. Even if he seemed benevolent, that didn¡¯t change the fact that the Grand Elder was an old monster with thoughts he couldn''tprehend. The Grand Elder was only young-looking on the surface, but with how hemanded respect, who knew what the true age was? ¡°It was one of the rewards that was given to me. An upgrade of the spatial stone,¡± William said hesitantly, ¡°I didn¡¯t notice a difference. I thought I was fooled.¡± Elder Yu surprisingly chuckled before stepping back, letting him breathe a little easier. ¡°Perhaps you have the luck to escape this situation without much harm. You were handed a treasure never seen outside the control of Spirit Severing Realm seniors belonging to a strong force.¡± He immediately felt chills. She saw that. ¡°Keep this to yourself, Wei Liang,¡± Elder Yu warned, ¡°And I will pretend this conversation never happened. No matter how much the sect values your potential in the future, that stone will be enough for someone to make you disappear. This includes the Grand Master.¡± Without asking the obvious question about why she wasn¡¯t tempted, he had another burning in his mind. ¡°Why? What makes this stone special?¡± Elder Yu stared at him for a moment. ¡°The rumored reason I will not exin, not because I don¡¯t want to, but because I don¡¯t fully believe something so ridiculous.¡± William couldn¡¯t say he was happy about being told he had something great without being told why it was great. Then Elder Yu told him more bad news. ¡°And do not look for information personally. I will do so in your ce to avoid rousing any suspicion. You can never be too careful with this.¡± ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to keep me in the dark?¡± William was all for knowing things, but this seemed entirely pointless. All he got so far was that he had a super unique spatial stone that would turn the entire sect against him if discovered. ¡°That was a consideration,¡± Elder Yu said seriously, ¡°But there¡¯s a chance you might have used one of the known abilities of the stone by ident.¡± He leaned forward in anticipation. ¡°Preservation and absorption. Whatever enters the stone is maintained and if the owner wills it, absorbed. It is thetter that I am concerned about.¡± William quickly checked the stone. Two bodies of spirit beasts had been preserved after he killed them, and both were stored in the spatial stone. They were forgotten, mainly because he assumed they would lose most of their value as they quickly deteriorated while stored in the stone. That wasn¡¯t the case. The bodies of the Pyralisk and the Jingmu Shadow were exactly the same as when he stored them. This was great. Fantastic, even. One thing still confused him. ¡°What does absorption mean?¡± ¡°The word itself is the exnation,¡± Elder Yu said sharply, ¡°The stone will absorb whatever youmand it to. Avoid it until I find out why it has that ability.¡± William¡¯s immediate guess was it somehow strengthened the stone itself, but that was too simple. Too obvious. His guess wasn¡¯t what Elder Yu was looking for. It was a nod, and he gave that to her. ¡°Good,¡± she lost some of her sharpness as she smiled, ¡°Anything else you gained from the Shard? Not that I think it¡¯s possible to outshine your spatial stone.¡± At this point, William wasn¡¯t concerned about Elder Yu coveting any of his rewards. Not if the upgraded spatial stone was as great as she said it was. With how damaging the Grand Elder thinks his built-up impurity was, she could have easily caused real damage and med it on that. Still, he wanted to keep the three treasures a secret. The ones he gained from helping Princess Jon absorb the heart. As mentioned, he had no reason to believe that Elder Yu would seize them, but he was highly concerned that they could be easily linked to the Shard going dark. After all, the three treasures each had characteristics of the Magmaheart Goliath. Something the Empire should be familiar with since they had ced one inside the secret realm. The Seedling and Lord Paddlington referred to it multiple times as an abomination. It also dimmed his hopes of trading them in for something suitable to his level, and that hurt more than anything else. Luckily, he still had two other things to show off. ¡°There are two more. A Heaven-Tier Martial Skill from the Shard and another Martial Skill that I created myself,¡± William announced proudly. ¡°¡­ I see. I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m surprised. A Heaven-Tier skill is impossible for you to learn at your level, so I¡¯m more interested in what you have created. I would like to have seen it in action, but your current state will make using Qi far too painful.¡± He wondered if that was the usual effect of his Qi turning into ck sludge in his pathways. Since they were already going to discover how abnormal his current situation was, he might as well show off his new trump card. It wasn¡¯t like he would need to keep it in reserve since he was as safe as could be. ¡°Elder Yu, it¡¯s not painful.¡± She stared at him again. ¡°You are willing to use your Qi?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Show me,¡± Elder Yu ordered. William nodded firmly and spread the Qi in his body evenly through his body. As expected, it took a second, but it was ready to be activated. Unlike before, he would get to show off its mighty name. ¡°Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons!¡± William roared as his Qi zed into existence in the middle of his yelling around his body, flickering like ethereal mes. [-200 Spiritual Energy] Elder Yu stared at him silently for a long second. ¡°Impressive. I sense this works as a multiplier. Attack me at your strongest.¡± ¡°¡­ The room?¡± ¡°I isted us as soon as we entered for privacy. There is no reason to dy, Wei Liang.¡± He nodded firmly before envisioning the Seedling in Elder Yu¡¯s ce. With a guttural snarl, heunched himself toward his imagined enemy. He tried to punch his first through the featureless face with every bit of his power. Unlike the actual Seedling, Elder Yu was not vulnerable to his attack. William grunted in surprise when his fist came to a sudden stop, and a muffled explosion of Qi spread from the impact against Elder Yu¡¯s palm before it was dissipated by a transparent barrier that shimmered briefly before disappearing. ¡°Good!¡± Elder Yu praised with a toothy smile, ¡°If you can create an Earth-Tier equivalent of this skill, it will make you near unstoppable among cultivators in the same major realm!¡± He was stunned at the emotion she was showing. After a quick review of his memories, he confirmed that Elder Yu had never done anything close to this. ¡°How long will this skill be activated?¡± ¡°One minute,¡± William answered, still in a daze. ¡°Not bad,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°But there is an issue with this skill that cannot be overlooked.¡± He was snapped out of his daze at how the aura around her turned dangerous. ¡°This¡­ name,¡± she spat, ¡°I will not have a future sentinel running around shouting something so ridiculous. You don¡¯t have to change it, but you can never say it out loud in such a manner again.¡± Chapter 135: The Elders Chen Chapter 135: The Elders Chen William was sitting on the bed, thinking of new names for his martial skill. He already already confirmed with the system that he could rename the skill. He had thought that the impressive words made for an even more impressive name, but with the way Elder Yu seemed to be personally offended that she ever had to hear it, his naming sense needed to be reevaluated. ¡°They are on the way.¡± William flinched in surprise, not expecting Elder Yu to return so quickly. ¡°Put this on,¡± she handed him a ring. It had a roughly cut ck stone set on it, and it looked familiar to him. He put it on his left index finger and asked, ¡°Is this another spatial stone?¡± ¡°It is,¡± Elder Yu confirmed, ¡°Use it for everyday storage. Pills and the like should be mostly stored in the ring. The other one should be used sparingly, and only when you are sure there is nobody around.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± William was grateful, he really was, but he couldn¡¯t forget how much she hated the name, ¡°Elder Yu, what do you think about ¡®Force Multiplier¡¯ as the new name?¡± ¡°Is that what you decided on?¡± He sighed before nodding reluctantly. ¡°Good.¡± [Renaming ¡®Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons¡¯ to ¡®Force Multiplier¡¯] [Name changed] Elder Yu, who had been uncharacteristically expressive with William so far, suddenly shut off her emotions, returning to the familiar nk te he was used to. The reason, or reasons, soon entered the room. They had the appearance of identical middle-aged men. Ones that drank far too much beer, with the signature beer belly and flushed skin. Being over six feet tall and each weighing enough for two men, this was the closest he had seen anyone match Fatty Xu. Thinking of therge man without a basic system status made him wonder what Wang Xiaoling was up to. And if he would see her anytime soon. He must be bing a masochist if he actually wanted to be around that scammer. ¡°Elders Chen,¡± Elder Yu dipped her head slightly, ¡°Thank you foring.¡± ¡°Junior Yu!¡± The man on the right bellowed, ¡°Always a pleasure to see you again! Isn¡¯t that right, brother?¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry, sorry. You¡¯re right. Work first, pleasantriester.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°And you must be young Wei Liang! The Grand Elder informed us about what you did, child,¡± the boisterous twin tutted, ¡°We Elders have high hopes for you. It would be a shame if this ruined you.¡± William couldn¡¯t get a word in as they poked and prodded him. Though it was only the talkative one that did all the poking and prodding. The silent twin held his left wrist while staring at his arm with narrowed eyes. ¡°Not bad, not bad. You have excellent spiritual veins. Almost perfect! Junior Yu, this disciple only started cultivating recently, no?¡± ¡°You are correct, Elder Chen Zhi,¡± Elder Yu nodded. ¡°Study.¡± William nced at the mostly silent twin, wondering why he said that word. ¡°Elder Chen Yi, I hope you¡¯re joking. We do not use disciples for that purpose,¡± Elder Yu warned. He realized Elder Yu was saying the full names of the men checking him, probably to help him recognize who was who. Chen Yi was the quiet one. Chen Zhi was the one who seemed to be too extroverted. Chen Zhi burst out inughter. ¡°My brother is joking, of course. But I can¡¯t deny Disciple Wei is a medical marvel. I sense no damage done to your spiritual pathways, and while your Qi itself is in a pitiful state, the body will naturally filter that out over time.¡± ¡°Remove this,¡± Chen Yi ordered as he waved his hand over William¡¯s body. He stared at the Elder¡¯s annoyed expression before asking, ¡°My robes?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± He shrugged and got off the bed before removing his outer robes and Elemental Gauntlet, storing them in the ring and leaving him wearing only the underwear. ¡°This will hurt, but we only need to see it for a minute at maximum,¡± Elder Chen Zhi said apologetically, ¡°Circte your Qi like as you do when you cultivate.¡± William nced at Elder Yu to see her looking on with amusement. Since she was saying nothing, he¡¯ll follow her lead. He sat cross-legged on the floor before doing as they asked. It might not hurt to circte his Qi, but it certainly wasn¡¯t pleasant. Without his life being in danger, he could appreciate the absolute vileness of his Qi as he had nothing else to worry about. He didn¡¯t like it. William flinched when he felt something graze him, nothing on his skin, but something he was able to ¡®see¡¯ with his senses. Two tiny wisps of Qi entered his pathways before they were devoured by the corrupted majority. ¡°You can stop, Disciple Wei.¡± He opened his eyes slowly to see that there was no way he could tell apart the two Elders anymore. They both had confused yet serious looks on their faces. He got to his feet and waited for the all-clear. As he mentioned before, he trusted the system to know the status of his body. ¡°I wonder if you have a special constitution.¡± ¡°Hmm.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, brother. There¡¯s no way to find out. Perhaps when he has some descendants.¡± ¡°Seniors,¡± Elder Yu interrupted, ¡°Is Wei Liang fine?¡± ¡°More than he has any right to be, Junior Yu,¡± Chen Zhi said, perplexed, ¡°I estimate that he will reduce the impurity concentration by an order of magnitude in less than two months. And once more in a simr amount of time. The fears of him being stalled for years couldn¡¯t be further from the truth.¡± William raised his eyebrows and checked his Impurity. Impurity: Stage 3 (17%) 1 Month, 3 Weeks + 10 Weeks The Elder¡¯s estimate was scarily urate. He would indeed reduce to stage two Impurity in a little less than two months. Then, to stage one in a little over two months after that. ¡°Of course, that is if we are forced to let the impurity filter out naturally. We will discuss with others to see if we can safely speed up the process.¡± William took note of that and hoped for it to happen. Elder Yu also looked happy at that prospect. ¡°We¡¯re going to see one of the youngest Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators in sect history,¡± Chen Zhi said triumphantly, ¡°I give you an early congrattions, Disciple Wei!¡± ¡°Thank you, Elder Chen,¡± William said with a dip of his head. ¡°Wee.¡± He stared. That was the quiet twin, Chen Yi, who replied to him, not the twin who congratted him. Chen Zhi chortled boisterously, the fat on hisrge body moving with hisughs. ¡°You may call me Elder Chen Zhi and my brother Elder Chen Yi. Less confusion that way.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Chen Zhi. And I also give my thanks to Elder Chen Yi for making sure I¡¯m safe.¡± ¡°Study.¡± William stared again. ¡°Brother, I think we need to check on the other disciple,¡± Chen Zhi said with an awkwardugh, ¡°Come, Elder Zhiqing would appreciate it if we help with his favorite disciple.¡± Elder Yu waited until they left before saying, ¡°Do try to keep away from Elder Chen Yi. He is harmless when his brother is around to temper his impulses. Still, I rather not have you tempt his¡­ peculiarities.¡± William shivered, his mind immediately going to ces that should never be visited. ¡°What peculiarities?¡± ¡°Nothing outrageous,¡± Elder Yu waved off his concern, ¡°He is curious about irregrities, and you are certainly considered one. The worst he will do is test. Though you might disappear for a few months.¡± He chuckled nervously and said, ¡°Right, so make sure I¡¯m not alone with him.¡± ¡°That is for the best,¡± Elder Yu nodded before pausing, looking out the window with a frown, ¡°Follow me. I¡¯ll lead you to your dwelling. The Grand Elder will meet us there. And I have a surprise for you.¡± Chapter 136: The Tianxia Design Chapter 136: The Tianxia Design They left the clinic as soon as William put on his robes. It was a rtively slow walk to the housing area, mainly because every single disciple they passed paid their respects to Elder Yu. He honestly didn¡¯t mind. It was nice, taking a walk with the goal of reaching his new home instead of escaping copsing tunnels. It did disappoint him that he hadn¡¯t seen any of the disciples he met in his brief visit when he entered the sect, but there would be plenty of time to find them in the future. William was mainly interested in the ones that had been crowded around the library. Call it stereotyping, but he assumed that they were lovers of knowledge, and he would love to pick their brains. That, along with the tutoring from Zheng Tao he was very much looking forward to, he would no longer be ignorant the next time he ventures out of the sect. He would prove Sophia wrong. He wasn''tzy and unmotivated. ¡°You seem content.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± William was snapped out of his thoughts to see Elder Yu staring at him. The group of disciples that had been talking to her was nowhere to be found. It still surprised him with how casual the sect seemed to be with the way disciples could greet Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. He knew for a fact that it wasn¡¯t typical with how the guards started to bend over backward the moment they found out that Princess Jin was in a higher realm. Plus, their difference in major realms was nothingpared to the disciples in the Outer Court and Elder Yu. Speaking of Elder Yu, she seemed far too interested in his feelings. With the evidence being her repeated statement. ¡°Compared to before, you seem far happier to be in the Outer Court.¡± William nodded, ¡°I was too hasty before. I wanted to live in a city that I was fond of.¡± That was only the partial truth. Wanting to live in Xuanjing City was one of the factors that yed into his decision, but most of it had to do with how the Outer Court looked. It was a college campus, without a doubt. And as much as he enjoyed going to one in his old world, that wasn¡¯t what he envisioned here. Of course, that was then. Things had changed. A lot. Now, he would love to stay in the Outer Court. Where a Nascent Soul Realm Elder seemed to spend her time. And also had the powerful Grand Elder avable if necessary. Yes, he wanted to stay. ¡°Then this might work in your favor,¡± Elder Yu motioned for the few disciples around them to not disturb them, ¡°The Sect Master fought in your favor during the Elders Gathering.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William wondered why that was needed at all. He didn¡¯t think he did anything worth getting punished over, especially not to the point where the sect leader needed to save him. His worry must have been stered on his face since Elder Yu exined without being prompted. ¡°There are some circumstances that result in entering one of the Shards, and no matter which one, the Empire gets involved. Usually, you would be required to leave the Jade Healing Sect, but the Sect Master convinced the Grand Elder to speak with the Empire for you.¡± ¡°Oh!¡± William blinked in surprise, thankful but confused. After the suspicious things he had learned about the Empire, he wasn¡¯t keen on joining them in anything. ¡°I¡¯m grateful, Elder Yu. I really am, but why was he willing to do so? We have never met before.¡± They reached the modern-looking dwelling, which looked like a luxury apartment to him. ¡°I asked him to. My sect needs sentinels, Wei Liang. If I wasn¡¯t confident in giving you the resources that could easily match and even exceed what the Empire could offer, I would have conceded.¡± That made sense to him. Elder Yu might seem cold, but she had shown that she cared in her own way. Even before he had ever seen or knew about the range of emotions she possessed. ¡°Again, I¡¯m grateful, Elder Yu.¡± Elder Yu hummed in acknowledgment and said, ¡°Follow. I have one more thing prepared as a surprise. Do you have your pass?¡± William stared nkly in confusion. ¡°Pass? I never got one.¡± ¡°It looks like this,¡± Elder Yu pulled out a card made out of red jade, ¡°Either Lan Yin or Wang Mei should have provided you one.¡± He immediately recognized it, but that didn¡¯t mean he knew where it was. Thest time he had seen it, he had been with Lan Yin, getting the entry into the Qi Refining rooms in Xuanjing City. However, he didn¡¯t remember where it went after that. He quickly searched his spatial stone to see if he had stored it there. He did not. ¡°It might have been misced,¡± William admitted with a wince. ¡°Meet Wang Mei for a recement,¡± Elder Yu shook her head, ¡°In the meantime, use this.¡± He epted the pass she handed him and held it between his fingers, looking around to see where he needed to use it. ¡°Just follow me,¡± Elder Yu said helpfully, ¡°The pass will let you pass the barrier without activating it.¡± William did so, right into the building and reaching an area that resembled a lobby. There was even something that seemed to be an elevator, except the doors were made of stone. ¡°What would happen if someone didn¡¯t have the pass on their person?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°They will be transported to the holding area. Mainly for safety. If it turns out it was just a forgetful disciple, they are deducted points to cover the cost of activating the array for transport.¡± William nodded, impressed at how seriously the sect took security. However, he did wonder what happened to take such measures in the first ce. ¡°Press your pass there,¡± Elder Yu pointed to an indent on the wall near the stone doors, which he did. The stone doors didn¡¯t rumble open as he expected. They shimmered out of existence to reveal a modest living room. ¡°Go ahead,¡± Elder Yu urged when William just stared. He did so hesitantly. It wasn¡¯t that he was terrified of taking that step, but it was more about the feeling of nostalgia that hit him. The hotel he was staying at in Xuanjing City, The Golden Lotus, was simr to what he could have expected from a hotel in his old world. Still, this t took it to another level. It looked like a model showroom that tastefully decorated its best features. The only thing that was really missing was a television, but if that existed in a world without electricity and broadcastworks, he would have to conclude he was in aa in some hospital. Of course, that wasn¡¯t possible. He had seen his body get crushed in the elevator. ¡°Interesting. Is this not to your liking?¡± Elder Yu asked curiously, ¡°Do you prefer the foreign designs?¡± ¡°Foreign design?¡± William repeated in surprise, ¡°Is this unique to the Tianxia Empire, then?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°It originated well over a millennia in the past. The design is mainly used for small dwellings due to cost, but it is not for everyone. If you prefer, I can move you to something different.¡± He shook his head. It wasn¡¯t bad, though it was smaller than he expected. Plus, he would live in a t that was very obviously influenced by Sophia. ¡°Good! There are three rooms here. Other than this, there is the bedroom and a small Qi Refining room.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, his interest in the t increasing significantly. ¡°How does the Qi densitypare to the Qi Refining rooms avable for sentinels?¡± ¡°This is not a recement. It is meant for self-reflection in a space that is only essible to you. The room is reinforced to handle the power of a Core Formation Realm cultivator. Use that to your advantage. If you wish to cultivate, there are far better options.¡± He nodded slowly, realizing that this could be where he tested his martial skills. The urge to try it spiked. ¡°I want to test it right now.¡± ¡°Before that, let me show you the surprise I arranged for you,¡± Elder Yu stopped him from running off like an excited child, ¡°Enter!¡± William¡¯s jaw almost dropped when a door opened softly to reveal someone he never expected to see again, and if not never, at least months after he advanced into the Foundation Establishment Realm. ¡°Little Brother Wei,¡± the familiar voice made him shiver, ¡°We¡¯re reunited again.¡± Chapter 137: Attendant Chapter 137: Attendant ¡°Mei Lingxi?!¡± William stepped back in shock. Still, he noted that her attire had changed. Gone were the deep ck robes with gold embroidery that first attracted his attention. He could still remember when Mei Lingxi had stepped out of her carriage and practically halted the street as the mortals chose to stare at her instead of continuing with their day. In ce of that, she was wearing robes that had the familiar green shade he hade to associate with the Jade Healing Sect. She had a golden sash tied around her middle, but other than that, it was rather in. Still, William thought Mei Lingxi was as beautiful as ever. The change in attire didn¡¯t change that at all. There was one thing that he was suddenly aware of. Something that also applied to Elder Yu. He no longer felt the overwhelming need to drool after them. Sophia did say that the stronger he gets, the fewer women with higher cultivation could affect him. ¡°Mei Lingxi? What happened to Sister Lingxi? Are we strangers again?¡± Mei Lingxi pouted at him, making him immediately reconsider his self-control. It still wasn¡¯t at the level of staring at her dumbly, but William couldn¡¯t deny that he was very much attracted to her. Something that couldn¡¯t be said with Elder Yu. If he tried to be objective, Elder Yu was just as beautiful as Mei Lingxi and maybe even more so. She also had far higher cultivation. Both of those things should mean that he should be drooling after her. Which obviously wasn¡¯t the case. William had felt strongly attracted to Elder Yu when he first saw her, but that was the same with any woman with higher cultivation. Perhaps once the first impression was over and done, personal feelings became more important. Elder Yu was like an actual elder toward him, showing multiple times that she had his best interests in mind. Physical appearance was thest thing he focused on when in her presence. Mei Lingxi, on the other hand, made it a point to use her attractiveness as a weapon against him. Physical appearance was the only thing he focused on with her. Elder Yu cleared her throat, ¡°Attendant Mei, do remember your boundaries.¡± That was said in a gentle tone, but Mei Lingxi stiffened nervously. ¡°Apologies, Elder Yu,¡± she bowed deeply, ¡°I thought Young Master Wei would prefer to continue from our previous interaction.¡± ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary. You are in a different position now, and both of you should get used to it from the start,¡± Elder Yu turned to William, ¡°I acquired her contract from Prince Yuan. She will be assigned as your new attendant to handle menial tasks.¡± William was staring at Elder Yu with wide eyes throughout her speech while asionally sneaking nces at Mei Lingxi. He raised his hand like a schoolboy and asked, ¡°Elder Yu? Wouldn¡¯t it be a waste of her talents? She was the manager of the Treasure Pavilion.¡± He could see that Mei Lingxi agreed with him, though she didn¡¯t try to speak up. ¡°That is up to you,¡± Elder Yu said tly, ¡°I¡¯ll be blunt. Prince Yuan would have been killed if I had my way, but he unfortunately had some backing from the capital. Perhaps I will get my wish if Princess Jin seeds in surviving. Either way, Mei Lingxi¡¯s contract was given to me as an apology. Now I hand it to you. Her future is in your control.¡± William recoiled in shock and spat with disgust, ¡°A ve?¡± He hadn¡¯t seen thating, at all. There had been no evidence of actual very in the Tianxia Empire, but this ¡®contract¡¯ certainly felt like one. ¡°¡­ ve?¡± Mei Lingxi frowned, ¡°You mean the practice of owning another human?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Elder Yu nodded, raising her eyebrows at William, ¡°You know of such an antiquated practice, yet you are ignorant of some fundamentals. Fascinating. But no, Mei Lingxi is free to leave whenever she wishes.¡± ¡°Then what¡¯s the contract for?¡± William was still suspicious. This just sounded like very with extra steps. ¡°It details what needs to be done for Attendant Mei to be a full member of the Jade Healing Sect. All you need to know is that it will be on your word.¡± ¡°So I can make her a member right now?¡± He asked challengingly. ¡°If you wish.¡± William wanted to do it, just to see what would happen, but that impulse died when Mei Lingxi didn¡¯t seem thrilled at the prospect. The extra time to think also let him realize that this might be a sort of test. If he asked for Mei Lingxi to be a member immediately, it would show he didn¡¯t care much about the sect. Or so William assumed. It could be somethingpletely different, but no matter what it was, he felt that he had been too harsh with the idea of the contract. Was it any different from an employment contract from his old world? Mei Lingxi could leave if she wanted to, but if she did a good job being his attendant, whatever that entailed, she would get a promotion. ¡°But Elder Yu, I don¡¯t have a way to pay her,¡± William was almost convinced, and this was hisst attempt at finding fault. ¡°The sect is responsible for payment,¡± Elder Yu now had a frown as she stared at him, ¡°Wei Liang, do you not wish to have Mei Lingxi as your attendant? If that¡¯s the case, I can find you another.¡± This was now quite literally a bog standard employment contract. And it was one that Mei Lingxi greatly desired if the unsubtle looks she gave him meant anything. ¡°No, I do, Elder Yu,¡± William dipped his head slightly in thanks. He looked at Mei Lingxi and said, ¡°I hope we can work together well, Sister Lingxi.¡± ¡°Thank you, Little Bro-Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi cut herself off from being familiar when Elder Yu gave her a look. ¡°I¡¯m d you saw reason,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°The Grand Elder will arrive shortly with others to oversee any possible way to reduce the impurity in your body. Don¡¯t get your hopes up too much since it might be too dangerous to do so with this level of concentration, but if they cannot, nobody can. You are in good hands.¡± William¡¯s heart raced a little, thinking about being able to finally get rid of his soul damage. Everything was ready, but it was just out of reach. ¡°Excuse my ignorance, Elder Yu,¡± Mei Lingxi cut in with a frown, ¡°Why would Young Master need such esteemed figures for a minor problem like impurity?¡± ¡°They are needed when a disciple swallows around twenty pills of the third stage,¡± Elder Yu replied drily. Mei Lingxi had nothing to say since she was busy staring at William like he was a fool. ¡°Don¡¯t let the foolish actions taint your impression, Attendant Mei. Your Young Master is at the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm. I expect him to advance into the Foundation Establishment Realm as soon as this issue is resolved.¡± William thought that Mei Lingxi wanted to be his attendant before, but after Elder Yu¡¯s words, it felt like she was looking at him like he was a juicy meal. More than that, Elder Yu knew what she had done, and she was enjoying it. Elder Yu suddenly looked away, staring at the apartment entrance, and said, ¡°They¡¯re here. Attendant Mei, retreat to your room, and be prepared. If they believe extracting impurities is possible, Wei Liang will need time to recover from the process. That is where your help is needed.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Yu. I wish you luck, Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi bowed to both of them before disappearing into her room. Just in time since the door shimmered out of existence to reveal the Grand Elder along with the two Elders Chen and one another, a woman who seemed to be on the verge of death. He could keep his eyes off her as she hobbled into the room, leaning on her cane. ¡°Elder Yu! Disciple Wei!¡± The Grand Elder beamed, ¡°I have good news!¡± He motioned at the old woman, ¡°Elder Zhou, with a little help from the Elders Chen, will be able to do it safely.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t give the boy false hope,¡± Elder Zhou¡¯s cane tapped on the floor as she got closer to William, ¡°I need to see for myself what he has done.¡± He yelped when the cane smacked him on the shin before any sound was choked off when Elder Zhou jabbed her fingers below his jaw. Thankfully, it was for a fraction of a second. ¡°Alright, now you can give the boy hope. Looks like his Qi is truly flowing as if there is no contamination,¡± Elder Zhou¡¯s voice dropped off to a mutter, ¡°Such a valuable subject to study. Shame.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Elder Chen Yi, who also wanted to study him, agreed with her. ¡°Marvelous!¡± The Grand Elder pped his hand, ignoring thest several words, ¡°Disciple Wei, are you ready?¡± William was still rubbing his neck as he nodded. Why wouldn¡¯t he be ready to rid himself of his soul damage? Chapter 138: Advancing Chapter 138: Advancing ¡°Say ¡®AHH,¡¯ Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi said sweetly. This would be the dream of countless young men. There was no doubt they would kill to be in William¡¯s position. He was reclining on his lounging chair, which was specially moved into his t for this exact purpose. To let Mei Lingxi feed him. If only it wasn''t the necessary sustenance to recover from having so much impurity extracted. He couldn¡¯t move to do much of anything himself. Well, that wasn¡¯t entirely the truth, but it wasn¡¯t far off. He was purposely given a cursed artifact that caused his Qi to slow to a crawl, and in turn, it caused his stamina to be reduced to nearly nothing. It was called the Baleful Star Medallion, and William hated it was a passion. It was something that prisoners were given, but the Elders found it would work perfectly for his needs. Spirit: 110 (10) Stamina: 110 (5) Turns out that just living, as in his essential functions, used up all the stamina he had in his possession. There was nothing left to move his limbs, not if he wanted to have the energy to speak. Thankfully, Elder Yu had foreseen this and had already provided an attendant who could help him. William grimaced as he swallowed the rancid paste the healers had specially made. No matter how bad it tasted, it wasn''t worthining about something miraculous. ¡°Just two more, Young Master.¡± ¡°I know, Sister Lingxi,¡± William red, ¡°I have eyes.¡± The smile on her face didn¡¯t dim one bit as she moved the spoon closer to his mouth. Impurity: Stage 1 (Conditional) That was the reason he kept eating this horrid paste. While it seemed like all the impurities in his body were gone, it was apparently just waiting for a mistake to return with a vengeance. The Elders warned him far too many times that there would be noing back if that ever happened. Again, there was a reason they made him hold the damned medallion. The less he moved, the less he had the chance of messing up. William scowled when the paste slid down his throat before dissipating into his spiritual pathways. It wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°Just one more for today.¡± He sighed and opened his mouth, hoping this would be the one. The one to dissipate whatever was lying dormant in his spiritual pathways. This had be his routine for three days now, and the faster it ended, the better. ¡°Any change?¡± Mei Lingxi asked as they swallowed thest spoonful. William waited for it to dissipate and was disappointed when nothing seemed to have changed. Still, he checked the system to double-check. Impurity: N/A He stared, making sure it wouldn¡¯t change before a blinding smile spread on his face. ¡°Sister Lingxi, call Elder Yu. It¡¯s done!¡± ¡°Really?¡± Mei Lingxi froze. She was in the process of sealing the remaining paste to return to the Elder Zhou. ¡°I don¡¯t have the energy to joke around,¡± William chuckled, knowing the amusement made it sound like he did. There was no point in saving anything since he expected to be able to take off the medallion soon enough. Mei Lingxi gave him a firm nod before swiftly leaving the t. She returned with Elder Yu and Elder Zhou within a minute. And all had looks of anticipation on their faces. ¡°Is he right?¡± Elder Yu asked. ¡°Give me a chance to check,¡± Elder Zhou scowled as she hobbled to the chair, ¡°How could you even know, boy? I knew you were sensitive to Qi, but this is ridiculous. Maybe we should make you a formation master.¡± William winced when she jabbed her bony finger under his jaw. ¡°Seems fine,¡± Elder Zhou mumbled before speaking louder, ¡°You, attendant, remove the medallion.¡± Mei Lingxi had been standing at the back, out of the way, till then. She moved quickly after Elder Zhou¡¯s order and ripped apart his sleeve before loosening the strap that held the medallion to his skin. William could see how she paled when she came in contact with it, but she didn¡¯t let that stop her from quickly returning to her previous spot. Only then did she ce the medallion on a side table. ¡°Good girl you have there,¡± Elder Zhoumented as she once again jabbed her fingers under his jaw, ¡°No hesitation in her.¡± William made a sound in agreement. He was more focused on his energying back. For the first time in three days, it didn¡¯t feel like he needed to choose between swallowing and speaking. ¡°It¡¯s gone!¡± Elder Zhou announced. He could vaguely hear her. And even less when Elder Yu and Mei Lingxi said their congrattions. It seemed that the rush of his Qi returning to normal caught him off guard. He nced at his stats before his eyes grew too heavy and smiled when everything was back to normal. The only thing left was restoring his soul. But that could wait for just a bit longer. William snapped his eyes open, looking around to see he was alone. He had fallen asleep, and with how good he was feeling, that was probably a good thing. He sat up slowly before swinging his legs off the chair before they touched the ground. He stood up with a smile, weing the return of the ability to stand. William briefly wondered if he should call for Mei Lingxi before shoving that thought out of his mind. There was only one thing he should be doing. He stepped into the Qi Refining room with a surge of anticipation. He had waited for this moment for too long, with too many close calls on the way. He ignored the meager amount of Qi in the room. He didn¡¯t need it anyway. William moved to the center of the room and slowly lowered himself to the hard floor, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. He smiled slightly when he sensed the pure energy flowing through his pathways. It had been a while since he sensed it without that sludge mixed in. He took a deep breath as his Qi started to circte. He was prepared to advance into the Foundation Establishment Realm. Note: If you are reading this on a website that is not Royal Road, Scribblehub, Spacebattles, or on my Patreon, you are reading a pirated version and that website does not have the permission of the author to host the story. Please instead read the story on the sites mentioned above. Chapter 139: Book 1 End Chapter 139: Book 1 End [Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added] [Cultivation upgraded | Qi Gathering (9th Level) ¡ª> Foundation Establishment (Early Stage)] [Level Up | 10 Stat Points Added] x13 [Modified | Health Overall: 1800 ¡ª> 2100] [Modified | Max Level: 99 ¡ª> 129] [Modified | Max Attribute: 120 ¡ª> 150] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 130 2. Eligible for Level 130 [Main Quest Completed | Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state)] [Trait Removed | Soul Damage (Minor)] [Modification Necessary | Recalibrating Attribute Maximums] [Max Luck Attribute | 150] [ERROR | No value found for other attributes] [Removing attribute limits for Spirit, Strength, Stamina, and Agility] Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 113 Experience: 8757/14125 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 550/550 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 110 Strength: 110 Stamina: 110 Agility: 110 Luck: 110 Points: 333 B2 - Chapter 1: The Sect Life B2 - Chapter 1: The Sect Life ¡°Are formations really something you should be focusing on?¡± William sighed as his hope of being unnoticed vanished. He hadn¡¯t actually been trying to hide, but a little space from Zheng Tao would have been wee. As much as the older disciple was helpful, he was also a nagging mother hen who was in his ear constantly about his studies. It felt like he was back in the earlier days of schooling when being micromanaged was a daily thing. ¡°Brother Zheng, I told you I was taking a break today.¡± ¡°You know this isn¡¯t in my control, Junior Brother,¡± Zheng Tao sounded as exasperated as William, ¡°Elder Yu will demote me back to being a training disciple if you don¡¯t pass tomorrow!¡± William finally looked away from the manual to stare at the bulky disciple. ¡°Elder Yu told you this?¡± That didn¡¯t sound like her. In fact, it sounded like the exact opposite. ¡°Ah, not exactly,¡± Zheng Tao admitted sheepishly, ¡°It was a punishment I put on myself while Elder Yu was present.¡± ¡°You need to stop this, Brother Zheng,¡± William found that the responsible Zheng Tao had a bad habit of putting pressure on himself in the form of questionable self-punishments. The few days when they started these tutoring sessions were focused on memorizing the details of the hunting areas within the Tanxia Empire, something essential for the gathering of alchemic materials andbat experience for younger cultivators. Elder Yu had then casually given an approximate timeline of two weeks before William had to turn his focus on other things, mainly the preparation to be an Inner Disciple. Zheng Tao took that as gospel. ¡°Impossible,¡± Zheng Tao said fiercely, ¡°I will not allow you to be punished further, Junior Brother!¡± William winced internally at the often-heard reason for the seriousness. He might have let Zheng Tao believe that he was being forced to study due to his recklessness, after which the timeline Elder Yu suggested suddenly became a deadline with harsh repercussions if expectations were not met. This could be easily rectified if William told Zheng Tao the test was mainly a crash course on what to expect after going to the Inner Court. Not that he would. He wanted to enjoy the casual way they spoke to each other. That wouldn¡¯t be possible if he revealed that he was already a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. It wasn¡¯t due to anything nefarious. Rather, it was based on what he observed on the very first day of the tutoring. Zheng Tao showed that he idolized higher-level cultivators far too much, and Inner Disciples even more so. It wasn¡¯t hard for William to realize that it would be unwise to tell someone who was tutoring him that he was one of the people that was idolized. That was the reason initially, but William grew rather attached to Zheng Tao, nagging and all. He was the first person who was a peer who didn¡¯t have any odd quirk in personality or hidden agenda. He supposed it wasn¡¯t hard when the only people who qualified as a peer while also being close to him were Ren Bo and Princess Jin. Princess Jin wasn¡¯t bad, but she was the definition of a peer with a hidden agenda. Then again, she had somehow lucked into a ridiculous cultivation boost, so she couldn¡¯t exactly be considered a peer anymore... she was now just someone with a hidden agenda, not that it was necessarily harmful to him. While it was fantastic that she chose to go against her family and Empire by keeping the events in the secret realm, well, a secret, it was hard to believe she did it out of gratitude. William didn¡¯t doubt that yed a part, but she must have her reasons. As for Ren Bo, the less said about him, the better. The boy needed to get out of his unlimited perversity phase before it killed him. He had also run in the opposite direction whenever he saw William, so they didn¡¯t interact much in the recent weeks. Thankfully. So yes, there was a reason he appreciated Zheng Tao¡¯spany. He would enjoy thest moments of normal interaction before Elder Yu arrived. Besides, it was time to reveal what would happen tomorrow so Zheng Tao wouldn¡¯t be blindsided in front of Elder Yu. ¡°I still don¡¯t agree, but how about we head outside the sect? Hoping some mortals can be a type of review,¡± He ignored the words of protest and gently closed the manual before returning it to the shelf where it belonged. Zheng Tao still looked mutinous when he turned around. ¡°Junior Brother, this shouldn¡¯t be a negotiation! It¡¯s just one more day! This stubbornness is ridiculous!¡± ¡°Yes, it is,¡± William agreed, ¡°But you aren¡¯t going to change my mind.¡± He had to stop the chuckle from escaping when Zheng Tao looked like he was about to get an aneurysm. ¡°Fine,¡± Zheng Tao sounded defeated as he followed William out of the library, ¡°I¡¯ll take what I can get.¡± They leisurely walked to the Outer Court¡¯s exit. Well, William did. Zheng Tao was still grumbling under his breath the whole time. He let the older disciple be, letting him release his frustration without interruption. Instead, he took one of hisst looks around the Outer Court. He enjoyed the peace here, but he found that he could never truly fit in. The problem wasn¡¯t that his strength was much higher than the disciples. He didn¡¯t care much about that. It was abination of hisck of knowledge of life before joining the sect, along with the inexperience of the disciples in the Outer Court. The former couldn¡¯t be helped since he didn¡¯t grow up in this world, but it could be rectified if effort was put into it. As for thetter, that wasn¡¯t something he could fix. William couldn¡¯t pretend to care about the rankings the disciples were involved in, nor did he feel the urge topete with them when a few taunted him about being at the bottom of the list. It was an obvious cement when he hadn¡¯t spent any time in the Outer Court and taken the exams nor any missions to raise it. He shuddered slightly. It was far too simr to school. It bored him, but he appreciated the Jade Healing Sect for making it so. Everyone here was too young for anything more serious. ¡°Junior Brother, your attendant is here.¡± William was brought out of his bittersweet feelings about the Outer Court. He looked to where Zheng Tao was pointing to see Mei Lingxi walking toward them with a smile. [Name: Mei Lingxi | Level: 186] ¡°So she is,¡± William replied, rolling his eyes when he saw her smile turn wicked. Zheng Tao audibly gulped next to him. Mei Lingxi might have stopped acting like a temptress once she became his attendant, but that didn¡¯t suddenly make her unattractive. She enjoyed how Zheng Tao tried to run away whenever he saw her. ¡°Young Master!¡± Mei Lingxi said brightly, ¡°Are you leaving the sect?¡± ¡°Yes, but we¡¯re staying close by.¡± ¡°How convenient! I was tired of staying in your dwelling,¡± She ignored Zheng Tao choking on air, ¡°So I was nning to step out too. May I apany you?¡± ¡°Really?¡± William doubted that. Since Mei Lingxi was still on a probationary period, she was required to stay within the sect unless he permitted her. It wasn¡¯t like he would deny that request, but she never asked. There had to be another reason she happened to ask right when they were about to leave. Still, there was no reason she couldn¡¯te with them. ¡°Sure, why not. Are you alright with it, Brother Zheng?¡± Zheng Tao stammered some iprehensible words, and William took that as approval. This would likely help ease the older boy into the knowledge that he had been a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation the entire time. ¡°He doesn¡¯t mind, Sister Lingxi.¡± Mei Lingxiughed lightly when she saw his smirk. ¡°Thank you, Disciple Zheng.¡± Zheng Tao gave her a jerky nod. William felt a little sorry for him. The disciple wasn¡¯t one that chased after a pretty face. He had seen the proof daily when Zheng Tao had been unaffected by rather beautiful cultivators in the Outer Court. However, it seemed Mei Lingxi was his weakness. Understandable. They gave the unfamiliar guards posted at the archway nods of acknowledgment as they passed through to see a depressing sight. Scores of mortals kneeling for the meager healing passively provided by the archway, along with some waiting in carriages, hoping to be epted into the sect. ¡°Junior Brother,¡± Zheng Tao finally found his voice, ¡°Let me decide who to help this time. You will only aid the young ones, not those with challenging problems.¡± William looked at the stubborn expression on his face before nodding, letting him have this win. ¡°As you say, Brother Zheng.¡± B2 - Chapter 2: Karma B2 - Chapter 2: Karma He watched Zheng Tao search for a suitable target among the hopeful mortals with distaste. It was more than a little stomach-turning when he saw the heart-wrenching depression that fell on the mortals¡¯ faces when the older disciple walked past them. William first left the Outer Court several days ago to get out of the university-like atmosphere and had been met with simr expressions. Since he had ventured out on his own and knew zero healing techniques, he had been entirely useless in being of any help with any of the severe illnesses. The guards stationed had been equally useless when he asked for help. He supposed the next best thing to do was get a disciple who was actually a healer, but he hadn''t been thinking straight at that moment, rendering his mind mostly useless, too. However, he was very useful when it involved force. And among mortals, he might as well be a god. If he wished for something to happen, it would. While the mortals begging to be healed were all pitiful from William¡¯s point of view, he quickly learned that there was a hierarchy that was in ce. One that was based on abination of wealth and social standing, no matter how little of it was there. It had promptlye into existence with the mortals left to their own devices by the sect as long as there was no rioting. The cultivators in the sect could not be bothered to care for the mortals in any real sense. The generosity of providing ess to the archway was enough in the sect¡¯s mind, and anything else was a burden. At least, that was what William understood it as. That understanding was reinforced when Zheng Tao, the most dutiful disciple in the Outer Court, looked at the mortals like they were annoyances when they moved too close to him. He supposed that any cultivator, even decent ones, had been separated from mortals for long enough that they started to look at them as lesser beings. William wasn¡¯t able to do the same. At the bottom of this makeshift hierarchy were the lone children. Ones that, for some reason or another, had no support in this mass of pitiful beings. The day he left the Outer Court to get some air was the best day for a few of these children. The archway no longer affected him since his cultivation was too high, but for mortals, it had a heavenly impact. It could bring them back from the edge of death to full health. That was most evident with the younger children. They would visibly get healthier by the hour, which made sense since the system showed they only had three points overall at most in their Health. The archway added one point every day they were in range. William thought it was unfortunate that only thirty or so people could be healed at once. However, he couldn¡¯t change that. What he could change was who received the healing. With liberal use of Observe, he was able to find the ones that were most in need and use his strength to get them in range of the archway. Unfortunately, he could only use Observe a little over a hundred times on the mortals before his Spiritual Energy was depleted, so he couldn¡¯t keep it up for long. He had plenty of unused stat points to dump into his Spirit attribute, but he didn¡¯t dare use them haphazardly before picking his heaven-tier martial skill. Not even for the children who stared at him with hope, no matter how much it hurt him to do so. He couldn¡¯tpromise his future. It made him understand why the sect didn¡¯t care much about the mortals. There were too many. He could see himself falling into the same indifference from being overwhelmed. It didn¡¯t matter that he saved the forty or so children that day. There were still scores more in need, just in the crowd. And that number increased exponentially when considering the masses that arrived each day. One person couldn¡¯t make enough of a difference, so what was the point in trying? William shuddered when that thought appeared in his mind just as a boy stared at him pleadingly while supporting an older woman, likely the mother, to stay on her feet. ¡°You have a bleeding heart, Young Master.¡± He didn¡¯t look at Mei Lingxi as he replied, ¡°You feel nothing when you see all this misery?¡± The silence that followed was an answer in itself. It wasn¡¯t surprising. ¡°Mortals have their own lives, with their own worries. It is not our ce to interfere with their fates.¡± This time, William looked at her. ¡°That¡¯s a strange thing to say when our sect has clinics in mortal cities. Not to mention all this.¡± He motioned at the crowd of mortals, ¡°They are being saved from death, are they not?¡± ¡°Both of those have a cost,¡± Mei Lingxi pointed out, ¡°Very few mortals can afford to pay for the services in the clinics. As for this, they have to survive the trip here, and after they arrive, they have to get lucky enough to be one of the few to get healed.¡± ¡°And the rest deserve to die?¡± William asked a little heatedly. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that,¡± Mei Lingxi replied calmly, ¡°Their fates were altered when you interfered, Young Master. There is a reason we do not solve all the problems that mortals have. The karma that forms between you and a mortal you save will be minuscule, but once there are enough ties, it will affect you.¡± ¡°Karma?¡± William stared at Mei Lingxi nkly, ¡°Why have I never heard of this before?¡± ¡°It is usually nothing to worry about before the Nascent Soul Realm. It wouldn¡¯t be something you would be aware of until you gained a Master.¡± ¡°How do you know this?¡± His frown grew as he came to a realization, ¡°Is this why you wanted to apany me?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Mei Lingxi admitted freely, ¡°Elder Yu wished for me to do so. Please avoid a repeat of yourst time here, Young Master.¡± William clenched his teeth in frustration before deciding to find out precisely what this karma was and why the cost of umting it was so dangerous that cultivators didn¡¯t dare risk it. He had thought that it had both a positive and negative side, but Mei Lingxi made it sound like there were no positives at all. ¡°Fine, as you say, Sister Lingxi,¡± William said reluctantly, ignoring the eyes that were still on him. ¡°I apologize, Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi sounded sincere, ¡°There are better ways to help the mortals without having to be involved personally. Those will be open to you in the future when you gain more influence.¡± William nodded in acknowledgment. She was trying to console him. He appreciated it, but it wouldn¡¯t work at the moment. ¡°Brother Wei! There are some people that we can help in the surrounding forest!¡± He stared at the approaching Zheng Tao, who had a sheepish expression, then at Mei Lingxi, who avoided his gaze. The mentioned forest could barely be seen on the horizon, even with his enhanced eyesight. ¡°Let me guess,¡± William said nkly, ¡°Brother Zheng, somehow, you called Sister Lingxi when I told you I wanted to head outside the Outer Court.¡± Zheng Tao broke quickly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Junior Brother. Senior Mei told me to do so. Most Elders also mentioned what you did in the lectures and warned us not to do the same, so I thought it best to listen.¡± He had wondered why most of the disciples had given him strange looks recently. He hadn¡¯t attended any lectures, so he had been clueless till now. ¡°What are we really going to do in the forest, Brother Zheng?¡± Zheng Tao cleared his throat, ¡°I figured it would be good to apply what you learned and see if you can name the species we see.¡± William wanted to reject his n. The system would tell him the name of anything useful, and while it wouldn¡¯t give him any description or use of the spirit nt, that could be easily memorized. Still, Zheng Tao¡¯s anticipatory expression made him hesitate. He still needed to break the news that he was to be an Inner Disciple soon. Tolerating a monotonous task is the least he could do as a farewell to their easy camaraderie. ¡°Very well, Brother Zheng. Lead the way.¡± B2 - Chapter 3: A Little Detour B2 - Chapter 3: A Little Detour They were far from the crowd of mortals waiting before the archway, and William was d for it. That brought up a feeling of guilt, which was quickly stamped down. This wasn¡¯t the first time his n to help mortals fell through, and he was sure it wouldn¡¯t be thest. So be it. Mei Lingxi was right. It would soothe his feelings to help out personally, but it didn''t change much in the grand scheme of things. He needed to focus on bing strong enough, or influential enough, to make the changes he desired. Sophia hadid the foundations, and he would need to build on it. ¡°Amazing,¡± William broke the prolonged silence, mainly as a peace offering, ¡°Ipletely understand why you said there are people in need here.¡± Zheng Tao¡¯s face lit up, even though his words were entirely sarcastic. There were no people in sight, as it should be, since it was forbidden for anyone but sect members to enter. ¡°I¡¯m d you understand, Junior Brother.¡± They ignored Mei Lingxi¡¯s amused scoff as they entered the dense forest. William always knew they existed on the edges of the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s territory, but he had never visited. Mostly because he didn¡¯t see a point. As interesting as it was to see the trees where the sect sourced the building materials for almost every structure, it was not a priority. After all, it wasn¡¯t like the Jade Tree forest would suddenly uproot itself and run away. That raised a question that came to his mind when he saw the gem-like trees decorating the surroundings. ¡°What stops others from taking some of the trees, Brother Zheng?¡± William asked curiously, ¡°They must fetch a high price in the market.¡± Zheng Tao looked at him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°This should be something you already know if you paid attention.¡± ¡°As if that would stop somebody that was determined,¡± William rolled his eyes, ¡°It isn¡¯t enough for it to be difficult to cut and transport. If there is profit to be had, somebody will find a way to make it.¡± ¡°That is wise, Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi praised, standing far enough to give them a semnce of privacy. Also, it was far enough that Zheng Tao seemed to have forgotten that she was there. A hard thing to do. William wouldn¡¯t be capable of himself. However, he had seen Zheng Tao do something simr when focused on his task. He truly deserved the title William had given him in his mind. The most responsible disciple in the Outer Court. ¡°You¡¯re not wrong,¡± Zheng Tao said between nces at Mei Lingxi, ¡°There are some that try to steal the Jade Trees, but most are easily caught. The only source in the Tianxia Empire is this forest, and most won¡¯t dare to buy them from elsewhere. To have a chance to profit, they will need to sell in the surrounding kingdoms.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Williammented as he looked around, ¡°Brother Zheng? What did you want me to identify exactly? All I see are Jade Trees.¡± That wasn¡¯t an over-exaggeration. It really was all that was present, though they came in different shades of green and white. ¡°Look closer at the ground, Junior Brother.¡± William did so and saw nothing that stood out. The soil was uniform. But he didn¡¯t give up so easily, not when Zheng Tao practically told him something was there. ¡°Is there something underground?¡± ¡°Guessing won¡¯t help you,¡± Zheng Tao lightly scolded, ¡°What if you were alone? There will be nobody to hold your hand.¡± William quickly reviewed if any symbiotic nts grew around the Jade Trees, but he didn¡¯t think so. The trees were well known for killing other nt species that dared to enter their territory. It was the reason why all that could be seen in the forest were Jade Trees. ¡°You see these roots sticking out of the ground?¡± Zheng Tao lightly kicked one of them. ¡°Oh,¡± William covered his face with his palm. A Jade Tree¡¯s roots were never visible above the ground. The moment he was surrounded by trees, his mind automatically ignored the roots that asionally protruded from the soil, mainly because of his experience in the secret realm. After seeing the many, many roots that covered the underground tunnels, itpletely passed his mind that some tree species weren¡¯t the same. Still, that didn¡¯t mean the Jade Trees would suddenly allow other nt species to live near them. ¡°So thing sect ced something under here?¡± William crouched to see if he could sense anything. He couldn¡¯t. ¡°This is where the Soul Lotus is prepared.¡± He snapped his head up to stare at Zheng Tao in shock. ¡°And they just leave it out in the open? This is more valuable than the trees themselves.¡± The Soul Lotus was the closest thing to a miracle drug that the cultivation world had while also being fairlymon. Of course,mon was rtive since it was inparison to the other miracle spirit nts, which could only be found by luck. They could be farmed in specific scenarios, which was not to say that it was easy. The miracle nt could only be used in a near-dead state. It also needed tremendous resources for upkeep, and only two entities in the Tianxia Empire could afford to grow it. The Empire itself, and the Jade Healing Sect. Due to its cost, the Soul Lotus was almost entirely monopolized by the imperial family to uplift their subpar members to the Nascent Soul Realm so they could rule over regions of the Empire, freeing up the talented members to focus on cultivating. It also came with drawbacks, as was expected with such a benefit. There was a fine line between using the Soul Lotus and the Soul Lotus using you. Eating one of the near-dead Soul Lotus''s dried petals had two oues. It would either increase an average cultivator¡¯s potential and allow easy advancement into the higher realm, or the Soul Lotus would consume the cultivator. Amon and expected oue was to find a dried corpse with a Soul Lotus growing on top of it. It was how there was a constant supply of them, with the lives of desperate cultivators enabling it. A single dried petal would create a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator or provide an entire Soul Lotus. Something that was widely considered a win by both the supplier and the consumer. ¡°Some thieves may try to cut down the Jade Trees, but they are not bold enough to steal a Soul Lotus.¡± That was hubris of the highest order. William didn¡¯tment on it, but he was visibly skeptical. A quick nce at Mei Lingxi showed that she felt the same. ¡°How do you know all this, Brother Zheng? This is not meant as an insult, but this seems to be something you shouldn¡¯t be aware of.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not hidden knowledge,¡± Zheng Tao said with a shrug, ¡°And I applied to be one of the caretakers once I reach the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm. Come, let¡¯s head to the other side of the forest. There will be more to discover since the Jade Trees aren¡¯t as tightly packed together.¡± William followed behind silently, figuring there was more to it than simply being a potential caretaker, but it wasn''t his business. He decided to end the little trip after this. As interesting as it was to learn about the Soul Lotus and itsughably poor security, there wasn¡¯t much point in wasting more time. He wanted to get back to studying the formation manuals. One of the many things that he needed to bepetent in. He had gotten trapped in an array in the secret realm, and if it happened again in the future, he didn''t want to rely on luck to escape. However, William had done his best to ensure that would be an option if necessary. The Luck attribute had been the only thing he had increased in the past two weeks. The other attributes might have varying levels of importance depending on his needs, but Luck was something he always intended to have at its maximum. It is an easy decisionpared to the others. There was no longer an enforced maximum on any attribute except for Luck, so he could now specialize instead of being an all-rounder like he had been in the Qi Gathering Realm. Name: Wei Liang (William Davis) Age: 13 Level: 113 Experience: 8757/14125 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 550/550 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 110 Strength: 110 Stamina: 110 Agility: 110 Luck: 150 Points: 293 William was d for it but sometimes missed the easy choice of maxing out every single attribute. ¡°Why did you slow down? Follow, Junior Brother!¡± He sighed and picked up the pace. B2 - Chapter 4: Reliable Zheng Tao B2 - Chapter 4: Reliable Zheng Tao It looked like they were about to leave the forest itself with how sparse the Jade Trees became. That also meant they were about to leave the sect''s territory. ¡°Brother Zheng, we should stop here.¡± Zheng Tao frowned as he looked back at him. ¡°The Jade Trees still affect the development too much in this area. Plus, all the spiritual growth is too easy to identify with most of them being sect staples.¡± ¡°Then how about I point out what I see?¡± William suggested, not wanting to bring his mood down even more than it would be shortly. ¡°Don¡¯t argue, Junior Brother,¡± Zheng Tao denied him swiftly, ¡°There are some that are just like the Soul Lotus. I want to see if you can find those.¡± ¡°Out there?¡± William incredulously asked, ¡°I get that you are testing me, but that is not even close to believable. It would be outside of the sect¡¯s territory.¡± Zheng Tao let out an exasperated sigh. ¡°Must you fight me? I only have your best interests at heart, Little Brother Wei.¡± William might have been convinced if not for Mei Lingxi. He felt her presence beside him, a change from the distance she had been keeping. ¡°This farce can end here,¡± her voice was as cold as ice. ¡°Senior Mei?¡± Zheng Tao looked as confused as he sounded, though that didn¡¯tst long. William witnessed everything that happened in great detail, though that was all he could do. Witness it. Two cultivators mmed into the ground beside Zheng Tao. The speed at which they did so was almost a blur, telling him he couldn¡¯t match them without help. He immediately prepared his Qi to activate Force Multiplier, a martial skill he created. It wasn¡¯t as effective as when he was in the Qi Gathering Realm. However, it was still valuable. It would no longer give him a five times multiplier to his physical attributes, but it would increase them by four times. That was plenty for the cultivators that appeared. [Name: Mo Xuefeng | Level: 142] [Name: Ren Wushan | Level: 151] If it wasn¡¯t for Mei Lingxi¡¯s hand suddenly mping down on his shoulder, he would have acted to stop the disaster that happened next. Zheng Tao barely had time to register the danger thatnded on both sides when one of the cultivators sliced through his spine with a sharp de. He screeched in pain as his legs crumpled beneath him and would have copsed to the ground if not for being grabbed by the other cultivator. His limp form was casually tossed over the shoulder and over the invisible boundary of the sect. Hended with a shrill shriek on his back before falling quiet. ¡°Brother Zheng!¡± William was ready to activate Force Multiplier and rush to his rescue, but Mei Lingxi stopped him again. ¡°Calm your mind, Young Master,¡± her tone has somehow gotten colder, with the fury she felt no longer hidden, ¡°It is not as it seems.¡± He had already used Observe on the two men that likely crippled Zheng Tao, or worse. They were specialized in Agility, as was expected, and surprisingly, Strength. Not that it would help them. They would get crushed by Mei Lingxi. And when he joined after activating Force Multiplier, they would be left in a more miserable state than Zheng Tao. William was looking forward to the process of making that happen. ¡°You, boy,¡± the man named Mo Xuefeng growled, ¡°You¡¯re a disciple of the Jade Healing Sect. Bring us a Soul Lotus, and your fellow disciple will live.¡± He sneered, wondering if they thought he was that naive. If he actually did as they demanded, it would likely end with them trying to kill all the witnesses. Thankfully, they were too weak for that to be a possibility. ¡°Interesting n,¡± Mei Lingxi interrupted again, something he was quickly bing fed up with. He shot her a re that was promptly ignored. ¡°Take the one on the right,¡± William whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of the other. Don¡¯t give them a chance to harm him even more.¡± ¡°They are not the threats,¡± Mei Lingxi returned quietly, ¡°Wait, Young Master.¡± ¡°Since you both are content to talk to each other, I guess you don¡¯t care,¡± Mo Xuefengmented, ¡°It seems we miscalcted, Wushan.¡± ¡°Guess so,¡± Ren Wushan grunted, ¡°So we kill the boy and leave? The Elders might arrive soon.¡± ¡°It¡¯s up to them,¡± Mo Xuefeng replied as he stared at William, ¡°What do you think we should do?¡± ¡°As I said before, interesting n,¡± Mei Lingxi repeated, ¡°I¡¯m guessing your leader would show up when the Soul Lotus drowns out her presence?¡± The way they both froze told him that Mei Lingxi¡¯s guess was exactly their n. ¡°I must be losing my touch.¡± William looked past the two men to see a woman standing next to Zheng Tao¡¯s body. [Name: Feng Lirong | Level: ?] While in the Qi Gathering Realm, he had been able to see the names of cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm and the Core Formation Realm. So, it wasn¡¯t that oundish of an assumption to think the two major realm gap would apply once he advanced. That was not the case. William still hadn''t been able to see Elder Yu¡¯s name in the basic system status, and she was in the Nascent Soul Realm. That meant this Feng Lirong could only be in the Core Formation Realm. ¡°I wonder what your n was after that,¡± Mei Lingxi asked, staring right at the woman. The two men had retreated to her side, showing subservient bodynguage. ¡°That no longer matters, does it? ¡°No,¡± Mei Lingxi agreed, ¡°I suppose not.¡± They were having a stand-off while William was frantically trying to find a way to get Zheng Tao back to the sect alive. It didn¡¯t seem possible with a Core Formation Realm cultivator now in the mix. Feng Lirong sighed, ¡°Well, this was a wasted effort. How about this? I don¡¯t kill this kid, and in return, give me the spatial ring of your finger, boy.¡± ¡°This?¡± William pointed at the ring he wore, beyond happy to have such an offer. ¡°That and everything inside it,¡± Feng Lirong smirked, ¡°Are you willing to trade for this half-dead kid?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± William nodded firmly. He would lose the gauntlet and a few pills, but those could be easily reced. ¡°Huh,¡± Feng Lirong looked at him strangely, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect that. No hesitation. Wushan, Xuefeng, get me the ring.¡± The men bowed to the woman slightly before reentering the sect¡¯s territory. The distance she kept from the boundary brought up the memory of the description of the defenses. One of them was a massive array that alerted the Elders if a cultivator in the Core Formation Realm crossed the boundary. That was why Feng Lirong refused to get any closer. ¡°Strange, isn¡¯t it?¡± Mei Lingxi suddenly said, ¡°Not many expect a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator like me to be serving the Young Master. Especially since he is known to be from a small vige, not arge n with resources to spare.¡± ¡°What was the point of saying that out loud, woman?¡± Ren Wushan growled but stopped several paces away with a wary look. Mei Lingxi smirked, ¡°Even less expect that I am just outside the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. You two are no match for me. Nor can Zheng Tao¡¯s poor acting fool my senses.¡± William¡¯s mind nked. The sounds he heard dimmed when he saw Zheng Tao¡¯s supposedly broken body move. The boy he had called brother opened his eyes and had the gall to give him a sheepish look as he stood up. B2 - Chapter 5: Goodbye Zheng Tao B2 - Chapter 5: Goodbye Zheng Tao William could afford to stare at Zheng Tao because of Mei Lingxi. The two men feared her enough to stay at a distance. He always thought the act of conversing with enemies was relegated to people of suspect intellect, but that mattered little at the moment. The memories of all his interactions with Zheng Tao were carefully being dissected in his mind. Not that it helped. No matter how much he tried, he couldn¡¯t see a point when he should have been suspicious. Most of their time was spent pouring over texts, following the meticulous lesson n Zheng Tao had created. When they weren¡¯t in cramming mode, conversations of a casual nature were exchanged. William clearly remembered how Zheng Tao mentioned he relished cultivating and the love he had for the sect to take him in. The joy he felt when he mentored the neers in the sect. It was backed up by how friendly everyone was towards him. So none of that seemed false, though the evidence in front of him proved it was. ¡°It¡¯s nothing personal, Junior Brother,¡± Zheng Tao offered when he didn¡¯t stop staring, ¡°I had to decide my future, and I chose what was best for me.¡± He thought back to the past few days, wondering if the constant nagging to stay in the library and go over mundane subjects had been on purpose. It wore him down, enabling Zheng Tao to lead him here. Perhaps he had also mistaken the reason Zheng Tao kept staring at Mei Lingxi. It hadn¡¯t been attraction fueling those looks but rather a wariness about her presence ruining his ns. But why then did he call her before they left the sect? It could have been to stop rousing any possible suspicion from any Elders that could have been watching, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. ¡°Fine, you wanted to decide your future,¡± William tried to keep his voice steady, ¡°What was the reason you wanted to lure me out here?¡± It was the first time he tasted betrayal. He had imagined his actions in this scenario plenty of times, well before he ever became a cultivator or arrived in this world. None of that prepared him for the sense of loss that came over him. William truly felt he had met one of the few people who could be considered a friend. Even if he had been about to break the news that he was about to move up to the Inner Court, he believed it would have been possible to return to thefortable camaraderie they had. All it would have needed was time. The time that he had been nning to invest. Now, it felt like all that hope and effort had been for absolutely nothing. Even worse than nothing if what he suspected was true. That Zheng Tao had nned to use him and then silence him before betraying the sect. ¡°It was twofold,¡± Zheng Tao finally replied after a long second, ¡°I needed someone who could extract a Soul Lotus, and I was hoping you would join me. You¡¯re a cultivator that focuses onbat. No matter how much the sect values you, they won¡¯t be able to help as much as the group I joined.¡± William nced at Feng Lirong, finding it strange that she was okay with them having a full-blown conversation when the sect¡¯s Elders could discover them. But he wouldn¡¯t question it. ¡°Better help than what the sect is giving me? Zheng Tao, we have spoken for the past two weeks. Do you really believe that?¡± William mourned a little after calling him by name for the first time. It felt like any rtionship they had was cut at that point. ¡°And why would you need me to extract a Soul Lotus? You could do it yourself.¡± Zheng Tao was silent. It looked like he was done talking. That was fine. William was done listening to the bullshit that was spewed at him. Feng Lirong wanted something with him, and it wasn¡¯t to convince him to defect. ¡°I can see your doubt, but he isn¡¯t lying. Young Zheng Tao is an average cultivator at best. Still, I can easily guarantee that he will reach the Core Formation Realm. I¡¯ve heard of your talent, Wei Liang. For you, I can guarantee that you will get first pick in the collections. You will reach the Nascent Soul Realm easily, maybe even more.¡± That struck a chord in William. A connection slowly formed in his mind. The look on his face must have rmed Mei Lingxi since she stepped in front of him. ¡°Leave,¡± she ordered, ¡°My Young Master will not entertain such foolish thoughts.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be so hasty, little girl,¡± Feng Lirong smiled, ¡°This also applies to you. Your talent might not be as high as your master''s, but you will also have a better future with us than here.¡± ¡°Step aside, Sister Lingxi,¡± William said as he gently pushed her out of his way. It would have been impossible if she didn¡¯t allow it. ¡°When you say pick in the collection, what do you mean by that?¡± Feng Lirong¡¯s smile widened. ¡°The main way we cultivate is with external means. Talent is not necessary, but with what you possess, the heavens is your limit.¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± William felt a smile forming on his lips, one that was as false as her words, ¡°These¡­ external means. They wouldn¡¯t happen to be people, would they?¡± He could see Feng Lirong¡¯s gaze sharpen into daggers. ¡°Kill him!¡± William sneered when the two men jumped into action, Mei Lingxi meeting them in the middle to block their path. She was sessful, but it wasn¡¯t easy for her to hold back both of them. It might take some time, but she would eventually be overwhelmed. ¡°You could have been useful, Junior Brother.¡± He looked away from the fight to see Zheng Tao slowly being lifted into the air to a waiting spirit boat. Any affection he had toward him was gone, and so was any sense of loss. All that was left was burning hatred. ¡°Instead of dying without purpose, you could have be nourishment. A part of something greater.¡± William¡¯s mind shed back to the demon in human form. That woman who ughtered so many young souls to gain a minuscule amount of power. The despair he felt when it was his turn to be drained of his soul. The hatred toward Zheng Tao spiked to a level that made him see red. He wanted to rip the smiling bastard¡¯s head clean off his shoulders. It would save countless lives and soothe his rage at the same time. ¡°Zheng Tao!¡± William shouted, ¡°I¡¯m happy you showed me what you truly were before I told you.¡± Qi surrounded his body, flickering like an ethereal blue me as he activated Force Multiplier. The ground cracked beneath his feet before he appeared beside Mei Lingxi and mped his hands around the necks of Mo Xuefeng and Ren Wushan. He ignored Mei Lingxi¡¯s wide eyes and the choked gasps of the men trying to escape his grasp. ¡°I¡¯m already in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Unlike talentless trash like you, I don¡¯t need cheap tricks to help me!¡± That insult was weak, in William¡¯s opinion. Still, if Zheng Tao was willing to switch to the demonic path because of talent, this should be what hurt the most. At this point, Zheng Tao was already in the spirit boat, but he was smiling instead of being angry. ¡°I¡¯m d, Junior Brother! I wondered why Elder Yu gave you so much attention and freedom. Now I know, and I can be content that I made the right choice! My dream is to match cultivators like you!¡± William almost snarled at the happiness he could see. His frustration only increased by the futile struggle of the men slowly being asphyxiated in his hands. ¡°Enough!¡± He growled and squeezed their necks harder, ready and willing to end their lives right there. These men were not considered human in his mind, not with how their cultivation was gained. It would be a kindness to end them. ¡°Young Master, leave one alive!¡± Mei Lingxi said quickly before a sharp snap was heard. [+42375 XP] [Level Up | 10 Stat Points Added] x 3 William tossed the dead body to the side before savagely mming the one left alive into the ground, sparing his life but putting him near death. He looked back at the spirit boat, seeing it start to move. With promise in his voice, William vowed, ¡°You will die by my hands, Zheng Tao. As will the rest of you sick freaks.¡± [Side Quest Added | Kill Zheng Tao and the cell he belongs to] The spirit boat disappeared, and a momentter, two Elders were seen flying toward them from the entrance to the Outer Court. B2 - Chapter 6: Elders From the Punishment Hall B2 - Chapter 6: Elders From the Punishment Hall William released control over his Qi, deactivating Force Multiplier just as the Eldersnded next to the dead body. [Name: Bai Yun | Level: ?] [Name: Meng Hui | Level: ?] They were slightly older-looking cultivators in the Core Formation Realm, with nothing really standing out except for the sharp looks on their faces. A change from the either nk or pleasant expressions of most Elders of the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°You¡¯re Wei Liang,¡± Meng Hui stated before staring at the body with the crushed neck, ¡°What happened here?¡± Mei Lingxi stepped back to stand slightly behind William, and with the way the Elders ignored her even though she had higher cultivation, they must have been aware that she had a status as an attendant. He would need to provide the answers. ¡°A disciple defected from the sect,¡± William noted the look of surprise on the Elders¡¯ faces, ¡°He tried to use outsiders to steal some Soul Lotuses, and possibly drag me along with them.¡± ¡°Who is this disciple?¡± Bai Yun asked gruffly. ¡°Zheng Tao,¡± William spat, the hatred rising the moment he thought about him. ¡°Zheng Tao?¡± Bai Yin muttered before saying to his fellow Elder, ¡°Wasn¡¯t that the name of the disciple that applied to be the caretaker of the Jade Forest?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Meng Hui replied with a frown, ¡°The lecturers gave him glowing rmendations, so I gave him entry ess to familiarize himself with the forest. But he would have no hope of touching a Soul Lotus without an Inner Court Elder being notified.¡± The Elders turned and gave them suspicious looks. ¡°How did you two enter the forest? And how did the traitor know it was possible?¡± Meng Hui asked with narrowed eyes. William had been angry beyond reason at a ¡®friend¡¯ defecting to the demons that gave him a nightmarish wee to this world. The arrival of the Elders calmed him a little since he assumed they would be of help, but all they had done so far was be utterly useless. It didn¡¯t matter that they were Core Formation Realm cultivators. If they were stupid enough to question him when there was a trespasser that was left alive just for this reason, then he didn¡¯t need to keep his ire held inside him. Luckily, Mei Lingxi must have seen that. ¡°Young Master was given the freedom to explore any part of the Outer Court by Elder Yu. It must have included entry into the Jade Forest.¡± The interjection also helped William cool his anger slightly. ¡°Elders,¡± William said with a strained voice, ¡°If you have any questions, they can be directed to this one,¡± he pointed to the broken, yet alive, body of Ren Wushan, ¡°I left him with his life exactly for that reason.¡± The Elders nced at each other before seeming toe to an agreement. Bai Yun took out a bottled vial full of white powder before sprinkling it on the dead body. It disintegrated into a grayish pile of dust almost instantly under William¡¯s shocked eyes. With the way Mei Lingxi seemed unsurprised, this wasn¡¯t umon. Bai Yin lifted Ren Wushan¡¯s broken body using his Qi before flying back to the Outer Court without another word said to them, leaving Meng Hui behind. ¡°I¡¯m Elder Meng,¡± he finally introduced himself, ¡°Of the Punishment Hall. Disciple Wei, I can see you are displeased, but this matter is serious. We have never been so close to losing a Soul Lotus before.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± William didn¡¯t, ¡°More than that, there is something else that is worrisome about the group Zheng Tao defected to. The leader that came to pick him up imed to use people as cultivation resources.¡± ¡°People?¡± He didn¡¯t get the reaction that he had expected. Instead of horror and shock, what he saw was just confusion. ¡°Yes, people,¡± William stressed, ¡°To increase their own cultivation.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Elder Meng drawled, ¡°So Zheng Tao was lured to abandon the sect by raving lunatics. What an idiot.¡± William was about to activate Force Multiplier again, purely to try and pound some sense into the moron in front of him. No matter if it was practically suicide. However, under all the annoyance, he realized the group of depraved cultivators that used the souls of others to fuel their cultivation was not as well known as he assumed. Again, Mei Lingxi came to the rescue. ¡°My Young Master was shocked, Elder Meng. They tried to lure him with promises of easy power. This might have been a way to convince him.¡± ¡°Of all the reasons to use,¡± Elder Meng scoffed, ¡°Whatever it may be, Elder Yu has to take responsibility. Giving you two ess to such an area is unheard of.¡± William shared a look with Mei Lingxi when the Elder looked away. It almost sounded like Elder Yu getting into trouble was a cause to be happy. It was another thing that was added to his mind about Elder Meng. It firmly put the man on his disliked persons list. ¡°Why did it take so long for help to arrive?¡± William asked, thinking of the convenient timing of the arrival. After the danger had passed. ¡°The Punishment Hall was only alerted by the one you killed. We cannot be dispatched with every Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator that passes the border. There are far too many instances of that.¡± ¡°Even when they were so close to the Jade Forest?¡± He asked skeptically. If the Soul Lotus was so important, why was there such an uncaring attitude toward trespassers? Especially when there were supposedly Jade Trees that were stolen asionally. ¡°That is precisely the reason we don¡¯t care,¡± Elder Meng gave him a strange look, ¡°Entering the Jade Forest is a possible death sentence for sect members who do not have permission. As for outsiders under the Core Formation Realm, they are instantly killed by the protections before they even have the chance to reach the area where the Jade Lotus is nted.¡± William stared at him in shock before looking at Mei Lingxi. ¡°Sister Lingxi, did you know this about the Jade Forest?¡± ¡°No, Young Master. What Zheng Tao told you seemed suspect, but I didn¡¯t know enough to contradict him.¡± ¡°Exin,¡± Elder Meng ordered. ¡°Zheng Tao imed the Jade Forest was well known,¡± William exined, ¡°And thieves asionally steal Jade Trees to sell in the surrounding kingdoms.¡± ¡°Aughable im,¡± Elder Meng sneered, ¡°There hasn¡¯t been any theft in nearly a thousand years.¡± ¡°I¡¯m starting to understand that,¡± Wim admitted with a quieter voice. He finally recalled where he had learned about the Jade Forest. Zheng Tao. It had been around a week after the tutoring started. He remembered how the traitor asked him how he could ess any manuals, even ones that were meant for higher cultivation, without spending any sect points. William had told him that Elder Yu had given him a pass that waived those requirements. Perhaps the idea of the Jade Forest had been nted in Zheng Tao''s mind since that moment. ¡°No matter,¡± Elder Meng said, ¡°An Elder of the Punishment Hall from the Inner Court is being summoned. You two will remain here with me until his arrival. In silence. The decision of what to do will be left to him.¡± B2 - Chapter 7: Elder From the Inner Court B2 - Chapter 7: Elder From the Inner Court There wasn¡¯t much of a wait needed before the Inner Court Elder arrived. Still, it was long enough to realize that he needed to question whatever Zheng Tao told him if it wasn¡¯t also confirmed by a manual. That mainly included information about the sect. It was not too much of a headache, but enough to add another reason Zheng Tao would die a painful death. ¡°Bow,¡± Elder Meng ordered. William glimpsed someone rapidly flying toward them before he followed Elder Meng in a bow. It wasn''t something the neer appreciated. ¡°This isn¡¯t the time for formalities. Rise,¡± a gravely voice thundered. [Name: ? | Level: ?] He did so and flinched when he was met with a piercing gaze. The Inner Court Elder was d in robes that seemed to be just below the Grand Elder¡¯s in impressiveness, but unlike the unfairly pretty man that was the Grand Elder, this one seemed weathered by life. Like he had seen far too much to smile casually, and that was only backed up by the scars and marks that appeared to be a leftover from old battles. Out of everyone William had the pleasure of meeting, the Inner Court Elder was the only one that looked like a veteran warrior. ¡°Meng Hui, report.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Zhongli!¡± Elder Meng said with a quick bow, ¡°Two trespassers were found. One was killed by Disciple Wei, and one is alive but in a critical state. Disciple Wei has imed that an Outer Court disciple named Zheng Tao has defected from the sect while also attempting, but failing, to steal some Soul Lotuses.¡± ¡°Steal?¡± Elder Zhongli hummed, eyes meeting William¡¯s, ¡°I suppose it was you he nned to make use of. Elder Yu informed us about your increased level of ess.¡± ¡°Yes, Elder Zhongli,¡± Elder Meng said, almost gleefully, ¡°Elder Yu has to answer for the danger she invited by doing this.¡± Elder Zhongli¡¯s answering re was so harsh that even though William was not the target, he had to stop himself from cowering in fear when it felt like a sharp sword was threatening to split him in half. ¡°So this is why you didn¡¯t bring Disciple Wei and his attendant back to safety behind the sect walls. You put your petty internalpetition over the good of the sect.¡± Elder Meng paled as he tried to stammer out excuses, but was stopped with another harsh re. ¡°I will deal with youter, Meng Hui,¡± Elder Zhongli¡¯s re lessened when he turned to look at William, ¡°Do you have anything to add?¡± This would have been a great time to bring up the group that Zheng Tao defected to used people as cultivation tools, but as much as he wanted to put Elder Meng in a worse standing with someone who was obviously feared, he still had to consider the fact that the man was an Elder. As much as William didn¡¯t like him, and his feelings were screaming for him to forget aboutmon sense, he and Elder Meng might cross paths in the sect again. There was no need to make any enemies when it wasn¡¯t necessary. At least, not so obviously. Besides, they had a prisoner in custody. It would likely be revealed without him having to say anything. ¡°No, Elder Zhongli,¡± William denied, ¡°That should be everything.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Elder Zhongli strode to him before cing a hand on his shoulder and another on Mei Lingxi¡¯s, ¡°Return to the sect, Meng Hui. You will be summoned shortly.¡± Elder Meng¡¯s face paling even more was thest thing William saw before the surroundings suddenly changed. Gone were the scattered Jade Trees and open fields of grass. It was reced by something that looked like a room where officials gathered. They stood at the lowest point of the room, with seats that numbered nearly a hundred raised high around them. None of them were upied, but someone familiar was waiting for them. ¡°Grand Elder Lian Xue!¡± Mei Lingxi sounded uncharacteristically starstruck before her knees dropped to the ground and her forehead touched the floor, ¡°It¡¯s an honor to meet you!¡± ¡°Hm?¡± William wasn¡¯t sure what he should be staring at. Mei Lingxi kowtowing while practically vibrating in excitement, or the Grand Elder¡¯s confused face. ¡°Get up, girl,¡± Elder Zhongli ordered, making Mei Lingxi do so in haste, ¡°The Grand Elder¡¯s ego isn¡¯t so fragile that he needs everyone to kowtow before him.¡± ¡°I apologize,¡± Mei Lingxi said quickly, though it was said as she gave an instinctive bow. ¡°Ah, right!¡± The Grand Elder smiled bright, ¡°I knew I recognized your presence. Disciple Wei is your master, correct? I recall Elder Yu mentioning that she has provided him an attendant.¡± ¡°Yes, Grand Elder,¡± Mei Lingxi was flushed pink. It was an interesting sight for William. To see the tables turned on Mei Lingxi with her blushing instead of her target. The Grand Elder smirked and gave him a knowing look. ¡°It seems that you are already reaping the rewards, Disciple Wei. Don¡¯t tell me you already forgot your princess.¡± ¡°Grand Elder,¡± Elder Zhongli interrupted, ¡°We should discuss the trespassers.¡± ¡°Right. Of course,¡± the Grand Elder said almost sheepishly, ¡°I generally don¡¯t get involved in sect matters, but I admit I have been paying attention to you, Disciple Wei. After taking a look at the trespasser, it was necessary to contact you.¡± William''s hopes were raised. Maybe the knowledge of the demonic cultivators who cultivate by absorbing souls wasmon with people with higher cultivation realms. ¡°Did they seem off to you?¡± The Grand Elder seemed to want to avoid directly mentioning what he was talking about. Perhaps to spare him from any hidden trauma from what he experienced when he was a mortal. William held back a chuckle. As if anyone in the cultivation world would be worried about that. The typical solution would be to get stronger so it was possible to kill the problem out of existence. ¡°They absorb souls, Grand Elder,¡± he said bluntly, ¡°The same as the group that almost killed me before I ever thought of cultivating. Zheng Tao chose to steal souls to make up for his mediocrity.¡± He was aware of Mei Lingxi stiffening in shock beside him. She likely hadn¡¯t believed his im of them using people, and he could understand that. It was hard to believe if one hadn¡¯t witnessed it happen. ¡°Soul-absorption techniques,¡± Elder Zhongli spat, ¡°I never thought they would be seen inside the Empire¡¯s borders again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not too surprising,¡± the Grand Eldermented with a frown, ¡°With the Kingdoms testing the borders, the Empire can¡¯t focus the same attention on rooting out the savages.¡± ¡°This is the thanks the Kingdoms give for letting them be independent. We should have extinguished them when it was an option,¡± Elder Zhongli snarled before meeting William¡¯s gaze, ¡°And you, why did you not tell me this before? Do I seem untrustworthy to you?¡± He was d to take the additional opportunity to point this ire toward Elder Meng. ¡°Not at all, Elder Zhongli,¡± William shook his head empathically, ¡°I mentioned it to Elder Meng, but he brushed it off. I wasn¡¯t sure if that meant I should keep it quiet.¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Elder Zhongli glowered before disappearing. ¡°Quite a little troublemaker, aren¡¯t you?¡± The Grand Elder chuckled, ¡°Even I feel sorry for Meng Hui.¡± He winced, not having expected to be called out so directly. At least the Grand Elder didn¡¯t seem to mind. ¡°Leaving that aside, I have onest question for you, Disciple Wei. Elder Zhongli informed me that you were someone they targeted for your ability to ess a Soul Lotus. Do you think they had another motive?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± William confirmed immediately, ¡°Zheng Tao mentioned that he wanted to use my potential to grow his own.¡± ¡°I see. But there was no other reason?¡± After he nodded, the Grand Elder seemed to be more rxed. ¡°Good! This means they weren¡¯t targeting you specifically. Those savages have always had a shortage of alchemists, and with the traitor joining them, they will do everything to raise his cultivation, even if it¡¯s to sacrifice one with far greater talent inbat.¡± ¡°Is that why those two Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were sacrificed?¡± William asked. ¡°That¡¯s one of the reasons,¡± the Grand Elder nodded, ¡°The other is that those two likely reached the end of their cultivation paths. Their talent is poor, so they were relegated to sacrificial pawns.¡± He almost felt sorry for them, but he only felt pity for humans. Not the demonic filth that the men chose to be. Being left to die was their own fault. ¡°That¡¯s all I needed from you, Disciple Wei,¡± the Grand Elder said brightly, ¡°I could return you to your dwelling, but how about a tour of the Inner Court instead?¡± William¡¯s eyes lit up as he nodded eagerly. The Grand Elderughed and said, ¡°Follow. I¡¯ll show you the true Jade Healing Sect!¡± B2 - Chapter 8: The Inner Court B2 - Chapter 8: The Inner Court ¡°Are we still near the Outer Court?¡± William asked faintly. ¡°It cannot be seen from here, but yes. It is at the edge of the mountain range.¡± He nodded slightly as he absorbed who he was seeing. He never thought that a view from a mountaintop would be waiting after they exited the building. Nor would he have ever guessed how the Inner Court would have designed. With the Outer Court looking like a small university, William expected the Inner Court to be simr, only bigger. That couldn¡¯t be further from the truth. ¡°Stunning, is it not?¡± The Grand Elder smiled, ¡°I still remember when I first saw the eight peaks. The founders of the Jade Healing Sect had a vision, and they made it a reality. Everything you see was designed to fit perfectly with the formation protecting the entire sect.¡± William eyed the picturesque mountains that formed a circle, with a valley in the center being arge, t area that seemed to contain a town. He could see small dots moving around from this distance, each likely representing a person. ¡°How are there so many people in the Inner Court?¡± He asked in confusion. It wasn¡¯t like he spent time counting exactly how many disciples were there in the Outer Court, but he could approximate how many. It was five hundred at most. There had to be thousands from the small dots he could see just walking around. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t there be?¡± The Grand Elder said with a raised brow, ¡°I might not be involved with the new entrants to the sect, but there are only around fifty that enter the sect every year. They are given around ten years to show that they are worth investing in before they are allowed into the Inner Court or if they are destined to work elsewhere for the sect.¡± This, William already knew. He had met some of the people who were not qualified to be Inner Disciples at the Garden. The ce where the sect sources most of its lower-level spirit nts. It was also where he had life-or-deathbat against rabbits, of all things. ¡°As for the Inner Court, there are no time limitations. The paths that disciples take are far too varied to have such a ridiculous rule. It is not strange for disciples to stay as such for hundreds of years, if not longer.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William had nothing to express except his surprise. That easily ounted for therge number of people he could see. However, It also brought up the question of age. If some disciples were hundreds of years old, there would be some with a rtively high cultivation. It confused him, thinking of someone like Elder Huang still called a disciple. He needed to ask. ¡°Does that mean there are Core Formation Realm disciples?¡± William asked curiously, ¡°I thought they would be Elders in their own right.¡± ¡°They could be Elders, but again, that depends on what path they have taken. This will be something that you will be told by your assigned mentor.¡± He couldn¡¯t stop the frown. Having another disciple acting as a mentor wasn¡¯t something he was keen on experiencing after Zheng Tao. The Grand Elder saw that. ¡°I can assure you that you will not be assigned to another traitor,¡± the Grand Elder chuckled, ¡°Elder Yu informed me that you already know this disciple. But let¡¯s leave that aside! I promised you a tour, so let¡¯s start!¡± William would have preferred to know who his mentor would be, but since he already knew who it was, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess who it was. With him being a sentinel and this being the Inner Court, only one person qualified. Lan Yin. He smiled, happy that he would see her again. There was also another thing he would like to see. He nced at Mei Lingxi, who looked ecstatic as she took in the Inner Court. Lan Yin¡¯s reaction to his new attendant would be fun. ¡°Follow!¡± The Grand Elder casually created another portal before entering. William shared a look at Mei Lingxi before shrugging. This hadn¡¯t been the first time he had walked into one of these. With Mei Lingxi following closely, he stepped through and found himself facing a mountain. He could see it littered with structures connected with a single path, and when he craned his head to see the peak, he could vaguely see the building he was just in at the apex. ¡°This is the Administration Peak,¡± the Grand Eldermented, ¡°As the name suggests, this is where matters involving the sect are decided.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened before he snapped his head to the other peaks, but they were too far away for him to see if they were also upied. Thankfully, the Grand Elder didn¡¯t keep him wondering for long. ¡°If you think the other peaks also have a purpose, you¡¯re right. But they are for the disciples instead of the administration of the sect. Each peak is controlled by an Elder who is the best at their chosen specialization. And the best disciples are chosen by these Peak Masters.¡± With eight mountains surrounding the valley and one used purely for administration, that meant there were seven paths that an Inner Court disciple could take. It made him envious. It also made him realize a fact that had been somehow ignored all this time. William was in the most powerful empire in the continent, and the sect he joined was likely one of the most prestigious in that empire. He was a lucky man. ¡°Again, this will all be exined by your assigned mentor. The peaks are a marvel to see, but intruding on a Peak Master¡¯s territory without warning is not something I wish to do. However, themon ground has its own attractions.¡± William followed the Grand Elder as they left the vicinity of the Administration Peak and passed through a gate that led into a market-like atmosphere. Unlike in Xuanjing City, where it was possible to see beggars in close vicinity to wealthy merchants, the people here were all well-groomed cultivators with not a pauper in sight. It also meant he had to turn off his system¡¯s basic status feature for cultivators. It had been necessary to do so with mortals in Xuanjing City to avoid getting overwhelmed. Now, it seemed it also applied to cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm as well. There were far too many of them here to leave it active. It was a relief when the endless blue text above everyone¡¯s head disappeared, letting William focus on other things, like what was being sold. In Xuanjing City, there wasmon food and trinkets for mortals, with the rare low-quality spirit fruits asionally sold. In the Inner Court, spirit fruits seemed not worth the effort to sell. There were plenty of stalls that sold cultivation resources, but they were pills, formation arrays, and salves instead. A few even had gleaming treasures, though strangely, they had the least customers around them. ¡°This is where any disciple can disy what they want to sell. Most of the sellers are from one of the peaks, usually trying to offload a low-quality creation to fund their next try, but it can also be something they found while on missions. It can be sold here as long as it does not break the sect rules.¡± ¡°Why do they only sell their low-quality creations?¡± William asked, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t they make more money if they sold their sesses?¡± ¡°These are stalls,¡± the Grand Elder chuckled, ¡°Only beginners set up one. As for anything of decent quality, those are sold in stores on the other side of themon ground, or if it meets the requirements, the sect will sell it outside for a portion of the sale. As for money, there is none used inside the sect. Only points are epted.¡± ¡°Sect points?¡± William repeated, remembering something that hadpletely passed his mind. The mission that was neverpleted due to the abrupt detour into the secret realm. He never officially failed it, but there was no doubt it would be marked a failure once he went to the mission hall. It meant he currently possessed negative one hundred sect points. ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± the Grand Elder nodded, ¡°As lively as the market is, let me show you my favorite part of themon grounds. The entertainment district!¡± He was a little slow to follow, but Mei Lingxi immediately moved close to him and hissed, ¡°Be respectful, Young Master. The Grand Elder himself is giving you a tour. When such a legendary figure gives you his time and attention to do something so menial, the least you can do is not waste his time further and walk faster. She was right. William didn¡¯t even think of the Grand Elder¡¯s position with how friendly he was. Even though the title should be enough, the casual nature of their interactions made him look at the man more like Lan Yin instead of Elder Yu. He resolved to be more mindful and sped up. B2 - Chapter 9: Teahouse B2 - Chapter 9: Teahouse To Mei Lingxi''s embarrassment, the Grand Elder gave them an amused grin. ¡°It seems I have a fan in your attendant, Disciple Wei. I can¡¯t lie and say I¡¯m not ttered. Still, don¡¯t be so nervous. As Elder Zhongli said, I am not so fragile that I need to prop myself up by my disciples being servile.¡± He could see Mei Lingxi flush a bright red in the corner of his eye. Usually, he wouldment on that, but the Grand Elder¡¯s casualness astonished him even more. William had met many higher-level cultivators in the Jade Healing Sect who were uncaring of formalities. They were forgiving as long as he hadn¡¯t been purposely rude or unknowingly insulted their disciples like he had with Li Xinyue by staring for too long. Well, he supposed Elder Meng might be an example of someone who was a little stuck up, but even that was minorpared to the endless bootlicking he had seen outside the sect. It was something he wasing to appreciate. ¡°Thank you, Grand Elder,¡± William smiled. He nodded in respect, ¡°But Sister Lingxi isn¡¯t wrong. I forgot my ce.¡± The Grand Elder waved him off as he started to leisurely lead them through the crowd. ¡°Like I said, it isn¡¯t a problem as long as we are not speaking on sect matters. At my age, I find that formalities quickly get tiresome. A waste of time if you ask me.¡± William blinked in surprise, his smile growingrger the more he heard the Grand Elder talk. ¡°Ah, I have to warn you not to be so casual in your interaction with the Peak Masters. Most of them feel the same as me, but their disciples would take offense in their ce and seek to punish you.¡± He remembered Li Xinyue looking as if she would love to punch his face when he didn¡¯t refer to Elder Huang respectfully, while the man himself didn¡¯t care one way or another. To him, it was good if the disciple felt like they had toe to their master¡¯s defense. That usually meant they had a good master, in his mind. ¡°Yes, Grand Elder,¡± William agreed, with Mei Lingxi agreeing with a jerky nod. The path through the market was quick. Even though it looked rtively packed, there wasn¡¯t an issue with moving since cultivators were aware of their immediate surroundings, making it easy to keep out of the way. More importantly, he found it strange that none of the disciples in the market seemed to take more than a few looks at their little group. It was mainly at the Grand Elder, but the looks the man received weren¡¯t due to his status in the sect. Surprisingly, it was mostly the female cultivators giving him multiple looks, hinting that it was the Grand Elder¡¯s physical appearance they were interested in. William found it hard to believe they didn¡¯t know who the Grand Elder was. Not when Mei Lingxi recognized him almost instantly, and she was technically still an outsiderpared to these disciples. ¡°You only have around a thousand points left.¡± His ears perked up, not sure why this was heard clearly when the rest of the conversations were a jumbled mess. ¡°Yeah, and? I think that formation will help with regting the mes.¡± ¡°Then what? Do you want to depend on a formation whenever you try to make a grade-one pill? Besides, the auction starts in a few days. You always waste your points right before it on something you think you need but never use!¡± William was finally able to pinpoint where the conversation wasing from. The system conveniently showed him their basic status as he nced over them, finding they were weaker than him. Perhaps some of the newer admits into the Inner Court? The low hum of the crowd quietened as they left the market and entered an area with little to no foot traffic. It resembled his idea of a pretty European town and was very simr to the dwellings in the Outer Court. Of course, the most luxurious dwellings of the Outer Court looked to be the minimum here. If a single-bedroom t was the bare minimum, then it wouldn¡¯t be a stretch for something like a penthouse to be avable. He wasn¡¯t drooling at the luxury inside the hypothetical penthouse but rather at the specialized cultivation rooms the sect might have included. ¡°Interested in the dwellings, are you?¡± The Grand Elder broke him out of his imagination. ¡°Yes,¡± William nodded without shame, pointing at the building that felt more than the others, ¡°Is it possible for a new entrant to the Inner Court to get one of those?¡± He ignored Mei Lingxi¡¯s warning looks. He seemed to be favored, for whatever reason, and didn¡¯t mind if that meant he received extraforts because of it. ¡°How bold,¡± the Grand Elderughed loudly, ¡°Very bold, Disciple Wei! Are you hinting at having me abusing my power to get you unearned benefits?¡± The Grand Elder seemed amused beyond belief, but William felt one step away from losing his supposed favored status. ¡°Of course not, Grand Elder! I would never!¡± He shook his head rapidly in denial. The Grand Elder roared inughter, drawing the attention of some disciples entering or leaving the area. ¡°Of course, you did, Disciple Wei,¡± the Grand Elder patted William¡¯s shoulder, ¡°If you continued to be bold, I would have given you the best dwelling in themon grounds. It¡¯s a shame that is not the case. I guess you must earn your way just like any other disciple!¡± William gaped at the man, who continued to chuckle to himself as he led them past the residential area and into a street that was a foodie¡¯s dream. The number of disciples that could be seen slowly increased the further he looked into the street. It was bustling with activity as disciples traveled in small groups to enjoy the delicacies and drinks offered by the numerous restaurants and tea houses. The aroma of various dishes filled the air, making him swallow to prevent himself from drooling as his mouth watered. There were chairs on patios outside most of the eateries, and he could see the disciples chatting with each other as they ate their dishes. A quick nce let him see that they were eating dumplings, noodles, soups, and pastries, but nothing as heavy as the meal he ate with Li Xinyue in the Phoenix¡¯s Nest long ago. William found it strange that they were all eating snacks, but he didn¡¯t mind. The delicious scent beckoned him to restaurant hop. Unfortunately, the Grand Elder didn¡¯t lead them to any restaurants. He chose a ce that had far fewer customers than anything surrounding it. Jade Lotus Teahouse. ¡°Wee back, Senior Brother!¡± A pretty disciple wearing a green, full-length cheongsam with purple and red designs greeted with a bright smile, ¡°And you brought friends!¡± [Name: Su Qinglian | Level: 152] When she dared to call the Grand Elder her senior brother, William instinctively looked at her basic status. He wasn¡¯t sure what surprised him more. That Su Qinglian greeted the Grand Elder so casually before she unsubtly red at Mei Lingxi like her existence offended her, or the Grand Elder going along with the casual greeting like nothing was wrong. ¡°Little Qinglian!¡± The Grand Elder beamed, ¡°I brought my juniors today to let them taste your famous Crimson me Lotus Tea!¡± ¡°All of them?¡± Su Qinglian asked with ill intention, ¡°I don¡¯t think we have enough for three people, Senior Brother.¡± ¡°Oh? That¡¯s a shame,¡± the Grand Elder sighed. He muttered, ¡°Maybe I can take them to Nine Clouds?¡± ¡°Actually, Senior Brother, I think I forgot about the new stock that arrived,¡± Su Qinglian quickly changed her tune, ¡°Let me lead you to your usual room.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s great!¡± William and Mei Lingxi shared looks of confusion before they followed the Grand Elder into the teahouse. B2 - Chapter 10: Crimson Lotus Tea B2 - Chapter 10: Crimson Lotus Tea ¡°I¡¯ll return with the tea, Senior Brother,¡± Su Qinglian smiled brightly as she left the room. William had expected something simr to the Phoenix¡¯s Nest. A spacious, isted room, so it was possible to ignore the world outside once the door was closed. He didn¡¯t expect to walk past the door and suddenly be standing on beautiful, dark red hardwood floors in the middle of a pristine beach. There was a clear line of separation between the wood floors and the beach, with not even a grain of sand crossing that line. Soft waves rushed inches from the floor before retreating back into the ocean. Of course, the immersion was broken if William turned around. There was no beach to see there. Only a well-decorated wall with the door leading out of the room. Mei Lingxi was standing next to the door, the reason Su Qinglian had been so happy before she left. Whatever assumed rivalry she saw with Mei Lingxi was apparently dead when he was referred to as ¡®Young Master¡¯ by her. William wasn¡¯t sure how being a server at a teahouse was better than being an attendant. Still, he didn¡¯t really care to try and understand. ¡°This chair isn¡¯t here just as a decoration,¡± the Grand Elder motioned at the empty seat next to William, ¡°You¡¯re wee to use it whenever you wish, Attendant of Disciple Wei.¡± ¡°Er, her name is Mei Lingxi, Grand Master.¡± ¡°Attendant Mei,¡± he smoothly corrected. Surprisingly, Mei Lingxi didn¡¯t do so immediately. She gave William an asking nce, to which he readily nodded. He didn¡¯t think she would still remember her role when someone with a much higher status gave her permission. ¡°Hm, Elder Zhou was right when she said your attendant was a good girl,¡± the Grand Elder stroked a nonexistent beard, ¡°You are her priority even with my presence.¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s face turned bright red, a state she was familiar with in the Grand Elder¡¯s presence. ¡°Yes, Sister Lingxi has been very reliable,¡± William agreed with a smirk. ¡°Good, good, she will be of great help with some of the morebative senior disciples you will meet,¡± the Grand Elder eyed Mei Lingxi, ¡°Attendant Mei¡¯s cultivation isn¡¯t the strongest, but I can see the fascinating reason she chose to put herself in this position.¡± William noticed her stiffen in response. Now, he was really curious about the exnation. It didn¡¯t pass his mind that Mei Lingxi was a little too talented to have been stuck as Prince Yuan¡¯s servant, and now his attendant. ¡°I¡¯m not using you, Young Mei,¡± the Grand Elder calmed her, ¡°I just didn¡¯t expect to see one such as you again. I met a man with a simr constitution before I was a Grand Elder, but unlike you, he resisted his instincts like no other, eventually meeting his end in a wretched manner.¡± Now, it was William¡¯s turn to stiffen in surprise. The Grand Elder had a pleasant tone so far, but there was a slight change that would have been undetected with anyone else, but was far too apparent with someone that never sounded unhappy so far. ¡°With your talent, you would easily be an Inner Court member of my sect. It would be a miracle if you didn¡¯t be an Elder after that, but you never showed up for the testing for my sect or any other sect in the Empire. You went directly to Xuanjing City, a city you have never thought of before in your life.¡± William¡¯s eyes were wide as the Grand Elder practically started toy out Mei Lingxi¡¯s entire life story, and it looked like he had no intention of stopping. He realized the vague memory the Grand Elder had of her was an act to seem harmless because it was clear her background was investigated thoroughly. ¡°You followed your instincts. You put yourself in a position that was far beneath you. I say this without offense to you, Disciple Wei, you put yourself in another one when there was no need to,¡± the Grand Elder leaned forward with a smile, somehow making it look threatening, ¡°You knew what to do when you convinced the foolish Prince Yuan to gift a treasured artifact to Disciple Wei so you left an impression on him, more than you already did.¡± The Grand Elder wasn¡¯t wrong. After he had been taken out of the Treasure Pavilion by Elder Yu, he had been ready to forget that experience had ever happened, writing it off as a learning experience. Mei Lingxi showing up at the clinic and gifting him the Elemental Gauntlet left asting impression, one that was hard to forget. ¡°It wasn¡¯t nned,¡± Mei Lingxi defended herself for the first time, but it wasn¡¯t necessary. ¡°I know,¡± the Grand Elder suddenly returned to his pleasant state, ¡°You let your instincts lead the direction of your life. I was just expressing my admiration. Your choices might be ruinous to others, but I look forward to seeing where it will lead you.¡± They were interrupted by the door opening. Su Qinglian had returned, holding arge tray in her hands with three cups filled with gently steaming tea. ¡°Here you are, Senior Brother,¡± Su Qinglian said cheerily, which quickly changed when she saw Mei Lingxi sitting at the table with them, ¡°¡­ And these are for you, honored guests.¡± The Grand Elder thanked her and took a sip of the tea before releasing a rxed sigh. ¡°Excellent as always, Little Qinglian.¡± ¡°Thank you, Senior Brother,¡± Su Qinglian bowed, obviously wanting to say something else, but her professionalism eventually won out, ¡°Let me know if you wish to order anything else.¡± They waited for her to close the door behind her. Mei Lingxi was the first to speak, surprisingly. ¡°Am I under suspicion, Grand Elder?¡± ¡°Not at all,¡± he replied firmly before looking at William, ¡°I wanted to let Disciple Wei know more about his attendant. Her potential. Especially when you barely know yourself, Young Mei.¡± Mei Lingxi nodded slowly, thinking over what was said. Eventually, she asked, ¡°May I ask you another question, Grand Elder?¡± ¡°Feel free.¡± Mei Lingxi nced at William momentarily, then continued, ¡°Why do none of the Inner Disciples we met recognize you? And why does the hostess call you senior brother?¡± That had been a question burning inside William. With the Grand elder extolling the virtues of Mei Lingxi, he wondered if she had one that picked up on what he wanted to know. Then again, anyone would like to know the reason behind the strangeness of something like that. ¡°When I mentioned that I don¡¯t see the need to be involved in sect in most matters, it was not an exaggeration. Most disciples do not know their Grand Elder¡¯s appearance. As for Little Qinglian, I encouraged her to start this teahouse a few decades ago when I discovered her talent for brewing tea. I wait for the time when her cultivation increases, and I will be able to enjoy some of the rarities in the world. I¡¯m simply a supportive older disciple to her, and it will stay that way.¡± Thatst sentence was said with a clear warning. They both nodded rapidly in agreement to keep it quiet. ¡°Now, enjoy the tea before it loses its essence!¡± The Grand Elder said with a p, ¡°You will especially enjoy it, Disciple Wei.¡± William picked up the cup by the handle, brought it to his lips, and took a small sip. A spicy vor filled his mouth before he swallowed, spreading a feeling of heat through his body. He remembered the tea had the name Crimson me Lotus Tea, and the taste matched it. His eyes closed as he took a longer sip, sighing when it felt like all the worries inside him were burned away. ¡°I see it¡¯s helping.¡± The Grand Elder¡¯s voice felt far away with how soft it was. William hummed in agreement before tilting the cup again and drinking more. ¡°I sensed that you were still troubled by what you experienced. The feeling the tea gives is only temporary, but it will let you think freely without doubt or rage consuming you.¡± He opened his eyes to see the Grand Elder looking intently at him. That exnation wasn¡¯t wrong, but he truly didn¡¯t feel any different when thinking about Zheng Tao, and that was precisely what he said. ¡°Thank you for trying to help, Grand Elder, but it wasn¡¯t necessary. My resolve to bring Zheng Tao to justice hasn¡¯t changed, even without anger. I have seen what cultivators like him turn into, the demons they be. They need to be eradicated.¡± It felt strange to William, hearing himself talk about killing with such indifference. ¡°I look forward to it, Disciple Wei,¡± the Grand Elder chuckled happily. William nodded before taking another sip of the wondrous tea, eyes wandering over the brim to Mei Lingxi. It wasn¡¯t fair that a simple change in expression made her so much more attractive. He realized that might mean she actively attempted to make herself unattractive to avoid looking like this. ¡°Sister Lingxi, you¡¯re far too pretty.¡± He didn¡¯t realize that was said out loud until he heard the Grand Elderugh hysterically, somehow making even that sound elegant. But he focused more on Mei Lingxi, who reached over and pinched his cheek. ¡°You¡¯re so sweet, Little Brother Liang,¡± she cooed. ¡°Disciple Wei,¡± the Grand Elder said between chuckles, ¡°You are a talent the sect is proud of having, but your Attendant Mei is beyond you at the moment.¡± William didn¡¯t get flustered by their amusement. He studied Mei Lingxi before deciding something. He had attempted it before only to give up when he saw the warning, but this might be the best time to try it and have it be excused. [Use Observe? | Cost: 150 Spiritual Energy] [Warning | Factoring Luck, there is a 99.985% chance of the target sensing Observe] B2 - Chapter 11: Young B2 - Chapter 11: Young He didn¡¯t hesitate to use it. [-150 Spiritual Energy] Name: Mei Lingxi Age: 19 Level: 186 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Late Stage) Health: 2900/2900 Spiritual Energy: 2290/2290 Spirit: 458 Strength: 273 Stamina: 327 Agility: 302 Mei Lingxi¡¯s rxed expression was broken as her sharp gaze met his eyes. She sensed it, obviously. But he didn¡¯t regret his decision. In fact, he wanted to see her Luck, too. [The skill Detailed Observe is not avable on target] [The cost to use Detailed Observe is 600 Spiritual Energy] William wasn¡¯t too surprised it wasn¡¯t possible. The cost to do so had always been four times Observe, but he had some hope it wouldn¡¯t carry since the initial cost was already so great. Still, it gave him an idea of the value of Mei Lingxi¡¯s Luck attribute. More than Li Xinyue¡¯s two hundred, at the very least. It made sense to him that the greater the cultivation, the greater the Luck since they likely influenced how far a cultivator reached on their path to immortality. Leaving that aside, the thing that stuck out the most from Mei Lingxi¡¯s information was her age. He had been under the impression that she was much older, mainly because he thought Lan Yin, his senior sister who was also a sentinel, was an older cultivator. William couldn¡¯t, for his life, remember why he had thought Lan Yin was much older, but it caused him to apply that thinking to Mei Lingxi. How they had spoken to each other like rivals led him to that conclusion. Now that he knew Mei Lingxi was under twenty, it likely meant that Lan Yin was around the same age. It also exined why the Grand Elder thought so highly of her. He somehownded a future cultivation monster as his attendant. He could work with that. ¡°Interesting, I didn¡¯t know you also have talent in divination, Disciple Wei.¡± William didn¡¯t expect that, but he should have since the Grand Elder¡¯s cultivation was likely beyond Nascent Soul. Still, he didn¡¯t regret it. Maybe it was the tea, but he felt it would be easy to y it off. ¡°Divination?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± the Grand Elder looked at him like he was an interesting test subject, ¡°You are full of surprises. Is this the first time you have done this?¡± ¡°I get a sense of people when I really want to,¡± William slowly admitted, ¡°I didn¡¯t know it was divination, though.¡± ¡°How interesting,¡± the Grand Elder looked eager, ¡°What can you tell about me?¡± William shrugged helplessly, ¡°Nothing. It never really worked with cultivators in higher realms.¡± The Grand Elder sighed as he nodded, ¡°That is usually the case. It¡¯s a useful ability, but be careful not to overuse it. I wish I could rmend a divination master to you. Unfortunately, those are as rare as phoenix feathers.¡± There was a lull in the conversation as they enjoyed the remaining tea while rxing to the sound of the gentle waves. At least, William was doing that. He wasn¡¯t sure what the Grand Elder was thinking, and Mei Lingxi seemed to have put aside her issue with him using Observe. The silence was broken by the Grand Elder. He had a frown on his face as he ced the cup on the table and stood up, his robes rustling softly. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I must take my leave. It seems I¡¯m needed elsewhere,¡± the Grand Elder paused, ¡°But feel free to enjoy the hospitality of the Jade Lotus Teahouse. I¡¯ll inform Little Qinglian to put this on my tab.¡± It seemed that whatever needed his attention was urgent since the Grand Elder rushed out the door. William was in the middle of finishing thest sip of the tea when this happened. After a fraction of a second, when the door was shut again, that was precisely what he did. ¡°We should get more tea, Sister Lingxi,¡± he suggested as he ced his cup back on the table, already feeling some negative emotions returning. ¡°Hm,¡± Mei Lingxi stared at him doubtfully, ¡°I suggest you not abuse the Grand Elder¡¯s generosity. It might give the wrong impression of your personality, Young Master.¡± William wanted to argue. This impromptu meeting was likely to gauge his true feelings on Zheng Tao and the ground that absorbs souls, and if that was the case, he passed with flying colors. But he also recognized that both of them could be correct. ¡°How much do you think it will cost to buy more of this tea myself?¡± He was about to look at the measly wealth in his possession before remembering that the shops in the Inner Court only took sect points. With a deted tone, he said, ¡°Forget I said that. I don¡¯t have any points.¡± He actually had negative points, so he had less than no points. ¡°Maybe I can help you there,¡± Mei Lingxi said with a slow smile, ¡°What did you learn about me, Young Master?¡± William blinked slowly when she leaned closer to him. He tried to see if she seemed angry, but all he sensed was curiosity. ¡°Are you angry, Sister Lingxi?¡± He med the tea for having no filter, but he knew that was just an excuse. ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± she said, ¡°I would have preferred you if you just asked me, but it isn¡¯t a big deal.¡± That was good. William found a silver lining to the Grand Elder acknowledging that Observe was a type of divination skill. He could do what Mei Lingxi just mentioned. Ask the older disciples if they could allow him to use Observe to gather more data on the most popr point allocation cultivators preferred. That way, he would be able to see if ordinary cultivators had different allocationspared to ¡®elite¡¯ or ¡®genius¡¯ cultivators. Before allocating his unused points to the attributes, he wanted all the information possible. ¡°Well?¡± Mei Lingxi prodded, ¡°Are you going to tell me?¡± William decided to be vague but still truthful. ¡°You¡¯re really young, under twenty years old. And you¡¯re in thete stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.¡± Mei Lingxi stared. ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± ¡°Well, no,¡± William admitted, ¡°I can tell the amount of Qi you have and your strengths, but I don¡¯t know how topare it to others since you are the first cultivator not in the Qi Gathering Realm I tried it on.¡± ¡°Then what about yourself?¡± Mei Lingxi asked curiously, ¡°Not your normal state, but when you activated your martial skill. You took care of those two trespassers with little issue even though I was having trouble.¡± He wondered when this question woulde up. She didn¡¯tst for long when they were finally alone. ¡°My strength would be twenty-five percent above yours. The same applies to my speed,¡± William told her the truth, ¡°But you would still have far more Qi than I could imagine.¡± ¡°Amazing,¡± Mei Lingxi sighed, ¡°I knew the sect values you. It¡¯s obvious with how much attention Elder Yu gave you, and even more so when the Grand Elder, but I didn¡¯t know it went as far as to give you such a broken martial skill. It must be an Earth-tier, at the minimum.¡± He felt his pride stoked to higher levels as she praised his Force Multiplier. ¡°Nobody gave me that martial skill, Sister Lingxi,¡± William said smugly, ¡°I created Force Multiplier myself in the Shard.¡± There was a blur before he found himself staring into Mei Lingxi¡¯s eyes at a much closer distance. She had moved her chair directly next to his, and her hands were ced on his shoulders to stop him from moving away. He felt like he was being stared at by a dragon. One that was filled with greed. ¡°The more I learn about you, the more impressed I am, Young Master,¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s voice had no hint of teasing like it usually did, ¡°I hope you know to keep this to yourself.¡± William nodded rapidly. Elder Yu had told him the same, but Mei Lingxi wasn¡¯t just anybody. She was his attendant for the foreseeable future, and they were in the heart of the Jade Healing Sect¡¯s power, where he had support directly from the top. He saw no harm in telling her. ¡°Good,¡± a stunning smile formed on her lips, ¡°So, when will you teach me this Force Multiplier.¡± The door to the room opened, conveniently stopping him from answering. ¡°Excuse-¡± Su Qinglian stopped, giving them a strange look, ¡°I apologize for interrupting, but Elder Yu has requested Junior Wei Liang to meet her outside.¡± Mei Lingxi didn¡¯t bat an eye at being caught in an odd position and stood from her chair. ¡°Thank you. My Young Master will leave immediately.¡± B2 - Chapter 12: Seeing a Familiar Face B2 - Chapter 12: Seeing a Familiar Face ¡°I still wanted more tea,¡± William muttered as he followed Su Qinglian as she let them to the exit. ¡°We can always return,¡± Mei Lingxi consoled him, ¡°Perhaps try a different tea.¡± ¡°Will Senior Brother be apanying you when you return?¡± Su Qinglian suddenly asked. ¡°Ah, no,¡± William replied awkwardly, ¡°Your¡­ Senior Brother was just congratting me on my entrance into the Inner Court. This was only a one time thing.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Su Qinglian visibly brightened, ¡°He has always been too kind. But I must inform you that enjoying the tea here will not be easy. Each cup of the Crimson me Lotus tea will cost you a thousand points.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in shock before he nced at Mei Lingxi. She wasn¡¯t in a better state. It looked like he wouldn''t be able to enjoy the tea here unless someone treated him. He recalled the absence of disciples around the teahousepared to the other eateries around it, and he now knew why that was the case. Every sect point could be exchanged for one qi stone. That meant each cup of the tea he drank cost a thousand qi stones, or ten spirit stones. Ridiculous. Iprehensible. And many other simr words to express what he felt. Drinking that tea was like eating a steak covered with gold leaf. That was the closestparison William could think of, and it disgusted him. A hideous waste of points. He could buy the spirit boat Ren Bo used to have. The one that had been destroyed. Unless there was some side benefit he was missing, other than the negative emotions burned away. ¡°Excuse me? Why? Is there a reason the tea costs a thousand points?¡± ¡°Reason?¡± Su Qinglian stopped and turned to him, offended by his question, ¡°The tea leaves are taken from a lotus that must have survived in an environment that is worse than the interior of an active volcano!¡± William stared at her nkly, ¡°And? What can the tea do?¡± Su Qinglian looked to be moments away from strangling him. She was obviously passionate about brewing tea, including the origin of its ingredients. ¡°For ones such as you, it can only help stabilize the mind temporarily to promote logical thoughts. For more powerful cultivators, it can help them find realizations in the Dao or breakthroughs. However, it is highly unlikely to happen. The tea is usually ordered for its delicious taste.¡± He narrowed his eyes skeptically. Stabilizing his mind, he agreed with, but promoting logical thoughts? Not so much. More like it removed his filter. It seemed to have a simr effect on Mei Lingxi, but she had the sense to mostly keep her mouth shut. Still, he liked it. Maybe not something he would drink in the presence of someone that could crush him like an ant, not again, but he liked it enough. Also, Su Qinglian was clearly lying about the effects of the Crimson Jade Lotus Tea. Her dislike of Mei Lingxi was probably the cause, which meant there was no reason to converse further. ¡°Thank you,¡± William said with a nod before she started leading them to the entrance again. He gave Mei Lingxi a look when Su Qinglian¡¯s back was turned to him. She understood what he was trying to say since she looked apologetic. ¡°Here you are, honored guests,¡± Su Qinglian turned at the entrance and gave them another practiced smile, ¡°I hope to see you again!¡± They left the teahouse and heard the door shut behind them almost immediately. Elder Yu was waiting for them. ¡°That¡¯s rare to see,¡± Elder Yumented, ¡°Patrons who leave this teahouse do so with smiles.¡± ¡°It was good, but Sister Lingxi¡¯s advice backfired on us.¡± Mei Lingxi didn¡¯t deny it and nodded solemnly. ¡°I prevented Young Master from having another ten spirit stone cup of tea.¡± ¡°Not just that,¡± William corrected, ¡°You also prevented yourself from having another cup.¡± ¡°That is also true.¡± Elder Yu chuckled, ¡°I¡¯m happy to see you both in high spirits after what happened.¡± ¡°Ah, right. Zheng Tao,¡± William nodded with a strained smile, ¡°The moment he went on that path, there was nothing he could do to be redeemed in my eyes, Elder Yu. I would prefer not to upy any part of my mind with him. It would be a disservice to me.¡± Elder Yu stared at him in surprise, ¡°A mature way of dealing with this.¡± He shrugged, not feeling that it was anything worth discussing. ¡°I bear some responsibility for putting you in contact with Zheng Tao,¡± Elder Yu continued, ¡°I have to admit this blindsided me just like it did with everyone who knew the boy. There were no signs of him showing any dissatisfaction with the sect.¡± ¡°There was no harm in the end, Elder Yu.¡± ¡°That¡¯s false,¡± Elder Yu frowned, ¡°It might not be anything irreversible or even significant, but I assigned Zheng Tao to teach you the foundations. Everything will need to be checked.¡± ¡°I already assumed that,¡± William nodded, ¡°Which disciple will help me with this?¡± ¡°Attendant Mei would have been an option if the other Elders agreed, which I know they will not, so I will have to take care of this personally.¡± ¡°¡­ I don¡¯t want to waste your time, Elder Yu.¡± William really didn¡¯t. It was also that she seemed to be doing this as an apology. It wasn''t necessary. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be. I was recently promoted to an Inner Court Elder. I am responsible for testing possible new entrants, and you happen to be exactly that.¡± ¡°You did?¡± ¡°Congrattions, Elder Yu!¡± ¡°Er, yes,¡± William quickly added when Mei Lingxi congratted her instead of being surprised like he had been, ¡°I¡¯m happy for you, Elder Yu!¡± ¡°Hm,¡± Elder Yu eyed him in a way that made him feel like he only had two brain cells to rub together. Silently telling him that it was ridiculous to doubt that she would get the promotion. ¡°Thank you. Both of you. A simple test is the best way to see what you have been misled with. We can work from there.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William nodded before it hit him, ¡°You don¡¯t mean a written test, do you?¡± ¡°What else?¡± Elder Yu asked, bemused, ¡°It¡¯s not like you can punch something and discover deficiencies in your knowledge. Or did you think the heavenly dragons would descend and solve all your problems?¡± He flushed, remembering the secondhand embarrassment on Elder Yu¡¯s face when he yelled out Force Multiplier¡¯s original name. Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons. William shuddered. The only thing it did was bring out Elder Yu¡¯s fury. ¡°I must admit I¡¯m lost,¡± Mei Lingxi said as she stared at his red face. ¡°Perhaps I shall reveal itter,¡± Elder Yu spared William, then immediately threatened him, ¡°Maybe if Wei Liang cannot pass the written test by the end of the day.¡± The idea of Mei Lingxi knowing something that made Elder Yu feel embarrassed for him didn¡¯t sound ideal. He wouldn¡¯t want anyone to know, but that especially applied to Mei Lingxi. It could be something she would save for use many, many times in the future. There were also other reasons, but he didn''t acknowledge them. ¡°There¡¯s no way I¡¯ll fail, Elder Yu,¡± William announced seriously. ¡°We¡¯ll see. Follow, I¡¯ll lead you back to the Outer Court. We have bothered these disciples enough for today.¡± It was then that he realized that all the Inner Disciples were giving Elder Yu a wide berth, creating an odd bubble absent of people other than the three of them. A stark difference with how the Grand Elder was treated. Of course, that man was practically undercover, and Elder Yu was not. B2 - Chapter 13: A Written Test B2 - Chapter 13: A Written Test Getting back to the Outer Court didn¡¯t take long. Elder Yu didn¡¯t magically rip a hole in reality to make it fast like the Grand Elder, but it was fast as could be without messing with thews of nature¡­ sort of. She led them to the part of themon grounds where the administrative buildings were located and right to a building with guards stationed outside. They were all in the core formation realm. ¡°Elder Yu!¡± Their voice blended together as they stood to attention. Elder Yu nodded at them as they entered Teleportation Hall. It came to mind that every guard might be a sentinel. They were the only ones in the sect with any realbat specialization. Everyone else put all their focus on mastering healing or alchemy, as they should. The enormous version of a teleportation array he had seen was at the hall''s center, but that wasn¡¯t what Elder Yu intended to use. She led them to the innocuous door to the side. He saw someone familiar as soon as he walked through. ¡°Elder Yu! Wei Liang!¡± Mei Lin eximed in shock when she looked up from her work. She gave him a look that made him wince. He never did meet her for the recement pass. It would be an excuse to say that he was too busy, but it was really just forgetfulness. After all, the pass that Elder Yu lent him worked just fine, and she never bothered to ask for it back, so he kept dying it for no reason other thanziness. ¡°Look at you!¡± Mei Lin was suddenly near William with her hands on his cheeks, ¡°You¡¯ve grown up so much in just a month!¡± Alright, so maybe it wasn¡¯t justziness that made him reluctant to visit the administrative building in the Outer Court. He hadn¡¯t been keen on having Mei Lin pinch his cheeks like he was a toddler. That had backfired spectacrly. Instead of letting her do this without witnesses, Elder Yu and Mei Lingxi had front-row seats. He would have liked to escape her clutches, but that wasn¡¯t possible, not without Force Multiplier. That would be an overreaction. [Name: Mei Lin | Level: 171] William was still surrounded by a bunch of overpowered monsters. But that¡¯s fine. He, too, would be an overpowered monster in the future. Elder Yu eventually cleared her throat when it seemed Mei Lin wouldn¡¯t stop on her own. ¡°Ah! Sorry,¡± Mei Lin freed him but didn¡¯t look sorry at all, ¡°Wei Liang here seemed to have forgotten about me.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to remind Young Master to visit.¡± William was starting to realize that having an attendant meant some oddbination of bodyguard, secretary, and, on rare asions, maid rolled into one. ¡°Young Master?¡± Mei Lin raised an eyebrow as she nced at him, continuing with some amusement, ¡°We haven¡¯t met. I¡¯m Mei Lin.¡± ¡°Is it? I¡¯m Mei Lingxi, the Young Master¡¯s attendant. Maybe you and I came from the same family generations ago.¡± He stared at them nkly as they shared augh before looking at Elder Yu, silently asking what they were waiting for. ¡°Mei Lin,¡± Elder Yu interjected, ¡°I¡¯ll need the testing room for the day. Wei Liang, follow.¡± He nodded to both women, who seemed more interested in talking to each other. That was fine. Maybe it would give Mei Lingxi somebody else to talk to instead of just him. It didn¡¯t matter if he was her ¡®Young Master.¡¯ Shadowing a thirteen-year-old boy constantly when there was no danger had to be beyond boring. William followed Elder Yu into arge room with spaced out chairs. This was familiar. ¡°Are there many written tests in the sect?¡± That was the only reason he could think there was a literal ssroom in the administration building. ¡°Of course there are,¡± Elder Yu said as she motioned him to an empty desk near the podium at the front, ¡°We regrly test disciples on their alchemical knowledge. The sect does not have the authority to give them designations, that is reserved to the Imperial Alchemist Association, but frequent tests will prepare them for it.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Williammented as he took the seat, feeling more like a grade school student than ever. The sect did something simr to practicing for a standardized exam. ¡°But that is not something you need to worry about,¡± Elder Yu pulled out some papers from behind the podium along with a small thing that looked like a pencil, ¡°Answer these to the best of your abilities.¡± He stared at the stack of papers ced on the desk, then at Elder Yu, who was hovering over him. It looked like she didn¡¯t intend to move. With a shrug, he started. How many provinces are there in the Empire? What are their names and capitals? Which province is the most populous, and which one is the most prosperous? That was the first several questions. Basic geography of the Tianxia Empire. William jotted down the answer and went through the pages in record time, helped by the fact he was a cultivator. Of course, it was much moreprehensive than just some questions asking what the name of somece in the Empire was. As subhuman as he turned out to be, Zheng Tao put together a lesson n that even Elder Yu had been impressed by. Her main concern about William¡¯sck of knowledge was not about cultivation, which could be ¡®fixed¡¯ as it came along if necessary. Not that she was keen on that idea. Since he was a cultivation genius in her eyes, she didn¡¯t want to disrupt what was already working exceptionally well. The worry was more about the society that cultivators created. She said as much at the start. It meant most of the lesson n had been filled with the power structure in the Empire and the dangers surrounding it. The major ns that held sway in the Emperor¡¯s court, the treacherymon among imperial subordinates, and the brutality of the internalpetition of the imperial princes and princesses. There was also a focus on the internal structures of the Jade Healing Sect itself, butpared to the Empire, that section was minuscule. ording to Elder Yu, this was all required to know if one wanted tost long as an Inner Disciple. While the sect promoted based on merit, it was rare for unknowns to aplish much, leaving the Inner Court filled with disciples from various powers around the Empire. Being a cultivator was inherently expensive, and unless one was truly talented, they would all be crushed by their far better-preparedpetition. A mediocre cultivator supported by a minor n would have some form of sess in their cultivation path. An equivalent from a mortal background would either be undiscovered or crushed before there was even a chance to unlock their Qi. A representative of the Rong n requests you to personally protect a member. You will not have time to get the approval of the sect. What is your response? It was thest question. And it was strange. William couldn¡¯t remember reading anything about a Rong n. With that the case, he assumed this was based purely on ethics. The sect likely wouldn¡¯t want their disciples working for others without permission. That was precisely what he wrote down. ¡°Incorrect,¡± Elder Yu said immediately, ¡°If someone can invoke themand of the Rong n, you just nod your head and ept. They are the Imperial Family.¡± William blinked at her in surprise. He hadn¡¯t learned the family name of the imperials. ¡°You did well. Besides thest question, I saw no mistakes other than a few inuracies with the Jade Forest. Zheng Tao was intelligent in how he misled you. There was no unnecessary sabotage, just with what he was targeting.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± he sighed in relief, ¡°So, does this mean I¡¯m a member of the Inner Court?¡± Elder Yu gave him one of her rare smiles. ¡°Indeed. Congrattions, Disciple Wei Liang.¡± B2 - Chapter 14: New Drip B2 - Chapter 14: New Drip William instinctively caught the robes thrown at him. He held it away from his body to give it a once over, wondering why he was given what he already possessed, before realizing that the sleeve was different. One filled gold circle, and another next to it that was just an outline with around a tenth filled in. It signified his new cultivation level. It was a little design on the robes of all the disciples that he hade to gloss over. It was hard not to when he saw the same thing everywhere. Since he was in the Outer Court, all the disciples had the outline of a single gold circle that was filled in varying stages, signifying that they were in the Qi Gathering Realm. Not too important in William¡¯s mind since he didn¡¯t care to know about the approximate cultivation of every disciple in the Outer Court. They could never be a threat to him, and more importantly, he wouldn¡¯t be around most of them to care enough. However, that was now changed. While the system would still be far more urate by showing the exact level of someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was useless with anyone stronger. From what the Grand Elder mentioned, a disciple didn¡¯t automatically stop being a disciple once they advanced past the foundation establishment realm. He would eventually meet disciples that the system could not read. The gold circles would be of help, then. That still brought up a question that had been on his mind since he learned about these little features ages ago. ¡°Thank you, Elder Yu,¡± William said as he folded the robes neatly before storing them in his ring, ¡°The texts about the sect regtions never really mentioned why the robes needed to show the cultivation levels. Is it for status?¡± His understanding was that while every disciple had one sleeve with those circles, only the sentinels valued it in any capacity. Cultivation was never the top priority for the normal disciples who focused on alchemy and healing. It was the qualifications for their specialty that mattered more. To give those qualifications equal importance as cultivation, it was represented by the number of stars on the opposing sleeve. They were differently colored for alchemy and healing, with the former represented by red stars and thetter gold. None of the disciples in the Outer Court had any stars whatsoever, with everyone in the Inner Court having at least one. William should have noticed these stars while apanying the Grand Elder on the short tour, but he had be so used to ignoring the details on the sleeves that he honestly couldn¡¯t recall. ¡°Wei Liang!¡± He blinked rapidly to see Elder Yu frowning at him. ¡°Where did you wander off to? I haven¡¯t seen you this distracted since I gave you the entrance test. Did you even hear my answer?¡± ¡°Sorry,¡± William winced, ¡°I was thinking about the robe''s decorations.¡± ¡°Decorations,¡± Elder Yu repeated back to him with a twitch of her lips, ¡°Such an insult might cause a riot from most disciples. And let me repeat the answer to your question. It isn¡¯t for status, but to promotepetition. It works. Most disciples arepetitive to the extreme.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ good?¡± Elder Yu stared at him. ¡°Of course it is. The Jade Healing Sect might not be as focused on cultivation as other traditional sects, butpetition is always helpful.¡± William nodded, epting the exnation. While that may have been the overall goal, this seemed like an easy way for disciples to lord over the ones with lower qualifications. Then again, that might be another positive in the sect¡¯s view, another reason for disciples to work their hardest. ¡°Your dwelling in the Outer Court will be left to you until you decide otherwise. I don¡¯t want you to be immediately cut off from anyone you¡¯re friendly with. Inner Court disciples cannot return here unless they are stationed here. The loophole is to have a dwelling.¡± He didn¡¯t think that was necessary and was about to decline it. Another disciple would be able to make use of it. ¡°Even if you have nobody you¡¯re friendly with, it¡¯s still useful,¡± Elder Yu seemed to know that he was about to decline, ¡°It can act as a ce for you to have privacy from the Inner Court itself.¡± William instantly understood why this was being offered. A safe haven would be avable if needed. That brought up a question. Why? The sect seemed friendly thus far. Would it suddenly change after entering the Inner Court? ¡°Is that something I¡¯ll need?¡± William asked, ¡°Will I be in danger, Elder Yu?¡± ¡°That is not something I can predict, but you will have a ce where you cannot be reached.¡± He nodded with a slight frown. That implied he would be, as much as it could without her telling him directly. ¡°Before I let you go, tell me, did you enjoy the teahouse?¡± William was a little thrown off by the change in subject, but remembering the Crimson me Lotus Tea quickly righted his mind. ¡°It was an opportunity I was d to have,¡± he tried to beposed. Still, he visibly gulped to keep himself from drooling, ¡°The price to visit again is high, but I intend to when I can bear the cost.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Elder Yu smiled, ¡°It can be a thrill to taste some of the teas offered there for the first time. I still remember tasting the Frost Lotus Tea a few years ago.¡± ¡°Frost Lotus?¡± William repeated as he tried to imagine it, ¡°The Grand Elder treated us to the Crimson Lotus Tea. It felt like everything unnecessary was burned away.¡± Elder Yu smirked as she shook her head. ¡°Remind me to treat you to my preferred tea the next time we meet. I wager that you will prefer it over the Grand Elder¡¯s choice.¡± He nodded without thinking, d another opportunity to visit the teahouse had randomly fallen onto hisp. ¡°I look forward to it, Elder Yu,¡± William said seriously. He wanted to ensure she knew the offer would be called in. ¡°Hm, I¡¯m sure you are,¡± Elder Yu chuckled, ¡°Gather whatever you need from your dwelling and say your goodbyes before returning to the Inner Court. And take this.¡± She handed him a small jade tablet that was identical to the pass for the Outer Court, the only difference being the color. Instead of red, it was a deep purple. ¡°This will allow you entry into the Inner Court but don¡¯t expect any other benefits. You will be on equal terms with all other new admits, unlike your experience in the Outer Court.¡± William gave her a small shrug, ¡°That¡¯s fair. I just wish I had more time to enjoy these benefits I supposedly had.¡± ¡°The fault is on you,¡± Elder Yu said directly, ¡°If you hadn¡¯t breezed through the Qi Gathering Realm, you would have done so.¡± He smiled sheepishly, privately thinking about how much it hadn¡¯t felt like a breeze. The only reason he catapulted himself into the Foundation Establishment Realm was the numerous near-death experiences he had faced. ¡°Do you have any other questions for me?¡± William was about to shake his head when he remembered the quest he had never finished. ¡°Did I fail the mission I took from the mission hall?¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± Elder Yu said with a slight tilt of her head, ¡°Itpletely passed my mind with all the excitement of the Shard. Do you want toplete it?¡± ¡°I have a choice?¡± William asked with doubt. ¡°Of course, but if you choose not toplete it, you will be hit with whatever the penalty is for the mission.¡± That wasn¡¯t a choice at all. It was just failing the quest. William nced at the penalty. ¡°So I lose a hundred sect points.¡± ¡°Indeed you do,¡± Elder Yu nodded, ¡°You can head to the Mission Hall in the Inner Court if you decide to cancel.¡± He sighed, disappointed that the penalty wasn¡¯t waived, but he supposed that was asking for too much favor. ¡°Is that all?¡± Elder Yu asked. William nodded and said, ¡°Nothing elsees to mind.¡± ¡°Then you may leave. Leave for the Inner Court by tomorrow.¡± B2 - Chapter 15: Bye Ren Bo B2 - Chapter 15: Bye Ren Bo A night of rest was exactly what he needed. Both he and Mei Lingxi. Far too much had happened in one day to be able to fully process, even for a cultivator. The Grand Elder tried to help by distracting them and to be fair, the tea did help quite a lot by burning away the rage and helping him think without emotions tainting him. Still, that didn¡¯t beat the passage of time, even if that was only a night. It unfortunately came with the side effect of being far too sentimental. ¡°Young Master, isn¡¯t this the boy you told me to avoid?¡± William nodded at Mei Lingxi¡¯s question. Ren Bo was indeed someone he purposely avoided, but it didn¡¯t feel right to leave without saying a word. ¡°You¡¯ll see why I said that, Sister Lingxi,¡± William replied before walking towards Ren Bo. The boy hadn¡¯t noticed him, and that was a good thing. He hadn¡¯t been the only one who avoided a meeting. ¡°Ren Bo!¡± William shouted. He could see the boy stiffen and slowly turn as if about to meet a dreaded viin. The strained smile shown to him told of how much excitement there was to meet again. Which was less than nothing. ¡°Brother Wei,¡± Ren Bo greeted weakly, ¡°So good to see you again.¡± William raised an eyebrow when there was no drooling due to Mei Lingxi¡¯s presence. A drastic change from thest time they saw each other. ¡°Same,¡± he replied before falling silent. The silence was awkward, making him wonder why he thought this was a good idea. Ren Bo cleared his throat, ¡°Well, I have a lecture to attend. It was good meeting you, Brother Wei.¡± It didn¡¯t escape William that Ren Bo didn¡¯t dare to look at Mei Lingxi. It almost made him feel regretful for being so short with him. The kid had a major problem around pretty women like some sort of turbocharged horny rabbit, but it finally looked like he was finally working to fix it. Eventually, he would need to make eye contact with the women around him, but it was a start. ¡°Wait, Ren Bo, I apologize.¡± ¡°What?¡± Ren Bo froze, staring at him with confusion, ¡°For what?¡± ¡°For avoiding you,¡± William winced, realizing he still had no idea what Ren Bo experienced in the Shard. ¡°How have you been doing? You were in rough shape thest time I saw you.¡± Ren Bo still looked confused, though now a slight suspicion was added. ¡°Thest thing you said to me was, ¡®It¡¯s better if you¡¯re gagged.¡¯ Forgive me if I don¡¯t believe you, Brother Wei.¡± There it was. The reminder of why he avoided the kid. They had just left the secret realm and were being taken to safety. Ren Bo thought it was the perfect time to grab the attention of a far-stronger Princess Jin while she was surrounded by her worshipful guards. So yes, William had told him it was for the best that he couldn¡¯t speak to irritate cultivators far stronger than him. And he still stood by that. ¡°Right,¡± William gave him a strained smile, ¡°Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I won¡¯t be in the Outer Court anymore. If you want to get in touch with me, tell Wang Mei at the administrative building.¡± ¡°Are you getting kicked out?¡± That was asked with a little too much eagerness, in William¡¯s opinion. ¡°No,¡± he replied tly. ¡°Then why the dramatic goodbye?¡± Ren Bo rolled his eyes. William tried to be discreet about why he was leaving the Outer Court. He really did, but there was only so much of the snide replies he could take. Ren Bo didn¡¯t seem like someone who would envy others¡¯ sess, but he hadn¡¯t wanted to take the chance since it was supposed to be a cordial goodbye. Now, he hoped that the kid would turn green in jealousy. ¡°I thought I should let you know if you ever needed help from an Inner Court disciple in the future. You could call on me. I guess I was mistaken.¡± He regretted that the moment he stopped talking. He allowed Ren Bo to pull himself down to his level when he wanted to take the higher road. It didn¡¯t help that he could hear Mei Lingxi failing to hold back her amusement behind him. ¡°The Inner Court?¡± Ren Bo asked with wide eyes. The regret was lessened dramatically by the surprise in the kid¡¯s eyes. Yes, sometimes the low road was worth it. ¡°That¡¯s amazing, Brother Wei!¡± ¡°It is?¡± William didn¡¯t expect that. Then again, he had no reason to think otherwise. Ren Bo might have been an unrelenting horndog, but he never showed issues like jealousy when it didn¡¯t involve Princess Jin. Still, it felt like his constantly lowering expectations of Ren Bo was justified. ¡°Yes! You have ess to the Jade Cauldron Peak!¡± ¡°I do?¡± William felt like he was turned into a simpleton who could only reply with short questions. This was not going as he assumed at all. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you, Brother Wei?¡± Ren Bo frowned before shaking head immediately after, ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Since you offered to help, could you ask one of the alchemists if they can do anything with this beast?¡± He flinched when the headless corpse of a Draebern crashed onto the ground right next to him. A momentter, the head bounced off the body and fell to the ground. It was in a bad condition, and William had an idea why. The storage pouch Ren Bo had before the trip to the secret realm couldn¡¯t store the bodies of spirit beasts inside, whether they were living or dead. It meant the sect gifted him a spatial stone, but one that was of low quality given the state of the corpse. ¡°It looks like it¡¯s about to rot,¡± William pointed out the obvious. ¡°I know,¡± Ren Bo said with exasperation, ¡°I tried to get the help of an elder I know in the Inner Court, but he¡¯s furious with me. The body won¡¯tst for much longer.¡± [Quest: Visit the Jade Cauldron Peak] [Information: Ren Bo possesses the corpse of a Draebern that is about to rot. He wants to get some use out of it before that happens. Find an alchemist that will help him.] [Reward: Increased reputation with Ren Bo] [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Ren Bo] [ept: Y/N] This would be the type of quest that William would reject without thought. The rewards wouldn¡¯t be worth the effort to walk a few feet, let alone convince some alchemist to help Ren Bo, but this did remind him of what he possessed himself. The bodies of the Pyralisk and the Jingmu Shadow. He needed to find out what could be done with them, and that could be done simultaneously with the quest. ¡°Fine,¡± William agreed grudgingly, ¡°I can help you with that.¡± [Quest epted | Visit the Jade Cauldron Peak] ¡°You¡¯re the best, Brother Wei!¡± Ren Bo moved toward him as if to hug him but froze after taking a step. He was looking at Mei Lingxi. At least the kidsted this long without acting strange. It was time to wrap this up. The massive corpse of the beast was drawing a crowd of disciples, and he saw someone familiar. [Name: Yang Fan | Level: 35] Ren Bo¡¯s even more annoying friend, the one who tried to drag him into a mission that wouldn¡¯t have been safe. Of course, this also reminded him of Zheng Tao, who prevented Yang Fan from doing so. It put him in a worse mood than before. ¡°I¡¯ll contact you if I find someone. Goodbye, Ren Bo,¡± William said, backing away and waving before heading to the administration building. Luckily, Ren Bo didn¡¯t follow after Mei Lingxi. ¡°Are you avoiding someone in the crowd, Young Master?¡± ¡°It¡¯s nothing serious,¡± William waved her off, ¡°You know you don¡¯t have to keep calling me young master? Elder Yu isn¡¯t here to supervise you.¡± ¡°True,¡± Mei Lingxi nodded, ¡°But I want to.¡± He looked at her with a frown, only to see a teasing smile on her face. ¡°I don¡¯t get to have my usual fun, Young Master. I am only left with seeing you be ufortable when I call you young master, Young Master.¡± William rolled his eyes and sped up. ¡°Wait for me, Young Master!¡± Interlude: A Vague Plan Interlude: A Vague n Yu Yanhua stepped to the cliff''s edge to stand beside the Sect Master, his residence behind them. ¡°You should introduce yourself to Wei Liang, Sect Master,¡± Yu Yanhua broke the silence, ¡°There¡¯s no need to hold back since the Grand Elder has already taken the initiative.¡± ¡°That¡¯s even more of a reason not to do so. You are enough for now.¡± Yu Yanhua frowned but understood why he preferred it to stay this way. Still, it didn¡¯t sit right with her. There was a drastic difference in respect between an ordinary elder and a grand elder, even with her promotion to be an elder in the Inner Court. ¡°Is it worth the risk?¡± Yu Yanhua prodded, ¡°The Grand Elder has already shown too much favor to Wei Liang.¡± ¡°And?¡± Guan Feng turned to her, ¡°You will be his teacher, a master in everything but name. Paltry gifts will not be able to overshadow that. This will not be aplished in a few days, and you know this. I¡¯m surprised that you show such impatience.¡± Yu Yanhua sighed, knowing that he was right. It was unlike her to be so anxious, but it was hard to stay calm when she could visibly see the Grand Elder influence Wei Liang into forming a good opinion about him. Then again, it was natural with how the Grand Elder¡¯s outward persona was. Perhaps it rankled her more than usual since it was a disciple that she was invested in who was falling for it. ¡°I apologize, Sect Master,¡± Yu Yanhua bowed, ¡°I wasn¡¯t seeing things clearly.¡± ¡°Stop with that,¡± Guan Feng said with a wave of his hand, ¡°I feel the same, but there¡¯s nothing we can do. Wei Liang is too young and inexperienced to know about the factions among the elders. Perhaps we can inform him after he settles himself in the Inner Court.¡± ¡°That is something I¡¯m worried about even more. Wei Liang is close to Princess Jin. She will be named Imperial Princess Rong Jin if she survives her tribtion. What if he seeks to connect with the imperial faction in the Inner Court?¡± ¡°That is something you will have to dissuade him from doing,¡± Guan Fengmented, ¡°Thankfully, you will have a few months before he is allowed to formally join a group.¡± That caused the frown on Yu Yanhua¡¯s lips to deepen. It would be a bncing act to do so without seeming like she was taking away his choice. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best, Sect Master.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s hope your best means sess.¡± Yu Yanhua stayed silent. That wasn¡¯t something she could guarantee. Thankfully, he didn¡¯t intend to stay on the topic. ¡°The Grand Elder left for the capital to check on Princess Jin.¡± She stared at him, waiting for more. ¡°It seems that there has been a mishap with the heavenly tribtion. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have any more information on her.¡± ¡°So that¡¯s why the Grand Elder was in such a hurry,¡± Yu Yanhuamented, ¡°I assume the chance for the princess living isn¡¯t too high.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Guan Feng nodded, ¡°A heavenly tribtion while only in the Nascent Soul Realm is almost unheard of. I wonder what she encountered in the Shard for the heavens to decide she must be tested.¡± ¡°It¡¯s understandable, Sect Master. Anything that can cause such a change is unnatural. If anything, I¡¯m surprised that it wasn¡¯t heavenly punishment that was called by the princess.¡± ¡°Are you really?¡± Guan Feng asked with a raised brow, ¡°This isn¡¯t the most surprising thing that resulted from a trip to a Shard. It has already been theorized that the heavens will never reject anything gained from the Shard.¡± ¡°¡­ The Empress still holds the world in her palm.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Guan Feng chuckled, ¡°As she should. There have been Dao Seekers that have ascended, but none have dared to try and rewrite thews of heaven.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that will ever change,¡± Yu Yanhua shivered, ¡°Nobody will dare after knowing of the Deste Land... thank you for making me visit it.¡± ¡°Every cultivator needs to see that ce before they test the Spirit Severing Realm,¡± Guan Feng had a simr expression. One of fear. The Deste Land was the ce the Empress had chosen to be when she wrenched some control away from the heavens. The legend says it was thest bastion of resistance, where most of the Dao Seekers gathered to oppose the Empress¡¯s crusade. Instead of having a drawn-out battle, the Empress ended it without any casualties on her side. She rewrote thews over the territory of the resisting force, drawing all the rage the heavens possessed onto thend, eradicating all signs of life other than herself. Of course, none of it was confirmed, but with how quickly the rest of the world folded to the Empress¡¯s demands, Yu Yanhua suspected that it had some truth to it. The title ¡®Dread Empress¡¯ also becamemon in texts after this time, leading to the legend being more fact than fiction. This was all ancient history. No matter what happened at that time, the Destend was what remained. A barren wastnd where the ground was ckened from the strikes of heavenly punishment, with cracks emitting a faint glow of residual energy even after the millennia that had passed. The sky was always dark and stormy, with shes of golden lightning and thunder that could kill weaker cultivators. The air was thin and suffocating, poisonous miasma roiling across the Deste Land over the course of a day. And most importantly for Yu Yanhua, the chaotic fluctuations which distort the space within the wastnd, creating spatial rifts and anomalies that can randomly swallow unprepared cultivators. While it may seem insane for anyone to even think of approaching the hellish ce, it was a knownnd of opportunity and temptation for cultivators in the Nascent Soul Realm. The heavenly punishment that destroyed thend also left behind traces of the Dao, the essence of the naturalws and principles that governed the world. Cultivators who dare to meet the trials of the Deste Realm and survive are often gifted with insights that are unmatched. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s possible to bring Wei Liang there?¡± Yu Yanhua asked suddenly. Guan Feng stared at her incredulously. ¡°Do you want to erase his soul?¡± ¡°Not now,¡± she shook her head quickly, ¡°When he advances to the next realm.¡± The look she was being given didn¡¯t change. There was no hard rule that stopped cultivators from approaching the Deste Land, but anyone with sense wouldn¡¯t dare to knowingly approach before the Nascent Soul Realm. It was the stage where the cultivator formed a soul that was independent of the physical body, the threshold where one transcended the mortal realm into the pseudo-immortal realm. It allowed a cultivator to withstand the pressure of the Deste and not perish instantly. ¡°My question still stands, Elder Yu,¡± Guan Feng frowned, ¡°What brought this into your thoughts?¡± ¡°We both know that if someone in the Core Formation Realm could gain insights from the Deste Realm, they would be an unmatched monster. One that might touch the Empress¡¯s shadow,¡± Yu Yanhua said thoughtfully, ¡°If you give me permission to use some of the discretionary funds, I can attempt to gather the artifacts needed to attempt this.¡± Guan Feng closed his eyes and sighed, trying not to wince at the future depletion of the treasury. Especially when this wasn¡¯t guaranteed to be a sess even if all the artifacts were gathered. ¡°Do it.¡± B2 - Chapter 16: Mentor Lan B2 - Chapter 16: Mentor Lan ¡°Young Master, what was Elder Yu going to reveal if you didn¡¯t pass the written test?¡± William¡¯s eye twitched in irritation, not in the mood to be reminded of that. Nor did he ever intend to answer that question. He would take the name ¡®Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons¡¯ to the grave. ¡°Not the time, Sister Lingxi,¡± William scowled. ¡°There¡¯s nothing else to do other than talk,¡± Mei Lingxi countered, and she was right. Apparently, they wouldn¡¯t be allowed to leave the Teleportation Hall until his assigned mentor arrived to receive them. The core formation realm cultivators guarding the hall refused to say anything else, which led them to this predicament. It wasn¡¯t the wee to the Inner Court that William had been expecting. The only good thing was that Ren Bo wouldn¡¯t find out about it after, something he was thankful about after his impromptu failed bragging. It would make him want to avoid the kid for years from the embarrassment. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s talk about Prince Yuan.¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s expression, normally in somebination of teasing and happiness, turned frighteningly nk. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s the one thing I can¡¯t speak of, Young Master.¡± William winced at his stupidity. There was no teasing tone in her voice this time, not even a hint. ¡°Sorry¡­ the contract?¡± It had only been mentioned once, and after he found that it worked like an employment contract instead of anything resembling servitude, he had promptly forgotten about it. Mei Lingxi nodded, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m barred from speaking of my time working for Prince Yuan.¡± ¡°So, like a non-disclosure agreement,¡± William said to himself. ¡°It¡¯s exactly that,¡± Mei Lingxi replied with surprise, ¡°Have you been researching contracts, Young Master?¡± ¡°Er, yes,¡± William chuckled awkwardly, ¡°Just a little.¡± He hadn¡¯t really, but this might be one of the things that Sophia had brought over from Earth, though it seemed that an NDA in this world seemed to have much harsher penalties than awsuit or a fine. ¡°Forget I ever mentioned that, Sister Lingxi. Would it be fine if I ask about your past, other than the prince?¡± William asked cautiously. ¡°My past?¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s expression rxed almost immediately, ¡°Go ahead, Young Master. I¡¯m an open book.¡± ¡°Did you really skip the entrance tests for the major sects?¡± William asked bluntly, remembering what the Grand Elder mentioned in the teahouse. It had been hard for him to forget that, especially since he remembered Mei Lingxi talking about how jealous she was about him being a member of the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°¡­ Not exactly,¡± she replied with an awkward look. ¡°When the Grand Elder said I never attended the entrance tests, he was correct, but it wasn¡¯t on purpose.¡± He already knew what was about to be said... or thought he did. ¡°The first one I traveled to was the Jade Healing Sect. It made the most sense because it was so close to my home in Qingyun City. Plus, it is highly regarded in the Empire. When I was halfway to the testing site, my horse suddenly decided that it would be best to try and eat every grass stalk it could see.¡± Mei Lingxi must have seen the incredulous look on his face because sheughed. ¡°That¡¯s the same look I had. Iter learned that my cousin had given the horse some pills that gave it endless hunger. It literally ate itself to death¡­ on grass.¡± ¡°¡­ I see,¡± William said hesitantly, ¡°You didn¡¯t try to get there some other way?¡± ¡°I was a mortal,¡± Mei Lingxi said as if that exined everything. ¡°I gave up and went back home. Later, I learned that bandits raided the group I was traveling with, so it was a boon in the end.¡± He stared at her. It was all he could do. He expected something like this, but hearing it was difficult to fathom. ¡°Did something like this happen when you tried to join the other sects?¡± ¡°It did,¡± Mei Lingxi shifted uneasily. ¡°I felt like I should have fought harder to get to the testing sites, but I have a different view in life. If a sect was meant for me, I would have gotten to their testing site smoothly. I never did, so I simply gave up.¡± That repeated in William¡¯s mind. I simply gave up. She said that so easily. So if something doesn¡¯t go her way, her instinct is to abandon course and do something else. That¡­ was concerning. He didn¡¯t have many requirements with the people he wanted around him, but the key behavior Mei Lingxi admitted to was a huge concern. Wouldn¡¯t that mean she could leave whenever she felt this no longer fit her? ¡°That¡¯s an interesting way to lead your life, Sister Lingxi,¡± William was proud that he didn¡¯t show his sudden doubts. ¡°How did you end up in Xuanjing City after all that?¡± ¡°I ran away from home,¡± Mei Lingxi shrugged. ¡°My cousin tried to give me the same pills she gave my horse, so I decided that was that.¡± This time, he didn¡¯t bother to hide his thoughts. He stared at her like she had a few screws loose in her head, to which she rolled her eyes. ¡°I knew what she was trying to do, Young Master. I just couldn¡¯t be bothered dealing with the jealous pig that happened to be my cousin. I had bigger ns for my future than marrying the magistrate''s son and bing a wealthy housewife, lording over some weak mortals. She can have that life. I am meant for greater things.¡± William stared at Mei Lingxi for a different reason this time. She may be ky, but she was terrifying in her own way. ¡°Have you contacted your family since then?¡± ¡°Why would I?¡± Mei Lingo asked, confused such a question was directed at her. The definition of flightiness, but ruthlessly decisive in her own way. So perhaps it wasn¡¯t the issue of her abandoning him whenever it benefitted her that should worry him, but stabbing him in the back when it best suited her. William needed to have a talk with Elder Yu and take a close look at the contract. After Zheng Tao, he was out of trust. If Mei Lingxi turned out to be steadfastly loyal toward him, then this can just be a practice to keep exercising caution. ¡°You have had an interesting path, Sister Lingxi,¡± William smiled, ¡°The Grand Elder was right when he said your decisions were fascinating.¡± Mei Lingxi shrugged, ¡°That wasn¡¯t what the Grand Elder meant, but close enough, Young Master.¡± The talk about the Grand Master reminded him of the teahouse. He wanted to bring up her promise of treating him to another cup of tea, mainly to lighten the atmosphere from talking about her past. However, soft murmurs stopped all of that. The core formation guards posted outside never spoke with each other, so they were talking to someone who just arrived. William couldn¡¯t hear anything clearly, but he was trying to see if the new voice was feminine, which would confirm his suspicion that Lan Yin was his mentor. ¡°Young Master, didn¡¯t you say Sentinel Lan would be your mentor?¡± ¡°No, but I said I strongly suspected it,¡± William replied, still trying to eavesdrop on the conversation outside. ¡°You¡¯re right, but it¡¯s still not the person you were thinking of.¡± He turned to Mei Lingxi, who had a full-blown smirk on her face. That didn¡¯t bode well for him. The door to the Teleportation Hall opened. ¡°I apologize for making you wait, Junior Wei.¡± William turned back to the entrance to meet dark green eyes. Oh. It was Lan Yang. B2 - Chapter 17: Mentor Lans Mistake B2 - Chapter 17: Mentor Lan''s Mistake Honestly, he hadpletely forgotten about him, which was understandable. William had only seen Lan Yang a few times, most of which were spent silently while traveling to the Garden. After that, he disappeared, leaving him with Lan Yin forpany. ¡°I guess you were right in the end, Young Master. Sentinel Lan is your mentor.¡± Lan Yang¡¯s easy smile didn¡¯t falter as he raised an eyebrow at Mei Lingxi. ¡°Ah, Junior Wei assumed my sister would be his mentor?¡± She gave him a slight shrug in reply, allowing William to finally get over his surprise. Not only at Lan Yang¡¯s appearance but also at what the system showed him. [Name: Lan Yang | Level: 199] He nced at Lan Yang¡¯s sleeves, seeing one with two filled gold circles and the other nk. The older cultivator wasn¡¯t an alchemist or a healer¡­ obviously. He vaguely remembered that Lan Yang was supposed to meet him in Xuanjing City after he had gotten the attention of Prince Yuan, but that had been canceled due to something about protecting some shipments for the sect. ¡°Good to meet you again, Senior Lan,¡± William said with a small wave. ¡°So you remember me?¡± Lan Yang''s smile grew slightly, ¡°I hope you have forgiven me for how I acted when we met before.¡± That helped to ease some of the worries that he had. Mainly of Lang Yang being as difficult and standoffish as before, no matter how he was smiling currently. He was the same when Elder Huang was around, and once he wasn¡¯t, the smiles dropped. ¡°I barely remember that since it was so long ago, so it isn¡¯t a problem. Besides, I¡¯m sure you were busy then, Senior Lan.¡± ¡°Not really,¡± Lan Yang chuckled, ¡°At that time, you were a mortal. A favored mortal, but still, just a mortal. It wasn¡¯t worth the effort.¡± William¡¯s eye twitched in irritation. He was trying to make the greeting pleasant by being friendly. He knew that this was likely why Lan Yang didn¡¯t bother to speak to him more than necessary. After all, Lan Yin, his sister, did precisely the same. Only when he joined the Jade Healing Sect did she change her tune, willing to speak without sounding dismissive. Obviously, he had assumed that Lan Yin¡¯s brother felt the same way. Still, it wasn¡¯t necessary to say that out loud. ¡°I offended you,¡± Lan Yang had the gall to sound surprised. ¡°May I, Young Master?¡± Mei Lingxi interjected, cing a hand on his shoulder. He wasn¡¯t sure what she was asking permission for, but he didn¡¯t want her to speak for him, if that was her intention. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± William shook his head and turned to Lan Yang, ¡°Senior Lan, my time as a cultivator is measured in months. I don¡¯t like hearing how little everyone thinks of mortals.¡± Lan Yangughed. ¡°I see that my sister was telling the truth.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Mei Lingxi agreed, to his displeasure, ¡°If she was talking about the Young Master having a bleeding heart, then yes, she was.¡± ¡°She was telling me of how some mortal almost swindled Junior Wei,¡± Lan Yang chuckled, ¡°Not to worry, this feeling will pass in time, just like it did for all of us.¡± ¡°Right,¡± William broke into their little session of patting each other on the back, ¡°I doubt it¡¯ll change, Senior Lan. You were sent here to guide me?¡± It was abrupt, but he was done with the conversation. He was mostly done with Lan Yang, too, but he needed the cultivator to show him around the Inner Court. ¡°Yin¡¯er is going to murder me,¡± Lan Yang mumbled, the smile finally off his face, ¡°Junior Wei, let¡¯s start over and pretend none of that happened. I want us to get along, and before you say anything, do you really want my sister to be disappointed when she returns?¡± William blinked in surprise. ¡°You¡¯re going to use Senior Sister Yin against me?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± Lan Yang asked earnestly, ¡°Yin¡¯er will nag me to death if you hate me for a reason as silly as mortals¡ª¡± Mei Lingxi cleared her throat. ¡°Right, anyway, we started off terribly,¡± Lan Yang nodded firmly before leaving the Teleportation Hall. ¡°¡­ What?¡± William wasn¡¯t sure what was happening. ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Mei Lingxi whispered and seemed to be on the same boat, ¡°Was his sister equally as strange?¡± ¡°No?¡± Lan Yin could be a little intense, but he couldn¡¯t think of anything to this extent. ¡°Ah! You must be Junior Wei! I¡¯m Lan Yang, your mentor. You can call me Senior Yang.¡± William stared at Lan Yang, who reentered the Teleportation Hall as if it was the first time. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Lan Yang smiled brightly as he moved toward him, ¡°I look forward to showing you around the Inner Court.¡± He patted his shoulder firmly before turning to Mei Lingxi, pulling out a familiar purple pass, ¡°You are Attendant Mei, correct? Elder Yu told me about you, but I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll need to be alone with Junior Wei today. How about you enjoy the entertainment district? My gift to you.¡± Before William could try to grasp the sudden change in mood, Mei Lingxi was looking to him for permission. She didn¡¯t even try to hide the desire to be allowed to leave him with Lan Yang. He knew what she was trying to do, return to the teahouse on Lan Yang¡¯s dime. That reminded him of the cost of the tea. A smile formed on his lips. ¡°Go ahead, Sister Lingxi,¡± William said brightly, ¡°Have some fun for me too.¡± ¡°Yes, Young Master!¡± Mei Lingxi had snatched the pass from Lan Yang and was already heading to the exit. He was a little jealous that she would get to enjoy the tea without him, but when he saw Lan Yang¡¯s suspicious expression, he decided it was worth it. It was petty revenge, but revenge all the same. ¡°Hm, I suppose I¡¯ll regret that,¡± Lan Yangmented before shrugging, ¡°No matter. Let¡¯s go, Junior Wei. I have something exciting to show you.¡± He saw that Mei Lingxi hadn¡¯t been stopped by the guards when she left. The arrival of Lan Yang or the pass she held had been enough. They left the Teleportation Hall soon after. Lan Yang turned to the guards and nodded his head slightly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the trouble, seniors.¡± The most significant reaction was a grunt. Not very talkative, these guards. They were going in the opposite direction of the entertainment district and the dwelling area. This would be something new. William forgot some of his dissatisfaction with Lan Yang as he eyed his surroundings. A surprising number of disciples were walking in the same direction, all dressed in their sect robes, but some in the center ofrge groups wearing rather expensive-looking spirit artifacts in the form of rings, outer cloaks, jewelry, and ornate swords that were sheathed. Unlike Xuanjing City, where there were clear lines that separated the wealthy from the poor, the quality of the buildings never really dipped. Which made sense. This was in the Inner Court of the Jade Healing Sect. Not a mortal city. ¡°Where are we going, Senior Yang?¡± ¡°Hoh? Finally willing to speak with me?¡± Lan Yang smiled. ¡°It would be childish of me to hold a grudge when you didn¡¯t do anything wrong,¡± William replied, mainly because Mei Lingxi¡¯s spending made him consider them even. ¡°Interesting,¡± Lan Yang raised an eyebrow, ¡°very mature of you, Junior Wei. Then, it¡¯s only fair for me to apologize for being insensitive.¡± ¡°Thank you, Senior Yang,¡± William smiled, still thinking of Mei Lingxi sipping on tea. ¡°Good! As for where we¡¯re going,¡± Lan Yang pointed to a towering building in the distance, ¡°To the auction house! The annual auction starts today!¡± William matched Lan Yang¡¯s increased speed as he nced at the disciples wearing the expensive spirit artifacts. They must be the high rollers in the auction. All of a sudden, his excitement was raised to another level. He wanted to see if this was as ridiculous as it often was in cultivation novels. B2 - Chapter 18: Entering the Auction House B2 - Chapter 18: Entering the Auction House They walked past a long line that seemed to keep growing every time William nced back. Of course, Lan Yang had some super special pass to skip it. He looked at his mentor''s basic status and wondered what would happen if he used [Observe] on him. It would also solve his question about how old Lan Yin was. William remembered how he assumed she was hundreds of years old¡­ for some reason, which was very unlikely once he found Mei Lingxi¡¯s age. The way they interacted implied that they were of simr ages. Since the system would warn him before using [Observe] if Lan Yang might detect it, he decided that it was of no harm if he gave it a try. [Use Observe? | Cost: 100 Spiritual Energy] [Warning | Factoring Luck, there is a 50% chance of the target sensing Observe] That was interesting. This was really different whenpared to Mei Lingxi. With her, it was almost a surety that she would discover [Observe] being used. It was a coin flip with Lan Yang. William could only assume that Mei Lingxi¡¯s Luck was far greater than Lan Yang¡¯s. ¡°Senior Yang, do you mind if I used a technique on you?¡± He almost walked into the older cultivator¡¯s back from the quick stop. ¡°What technique?¡± Lan Yang asked as he looked over his shoulder with narrowed eyes. ¡°Er, I¡¯m not sure,¡± William didn¡¯t know how to describe [Observe] but figured it wasn¡¯t necessary when namedropping was possible, ¡°The Grand Elder said it was simr to a divination technique?¡± ¡°You know the Grand Elder?¡± Lan Yang lowered his voice, but it was apparent he was shocked. William blinked when he moved a little too close to his face. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°No wonder you were given permission to enter the red floor,¡± Lan Yang muttered. It was William¡¯s turn to narrow his eyes. So it wasn''t Lan Yang having some special pass like he assumed. ¡°Senior Yang, are you using me to gain benefits in the auction house?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that,¡± he immediately denied, ¡°You are too, Junior Wei!¡± ¡°Really?¡± William addressed his impoverished state, ¡°I have no sect points. I won¡¯t be able to bid on anything.¡± ¡°Not everything is about material benefits,¡± Lan Yang said sagely, ¡°Sometimes, it¡¯s the experience that matters.¡± He stared at Lan Yang, wondering if he was supposed to fall for that. ¡°Junior Wei, I am your mentor. Trust me,¡± Lan Yang said earnestly. ¡°¡­ Right,¡± William wondered if he would have said that if he knew thest mentor, or rather, tutor, tried to get him killed. Still, he could get something out of this. ¡°Will you take me to the Jade Cauldron Peak?¡± Finding an alchemist willing to help out a newbie might be difficult, but with Lan Yang beside him, he might have better luck. ¡°That¡¯s¡ª¡± Lan Yang cut himself off, ¡°Sure, Junior Wei. It¡¯ll detract from the nned path, but I can fit it in.¡± William sensed that he had just allowed himself to be taken advantage of. Of course, it annoyed him briefly, but he quickly let it go. Their initial meeting didn¡¯t go as either had nned, and there was no reason to have that continue for something as minor as this. Lan Yang could use his presence to skip the long line, and William might be able to use his presence to get himself an alchemist. Besides, he had no idea why he was given the ability to skip the line in the first ce, so he might as well use it to his advantage. ¡°Sounds like a deal, Senior Yang,¡± William nodded in agreement as they walked to therge, grandiose entrance of the auction house. He soon realized that Lan Yang had ignored his request to use [Observe], but it was toote to ask again. They had reached the entrance. The two guards on either side were at least in the nascent soul realm. Both had a simr basic status. [Name: ? | Level: ?] The real question was why it was necessary for two cultivators stronger than most Elders he had seen to act like simple guards. What threat were they protecting against when the auction house was in the center of the sect¡¯s territory? ¡°Elders,¡± Lan Yang bowed, ¡°We¡¯re heading to the red floor.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± The guard closest to them, who was apparently also an elder, raised an eyebrow, ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware you have ess to that floor, Disciple Yang.¡± ¡°Not me, Elder,¡± Lan Yang stepped aside to reveal William fully. There was a sh of¡­ something in the Elder¡¯s expression before it disappeared. ¡°A new entrant?¡± The look on his face was skeptical. ¡°Junior Wei has the permission,¡± Lan Yang smiled. ¡°Hm, very well. Disciple Wei, show me your pass.¡± He pulled out the purple jade card Elder Yu had given him. ¡°Interesting,¡± the Elder smirked, ¡°You may enter, Disciple Wei.¡± ¡°Thank you, Elder! Let¡¯s go, Junior Wei!¡± Lan Yang said with barely hidden excitement. ¡°Not you. The only one who may enter is Disciple Wei. If he chooses to give you one of the two spaces he is allowed for guests, that is his prerogative.¡± It seemed to William that the Elder and Lan Yang knew each other well. ¡°Senior Yang can be one of my guests, Elder,¡± He had no intention of ying around, not when he was still brand new in the Inner Court. ¡°Excuse me! Does that mean you will have an unused spot?¡± They turned in unison to stare at the one who spoke. A boy that looked a little older than him and one that seemed very out of ce. [Name: Xu Feng | Level: 109] In a ce where William hade to assume that green sect robes were the height of fashion, Xu Feng was in pristine white with a blue sash around his middle. Next, he noticed a blue scabbard, a in hilt implying that it wasn¡¯t just for show and contained a sword. ¡°A disciple from the Heavenly Sword Sect? What do you need from my junior?¡± Lan Yang frowned. William blinked, not aware that members of other sects could be present in the Inner Court. It suddenly made sense why the robes were of a different color¡­ and the sword being present. It also made sense why nascent soul realm cultivators were acting like guards. Maybe there were equally strong cultivators from other sects. ¡°Nothing harmful, Senior,¡± Xu Feng bowed slightly, ¡°I only wish to offer a price for the spot.¡± William didn¡¯t miss the sudden attention from the onlookers, who had been content to talk among themselves until the mention of the spot being sold. Most were disciples from the sect waiting in line to enter, and some were like Xu Feng, sticking out with different colored robes and demeanors. He ignored all of them. ¡°Is this allowed?¡± William asked, turning to face Lan Yang and the Elder. ¡°You may do as you wish,¡± the Elder shrugged. Then he would sell it. There was no reason to act like he was above epting currency, especially since he was shockingly poor. ¡°What¡¯s your offer?¡± William asked Xu Feng. ¡°I can spare two spirit stones for the spot.¡± He didn¡¯t know if that was a fair price, and he had no idea how someone who looked barely older than him could have spirit stones to spare. Then again, Ren Bo existed. With the way the disciples who monitored them hadn¡¯t lost their interest, he leaned toward the idea that this was lower than it was worth. Still, he nced at Lan Yang and the Elder to see if they had anything to say. They didn¡¯t. It looked like they couldn¡¯t be bothered to care about this exchange. The Elder, William could understand, but Lan Yang was his ¡®mentor.¡¯ So much for that. ¡°Done,¡± William nodded, noting some of the onlookers dropping their shoulders. If they wanted it, they should have spoken up. He wasn¡¯t about to look like a money grubber in front of a Nascent Soul Realm Elder, even if he really wanted to start a bidding war for the spot. Xu Feng didn¡¯t waste time and immediately took out two beautiful stones that were perfectly spherical, clear of any internal defects, and had a drop from pure Qi essence glowing in the center. He realized that this was the first time he had seen Spirit Stones. Luckily, he had the sense not to gape at them like a moron and quickly stored them in his ring. ¡°Good, you¡¯re finished,¡± Lan Yangmented, ¡°We should head in before they remove the headlining items from the stage.¡± William nodded before bowing toward the Elder and walked inside with Xu Feng following behind silently. B2 - Chapter 19: Feeling Rich B2 - Chapter 19: Feeling Rich He expected the interior to be stunning. After all, this was the Jade Healing Sect. Every building on the sect¡¯s territory seemed to have a requirement to be an architectural masterpiece. The exterior might look like an extravagant, three-level pagoda that used Jade Trees as building material. Still, like with most things he hade to learn about the designs in the Tianxia Empire, the interior was familiar, even if it was beyond anything he had personally seen in his old world. He gazed in awe at the walls of pure marble adorned with paintings of mysterious spiritual artifacts and sculptures of powerful cultivators. William idly wondered if these were the revered ancestors of the sect. Thevishness of the ce continued everywhere he looked. The floors were draped with exquisite carpets that had intricate patterns resembling formations, the kind that could manipte the flow of energy to focus on protection. The high ceiling was illuminated by a colossal chandelier that sparkled with crystal lights, casting a bright glow over the room. The furniture was made of soft leather that seemed to beckon him to touch it, implying that it was the skin of a rare and valuable spirit beast. And this was only the lobby of the auction house. Yes, this resembled the highest luxury in his old world, and it seemed Sophia introduced the same taste here. With his dwelling also having the ¡®Tianxia-design,¡¯ he expected this to repeat across the Empire. ¡°Wee to the one thousand seventy-second annual auction! May I see your pass?¡± [Name: Ning Lu | Level: 99] William narrowed his eyes in thought. This was the first time he saw someone in the qi gathering realm in the Inner Court. He eyed the man''s uniform before ncing around the lobby at the others who wore the same thing. With the system no longer showing the basic status of everyone within Wim¡¯s sight for his own sanity, he hadn¡¯t noticed the strange simrity all the auction house staffers shared. They were all at level ny-nine, just like the managers of the Garden. However, there was a difference. The managers of the Garden were old, almost at the end of their lifespan, and the staffers in the auction hall seemed to be in their early twenties. ¡°Junior Wei, this is you.¡± ¡°Ah, right,¡± William brought out the purple jade pass again and handed it to the staffer. Unlike the Elder who checked the pass outside the auction hall, the staffer had to do more than simply touch the pass to see the ess it allowed. He pressed it against a nk te that glowed a dim red. ¡°The Red Floor,¡± Ning Lu smiled, ¡°Would you like me to lead you there now, or do you prefer to wait for ater time?¡± William looked at Lan Yang. ¡°Let¡¯s get settled first. We still have some time.¡± Ning Lu nodded, ¡°Very well, please follow me.¡± They followed the staffer out of the lobby, revealing an enormous hall with rows of plush seating facing a stage. There were three items ced on separate podiums, resting on soft red cushions and highlighted by something that resembled spotlights, though he saw no evidence of any such thing on the ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, it was even higher than the lobby, likely reaching the height of the building itself. And it was covered by a stunning mural that seemed to show the creation of the Jade Healing Sect. Of course, as spectacr as the mural was, it was not as simple as it looked at first nce. Just like the carpets in the lobby, William could see tiny formations melded with the mural naturally. He shuddered, wondering how powerful these formations could be and their purpose. ¡°When are we allowed to take a closer look at the artifacts on the stage?¡±¡¯ Lan Yang¡¯s question brought William¡¯s attention away from the hall, but not before noticing Xu Feng had the same look of awe as him. It made him happy that he wasn¡¯t alone in feeling that way. ¡°The viewing period will be open in thirty-two minutes, Senior,¡± Ning Lu answered, ¡°It willst for one hour before they are taken back to the holding area.¡± ¡°Perfect,¡± Lan Yang smiled, ¡°Do you know how many will be eligible for the viewing?¡± ¡°We expect to have a filled house for the duration of the auction.¡± Lan Yang sighed, ¡°I expected that, but I hoped otherwise.¡± ¡°I do apologize for the bad news, Senior,¡± Ning Lumiserated with him, the permanent smile on his face dimming slightly. William wondered if tipping was expected, and if it was, it made sense why Ning Lu basically ignored Xu Feng. He imagined that the staffer wanted to speak to him with the constant nces he was given, but Lan Yangmanded far too much of his attention. He might have the pass that allowed them into the Red Floor, something he still wasn¡¯t sure what it meant, but Lan Yang was at the peak of the foundation establishment realm, as his sleeve disyed. Since Ning Lu had likely worked here for some time, perhaps someone like Lan Yang wasmonly more wealthy than someone with a pass who had ess to the Red Floor. More wealth equaled more tips¡­ probably. William had no idea. He was just distracting himself from Xu Feng¡¯s stare. He had no idea why the kid was suddenly interested in looking at him. ¡°Through here, honored guests,¡± Ning Yumented as he held an ornate red door open. They had been led into a hallway that led away from the main hall. All the hallway contained were numerous red doors. ¡°Would you like me to give you a tour of the facilities avable in this room?¡± Ning Yu asked when they entered a room with the same opulent decorations as the lobby, with seating furniture of the same kind. William noticed that the door was colored green on the inside after it was closed. ¡°They¡¯ll need an exnation,¡± Lan Yang said, waving his hand at them, ¡°It¡¯s their first time here¡­ I think. You, sword boy, am I right?¡± William wanted to gape at the casual disrespect toward Xu Feng, though the kid didn¡¯t seem to take offense. ¡°Yes, Senior,¡± Xu Feng bowed politely. ¡°Yes, they¡¯ll need an exnation,¡± Lan Yang repeated. ¡°Not a problem, Senior,¡± Ning Lu nodded before looking at William, ¡°This is your personal room. Only you and your invited guests have ess to it. Once the auction starts, even the staff are barred except for delivering any item you have won. We know you will need time to yourself in the next several days, and we strive to give you the space necessary.¡± ¡°A few days?¡± William interrupted, ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± ¡°The shortest annual auctionsted two days, honored guest, with the longeststing seven,¡± Ning Lu exined patiently. It took everything William had to not stare at Lan Yang. He wasn¡¯t angry, not at all. Instead, he was excited at what he would see pass through that stage. However, he almost felt sorry for Lan Yang. Mei Lingxi was given permission to enjoy herself on Lan Yang¡¯s tab. William assumed it meant a few hours, not several days. Lan Yang might be a pauper by the time they left the auction house, and it would have nothing to do with the auction itself. He wished Mei Lingxi well. ¡°There are three Qi Refining rooms avable for use. Please be aware that this will have an additional cost that will have to be paid before leaving the auction house. Each minute will be five sect points or five Qi Stones.¡± William made sure to catch the expressions of Lan Yang and Xu Feng. The former seemed disinterested, which was understandable, and thetter had pure excitement on his face. He concluded that this might be a good deal. Still, the price seemed outrageous. The two Spirit Stones he had acquired from Xu Feng would give him less than seven hours in the Qi Refining room. ¡°During the auction, if you desire to be involved in the bidding, you must exit through that door and take an avable seat,¡± Ning Lu continued to exin and pointed at a door opposite the one they entered through. ¡°Thank you,¡± Lan Yang said after Ning Lu finished, ¡°Remind us about the viewing period if I haven¡¯t left the room in time.¡± ¡°Yes, Senior,¡± Ning Lu bowed, ¡°Don¡¯t hesitate to look for me if you have any questions, honored guests.¡± With that, he promptly exited. William guessed he was wrong about the tip. B2 - Chapter 20: Planning B2 - Chapter 20: nning ¡°Sword boy, you¡¯re free to explore by yourself. I need to speak to my junior alone,¡± Lan Yang said immediately. ¡°I will be spending the time in the Qi Refining room, Senior,¡± Xu Feng bowed. ¡°That¡¯s fine, but give my junior a Spirit Stone before you do. I don¡¯t want him to be stuck with the cost if you can¡¯t pay.¡± Xu Feng didn¡¯t argue and silently took out a Spirit Stone and handed it to William, who stored it in his ring while muttering thanks. Lan Yang had a point in requiring payment upfront, especially since he would be stuck with the cost. Still, it felt strange when he seemed to almost be hostile toward the kid for no reason. Lan Yang waited until Xu Feng closed the door behind him to speak. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°About?¡± ¡°All of this,¡± Lan Yang motioned at the room, ¡°The auction house, the room, everything.¡± ¡°I feel out of ce,¡± William admitted, ¡°I¡¯ll enjoy the auction, but it feels almost like torture to only be able to look from afar. I don¡¯t have the funds to bid on anything.¡± ¡°The bidding is for me,¡± Lan Yang grinned before ncing at the room Xu Feng entered, ¡°Let¡¯s talk outside.¡± He followed Lan Yang with a frown, thinking of what to do while he was stuck here. It wasn¡¯t a lie when he said he would enjoy the auction, but that wouldn¡¯tst for how many ever days it wouldst. What he should do was obvious, but the Qi Refining room was too costly to use for extended periods. Lan Yang opened the door to reveal the empty seating area. Unlike the many rows he had seen before the stage, the seats were arranged in groups of three, each with a small table and a crystalmp. To the side, there was a bar stocked full of drinks. That got his interest. ¡°What do they serve here, Senior Yang?¡± He asked, ignoring everything else. Even that they were now on the second floor, and there was a direct view down to the stage. If a walk through a door could take him from the Inner Court to the Outer Court, it was no surprise that it took him to a different floor. Even his dwelling in the Outer Court had the same feature. ¡°We¡¯ll get to that,¡± Lan Yang waved him off, ¡°Elder Yu is going to cover all your costs.¡± ¡°¡­ What?¡± William asked nkly, ¡°Elder Yu didn¡¯t mention this yesterday.¡± ¡°She informed me of your increased ess recently, the reason I waste actually,¡± Lan Yang paused, ¡°Again, I¡¯m sorry about that. But it was worth it, no?¡± He nodded slowly, remembering how Lan Yang was surprised that he knew the Grand Elder and assumed that was where the help came from. It implied that Elder Yu didn''t have the authority to do this directly. However, the Grand Elder had already announced that William would have to work to get benefits just like any other disciple, so he doubted there was any help from him. William found it far more likely that Elder Yu convinced someone who could give him this ess. He noted to ask her the next time they met. ¡°Keep in mind that this only applies to you. The sword boy will need to pay for his ess like normal.¡± He supposed that Lan Yang brought him out here mainly to avoid the chance of Xu Feng overhearing. It also let him ask something that he couldn¡¯t ignore. ¡°Senior Yang, do you have something against Xu Feng?¡± William saw the slightest change in expression when he said the kid¡¯s name. ¡°He hasn¡¯t really caused any trouble. He¡¯s actually too agreeable, really.¡± ¡°So is everyone else from that sect,¡± Lan Yang muttered and sighed before shaking his head, ¡°It¡¯s a personal issue I have with the Heavenly Sword Sect. Ignore me when I act like that, Junior Wei.¡± He wanted to push, but unlike theidback demeanor Lan Yang usually possessed, the look he was getting warned him not to. So he just nodded slightly. ¡°d we have that settled,¡± Lan Yang said when there was no more talk about Xu Feng, ¡°You have advanced in your cultivation with a speed that is honestly concerning. Elder Yu told me that your pathways are perfect, but your Qi fundamentals are still a littleckingpared to what it could be.¡± ¡°Lacking?¡± William repeated. ¡°You survived a secret realm,¡± Lan Yang said thoughtfully, ¡°Which means you have advanced in a stressful situation. The best thing you can do right now is get used to the Qi in your body before advancing any further.¡± He already nned on doing that, but he didn¡¯t think they thought of the same issue. Yes, he had some problems with his Qi, but it had nothing to do with his body being unfamiliar with it. The system took care of that. He needed to familiarize himself with the more practical side of it. Which meant working on activating his martial skills with a shorter time dy. Still, Lan Yang wasn¡¯t technically wrong. ¡°I was wondering how to ration my time in the Qi Refining room,¡± William smiled, ¡°I¡¯ll give my thanks to Elder Yu the next time I see her.¡± ¡°And what about me?¡± Lan Yang asked, narrowing his eyes, ¡°I was the one that thought to bring you here, Junior Wei.¡± ¡°¡­ Thanks?¡± He said, not sure if he was being serious. ¡°In my defense, you only thought of this when Elder Yu said she would cover the expenses of the Qi Refining room.¡± ¡°Elder Yu only said she would cover anything to help stabilize your cultivation,¡± Lan Yang corrected. ¡°I thought of making use of the auction house myself.¡± William stared at him silently¡­ again. This confirmed that Lan Yang was far less mature than his sister. The older cultivator sought praise from someone far younger and weaker than him. Still, he gave him credit, though sarcastically. ¡°You¡¯re right, Senior Yang,¡± he nodded solemnly, ¡°Thank you for all this.¡± ¡°I told you I would be a good mentor,¡± Lan Yang preened, ¡°Use the Qi Refining room well. You will be hard-pressed to find any better in the sect unless you are admitted to the Sentinel Peak.¡± His ears perked up. There was a peak reserved just for sentinels? He wanted to know more. Lan Yang¡¯s smile froze and was reced with a frown before he quickly moved closer to the silver railing. ¡°It already started?¡± William joined him and saw people approaching the stage, most in robes not colored green. They were likely from other sects. ¡°I¡¯m going to head down,¡± Lan Yang announced, ¡°Do you want toe with me or stay back?¡± Even if he didn¡¯t want to know more about the Sentinel Peak, he was still interested in the items disyed on the stage. Just because he couldn¡¯t afford them didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t want to know more about what drew so many people to the auction house. Besides, this would help him with the treasures he received in the Shard. He doubted the ones on the stage were of the same quality since his treasures were meant for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators. Still, it would give him some idea of how good it could be. ¡°I¡¯ll apany you, Senior Yang.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Lan Yang said briskly, ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± He disappeared, mming the door into their reserved room open, making him blink in surprise. William didn¡¯t think it was this urgent. B2 - Chapter 21: Visitors From the Capital B2 - Chapter 21: Visitors From the Capital By the time William caught up to Lan Yang, a heated conversation was being exchanged between him and Ning Lu¡­ well, at least from his mentor¡¯s side. He did not intend to interject, so he decided to enjoy the show. ¡°I was told the Gold Floor would be empty for this auction,¡± Lan Yang said as calmly as he could, which wasn¡¯t saying much. It came out like a furious hiss. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the misunderstanding, Senior,¡± Ning Lu said apologetically, ¡°I¡¯m not sure where you heard this from, but I did say that we expected the auction house to be filled for the entirety of the duration.¡± Lan Yang somehow looked more frustrated than before. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you meant the Gold Floor,¡± this time, the hiss was unmistakable, ¡°Those are never filled.¡± When Ning Lu gave a helpless shrug, it reminded William of the poor retail workers who were yelled at by customers as if they had any control over anything important. Of course, it could be a different story here, but going by the low cultivation the staffer possessed, that was very unlikely. As for Lan Yang¡¯s anger, William didn¡¯t have much to go by other than this Gold Floor being an issue. Likely because they had more privileges than those on the Red Floor. He didn¡¯t think Lan Yang cared too much about people being able to look at the items on the stage a few minutes earlier. He would bet it was due to the funds behind the people staying on the Gold Floor. ¡°Let them in.¡± That wasn¡¯t said loudly, but the voice carried. [Name: Rong Yun | Level: ?] William eyed the man walking toward them with a smile with surprise. He wasn¡¯t able to put him in a neat box as was usually possible with most cultivators. In fact, Rong Yun had an appearance that wouldn¡¯t look out of ce on a mortal baker. He had an astonishingly in face and a sturdy build. Rather tanned skin that was a sight William didn¡¯t even know he missed. Seeing so many cultivators with pale, or ¡®jade,¡¯ skin everywhere must have tired him subconsciously. To top it all off, this Rong Yun had a genuinely friendly smile and a gentle demeanor that contrasted his experience with most cultivators outside the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°My prince,¡± Ning Lu bowed deeply. It snapped into ce in William¡¯s head. The Rong family and the Imperial family were one and the same. Not making the connection immediately might have seemed foolish since he had just been tested on that. However, he had been around Princess Jin long enough to assume their imperial title would be included in their basic status. Now that he was proven wrong, the memory of a near-forgotten conversation came to the front of his mind. Princess Jin had mentioned she would be able to take on her full name once she was epted into the main branch of the imperial family. William stiffened. This Rong Yun was from the main branch. When Ning Lu stood from his bow, he hesitantly said, ¡°My Prince, everyone from the Gold Floor must agree.¡± ¡°Oh, I see,¡± Rong Yun nodded understandingly before facing the small group on the stage, ¡°Would any of you mind if I invited these two?¡± The people on the stage nced at them before giving various sounds of indifference. ¡°There you go,¡± Rong Yun smiled at them. ¡°That satisfies the rules, my prince,¡± Ning Yu bowed again before addressing them, ¡°Honored guests, you are free to approach the stage.¡± Lan Yang gave him a short nod before giving the prince a smile. ¡°Thank you for the help, my prince.¡± ¡°No thanks necessary,¡± Rong Yun looked straight at William, ¡°I should be the one saying that to Junior Wei. This is the least I could do.¡± ¡°Me?¡± William pointed at himself, wondering how he got this imperial¡¯s attention. And now that he knew he had it, what was the best way to hide for the duration of the auction if necessary. ¡°Who else?¡± Rong Yun chuckled, ¡°The Lord Protector told me of you. As I said, this is the least I could do for someone that saved my sister.¡± He ignored Lan Yang¡¯s confused nce. It was hard to care when he was filled with confusion, too. As far as he knew, Princess Jin only had one sibling, Prince Yuan, not whoever this Rong Yun was. ¡°¡­ My Prince, are you talking about Princess Jin?¡± William still asked because he could be wrong. After all, maybe the imperial family had some odd rules that severed rtionships if the status was too far apart. ¡°Who else?¡± Rong Yun asked as if it was obvious, ¡°I needed to personally thank the one that helped such a treasure return to my family.¡± At this point, he wasn¡¯t sure if Rong Yun was being sarcastic or not. The prince still had the same friendly smile, the same amenable demeanor, and was saying all the right words, but there was one thing sounding off a siren in his mind. Rong Yun was an Imperial Prince. Of the Empire that Sophia showed a distaste towards. Of the Empire that Lord Paddlington hated gleefully. William would need more than just a friendly smile to truly believe anything that a person with the family name Rong told him. ¡°It was only what I should have done, my prince,¡± he said with a dip of his head, ¡°Princess Jin saved my life far too many times in the Shard. I wouldn¡¯t be able to live with myself if I couldn¡¯t keep her safe.¡± ¡°Hah!¡± Rong Yuughed, ¡°Junior, if everyone your age was so responsible, the world would be far better.¡± William gave him a strained smile. He technically wasn¡¯t as young as the prince assumed, but if Rong Yun was far older than he looked, neither his mental nor physical age would make much difference. ¡°Junior Wei is a little serious, but he knows how to rx, my prince,¡± Lan Yang joined in, ¡°In fact, he dragged me to the auction house so he could see what all the excitement was about.¡± His smile became even more strained when Lan Yang looked at him as if asking for backup. Luckily, he was just as eager for the small talk to stop. ¡°I wanted to do something fun after my... trip,¡± William shrugged. ¡°If you could take a look at an auction that happens once a year after that, you¡¯d do the same, Senior Yang.¡± ¡°Hm, maybe you can do more than just look,¡± Rong Yun smiled before turning to Lan Yang, ¡°And apologies, Junior Wei called you Yang?¡± ¡°Lan Yang, my prince.¡± ¡°Lan Yang, then. Come, see what the auction has to offer,¡± Rong Yun motioned them to follow him. William trailed them, amused at how Rong Yun acted like this was his territory. He looked away from the two conversing and studied the others onstage. They all had robes that were far different from the green that Jade Healing Sect members loved so much. Some did wear green robes, but they were of a different shade. It must have tricked his eyes when he saw them from the second floor into thinking they were from his sect. More importantly, everyone he could see had the same basic status. [Name: ? | Level: ?] That didn¡¯t make much sense to William. Lan Yang clearly expected to be the winning bid for whatever item he had his eyes on. If nascent soul cultivators weremonce, that confidence wouldn¡¯t have existed. Something about this auction was obviously out of the norm this year. ¡°Ah, Junior Wei!¡± Rong Yun called as soon as they stepped on the stage, ¡°Let me introduce you to a friend of mine with a name simr to yours!¡± William¡¯s eyebrows were raised in surprise. The man that came over didn¡¯t need an instruction. The basic status already did so. [Name: Wei Ming | Level: ?] The only one other than Rong Yun with a name revealed in their basic status. ¡°This is Wei Ming of Qingyun City¡¯s Wei n!¡± Rong Yun pped his hand on the man''s back with a grin. B2 - Chapter 22: Wei Clan B2 - Chapter 22: Wei n ¡°Er, hello,¡± William said after a moment. He had a shback of speaking to Elder Huang in the Jade Healing Clinic. It was in their first conversation, but he remembered it clearly since it was rted to the name Daoist Chen gave him. Elder Huang said two things about the Wei n. They were wastrels, and they were obscenely wealthy. Well, thetter was more implied, but the point still stood. It was not a kind description. William agreed with Elder Huang, even if it was only from the appearance of Wei Ming. If anyone fits the stereotype of a ¡®Young Master,¡¯ the arrogant, handsome, wealthy cultivator from arge n, it was Wei Ming. His robes looked more like ck silk robes made for lounging around than cultivation robes. His expression waszy to the extreme, as if he couldn¡¯t care less about anything around him. To add that little bit of extra charm, there was a faint scar on the right side of his face, barely a line, starting just above his brow and ending under his eye. If William didn¡¯t know any better, he would assume this was the man he had to defeat to rise to the heavens, but this wasn¡¯t a cultivation novel. This was his life. Wei Ming was just a member of a ridiculously affluent n and also happened to be dangerously attractive. Nothing else, and certainly not some stepping stone. ¡°Brother Ming, what do you think?¡± Rong Yun prodded. ¡°Didn¡¯t you tell me we would meet him after the auction?¡± Wei Ming asked with an annoyed scowl before sighing, ¡°Never mind, let me see.¡± He narrowed his eyes after studying him and said, ¡°Closer than I would have thought, but I still say no, Brother Yun.¡± ¡°My prince,¡± Lan Yang moved slightly to cover him with his body. It made William add some points to the ¡®mentor¡¯ status. ¡°Did you expect something from Junior Wei?¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t misunderstand me, Lan Yang,¡± Rong Yun immediately reassured, ¡°I have no ill intentions. When I heard of Junior Wei¡¯s name, I thought of the Wei n. You know as well as I that someone like this junioring from apletely mortal background is unlikely.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Lan Yang rxed as he looked at him, ¡°Hm, I see a resemnce.¡± ¡°See, Brother Ming!¡± Rong Yun¡¯s belief was rejuvenated by Lan Yang. ¡°Fine, let me take a closer look,¡± Wei Ming rolled his eyes and¡­ sauntered to him. That was the best way to describe the walk. William frowned, tensing in difort when his personal space was invaded. This happened a little too much here. ¡°¡­ There are some simrities,¡± Wei Ming epted grudgingly after he stared at William¡¯s face closely. ¡°This junior is certainly pretty enough to be part of my n.¡± The scowl that appeared on his face before he could stamp it down made the man chuckle. ¡°And the attitude is there too,¡± Wei Ming pulled away and looked at Rong Yun, ¡°But I still say that¡¯s all it is. Simrities. I would know if anyone in the n lost a child.¡± Rong Yun sighed, looking more disappointed than he should have. ¡°I was hoping you were a lost child of the Wei n, Junior. It would ease the debt we owe you for your help.¡± Debt? ¡°Wait, does this mean Princess Jin passed the heavenly tribtion?¡± William blurted out. It just clicked in his mind that Rong Yun acted too thankful toward him. Far too much if Princess Jin¡¯s life was still at risk. ¡°Yes,¡± Rong Yun confirmed with a brilliant smile, ¡°Rong Jin is recuperating at the moment, but the danger has passed.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ good,¡± William felt a tension that he didn¡¯t even know existed disappear. Of course, he noted that she was referred to as Rong Jin, meaning she has got her wish of being epted into the main branch. However, that took a backseat to his relief. As sad as it might be to admit, Princess Jin was one that he could call a friend¡­ or friendly acquaintance. The other option was Ren Bo, and he didn¡¯t wish that for himself. ¡°I¡¯ll let her know you asked after her,¡± Rong Yun chuckled, ¡°Back to the matter of repaying you. Maybe there is something that will interest you in the auction. It won¡¯t end our debt, but it can be a good start.¡± Thest thing William wanted was to ept anything from the Imperial Family, no matter how string-free the offered gift seemed. He still didn¡¯t know anything about karma, and until he did, he wanted to avoid epting anything significant. Even his greed was keeping itself absent, knowing this wasn¡¯t the time to do anything stupid. The only concern he had now was Lan Yang. William was starting to believe that Lan Yang was bing a decent mentor, the useless act of being ready to defend him from Rong Jun helping greatly. Still, he was well aware that Lan Yang wanted something in the auction, and with Rong Jun¡¯s offer, it could be possible that he would try to pressure him into asking for help. ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary, my prince,¡± Lan Yang proved him wrong almost instantly, but still, he sounded as if he regretted the words leaving his mouth, ¡°It¡¯s my duty as his mentor to ensure Junior Wei has what he needs.¡± ¡°So be it,¡± Rong Yun epted the soft denial graciously, ¡°The offer is there if needed.¡± ¡°As I said, my prince, I don¡¯t need any reward for helping Princess Jin,¡± William reiterated. Both to let Rong Yun know he didn¡¯t intend to ept anything and to remind himself that he didn¡¯t intend to ept anything. Now, that resolve just had tost when the auction started. Wealth had never been on his mind in this world, a strange thing when even he was aware of how quickly he was to risk his life for some benefits. Then again, he never needed wealth for his cultivation. William supposed that was a good thing. He wasn¡¯t greedy for everything, just for whatever could help his cultivation. The problem was that he was sure there would be something in the auction that would convince him to make stupid choices. He would spend all the time in the Qi Refining room to avoid the temptation. ¡°Well, that almost confirms that he isn¡¯t from my Wei n,¡± Wei Ming chuckled. ¡°¡­ Regrettably, I would have to agree with you, Brother Ming,¡± Rong Yun nodded, ¡°If anyone from the Wei n acted like that, they might be checked for a heart demon.¡± Heart demon was not a term William recognized from his time in this world, but he did read about them in his novels. It represented a manifestation of one¡¯s innermost fears, doubts, or desires that could hinder cultivation. ¡­ Being humble apparently meant something so extreme for members of the Wei n. ¡°True,¡± Wei Ming smirked, ¡°If you gave me the same offer, I would test the limits of what you were willing to spend in this auction, then try to take more if I could.¡± William almost felt the need to p at the casual shamelessness. Rong Yun, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes. ¡°That''s the reason I never would give you that offer.¡± ¡°Your Highness, we need to leave soon. There will soon be arger crowd than we arefortable with.¡± The man who had spoken was one of the several nascent soul realm cultivators conspicuously keeping their space from them. It didn¡¯t take long for William to have an idea as to why. After another nce at the others on the stage, he concluded that these were likely bodyguards¡­ until he remembered that Rong Yun said he was Princess Jin¡¯s brother. They were from the branch family, and Rong Jun was ¡®only¡¯ in the core formation realm at most. It made no sense to have this type of protection around him. As for Wei Ming, that made even less sense when the nascent soul realm cultivator respectfully addressed Rong Jun first. William was already wary, but now he would carefully watch each word spoken in Rong Jun¡¯s presence. The whole thing made zero sense. ¡°A few minutes?¡± Rong Jun repeated, ¡°Then it¡¯s best to stop wasting time. Lan Yang, Junior Wei, let¡¯s see if any of these three treasures interest you.¡± Lan Yang was practically pulled to stay beside Rong Yun, leaving William staring at their backs. Oh, and Wei Ming was standing beside him. At least it was quiet, other than Lan Yang telling the prince he was a mentor and what he had nned for after the auction. That was alright. William could tell it was vague enough, with mentions of Elder Yu inserted into the conversation plenty of times. ¡°You know, I might be wrong.¡± William took a moment to reply, mostly because he didn¡¯t expect Wei Ming to speak. ¡°What?¡± ¡°About you being part of the Wei n,¡± Wei Ming repeated, ¡°I might be wrong. If you visit Qingyun City, you can find out with certainty.¡± ¡°¡­ Thank you, Senior,¡± William couldn¡¯t even act like he was enthused about that prospect. ¡°You don¡¯t intend to ever try,¡± Wei Mingmented the obvious, ¡°That might be for the best. You will get ess to riches, but such things are never without hidden costs.¡± William nodded in agreement, but something stood out to him. Wei Ming spoke as if it was a given that it would be confirmed that he was from the Wei n, aplete change from his pastments. There was no Qi technique to keep that sentence private, at least not one like the one Princess Jin used. It was likely everyone had heard what Wei Ming said, with the only possible exception being Lan Yang. ¡°I really do appreciate it, Senior Wei,¡± William repeated a statement that said nothing. ¡°Ah, Junior Wei!¡± Rong Yun called him over. Such convenient timing. ¡°Look at this treasure. It will be of great help to you!¡± B2 - Chapter 23: Top Treasures B2 - Chapter 23: Top Treasures Even if the timing was suspiciously obvious, he was happy to join Rong Yun and Lan Yang. The less talk about visiting a powerful cultivation n, the better. As if William was stupid enough to startpeting with the members for resources. Being the outsider with no rtionships, he would be targeted immediately. ¡­ On second thought, he might actually be stupid enough if a good enough bait was dangled in front of him. ¡°What do you think, Junior Wei? Lan Yang doesn¡¯t seem too interested in it.¡± William could see why. It was a cauldron, an impressive one, but still a cauldron. Lan Yang was a sentinel, not an alchemist. He leaned forward slightly to read the card on the podium. Five Dragons Cauldron A replica of the legendary Nine Dragons Cauldron. While it cannot handle Light, Dark, Time, or Space, it can nearly match the legendary cauldron in the other elements. The five dragon heads carved on this cauldron¡¯s surface each represent a different element: Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Lightning. ¡°I¡¯m with Senior Yang. It would be wasted in our hands.¡± He had no idea if this was impressive, but Rong Yun¡¯s expression certainly made it seem so. ¡°Hmm, I¡¯ll have to try and win this one,¡± Rong Yunmented, ¡°It¡¯s not often the Jade Healing Sect would be willing to part with one of these.¡± William absorbed that information silently. No wonder Lan Yang wasn¡¯t interested in the cauldron. If the sect had several of these, it was likely possible to buy from the catalog at a far lesser price than what it would sell for at the auction. That was if he wanted to buy one in the first ce. ¡°I won¡¯t fight with you on that, Brother Yun. As long as you leave this to me,¡± Wei Ming¡¯s voice was further than expected. He was no longer behind them but near the next podium, staring intently at therge egg ced on it. ¡°You willingly give up on a treasure?¡± Rong Yun said incredulously before abandoning the cauldron to check what had interested Wei Ming so much. ¡°Senior Yang,¡± William said when they were left alone, not that they had any privacy. Though, the suspected guards tried their best to make themselves seem invisible. ¡°Is that what you wanted?¡± ¡°No,¡± Lan Yang sounded miserable, ¡°But it¡¯s already lost. I know it.¡± All he could do was give him an apologetic look. The poor guy was likely getting fleeced by Mei Lingxi. On top of that, he was getting the item he wanted stolen by true Young Masters who appeared in the sect because of him. Lan Yang could have lessened the bleeding of wealth if he had let Mei Lingxi take up the other guest spot in the auction, but for some reason, he didn¡¯t want that to happen¡­ or he didn¡¯t know two people could be allowed in, which was unlikely. ¡°So you wanted thest one?¡± William asked as he peered at the mentioned item. It just looked like a pair of bracelets. ¡°¡­ Senior Lan, is this for a girl?¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t important,¡± Lan Yang grumbled, sounding even more miserable. He might as well hold up a sign saying that he was definitely buying it for a girl. William nced at the prince and the Wei n member, seeing that they were ignoring everything in favor of arguing amongst themselves. He didn¡¯t care much about the egg, even though it would be nice to have a pet of some sort, but to have that desire, he would need wealth. He didn¡¯t have that, so he didn¡¯t care. It would be more interesting to see what Lan Yang wanted so badly. ¡°Wait!¡± William ignored Lan Yang and went straight to the podium with the bracelets. Soul Binding Bracelet Bind the souls of two willing partners, allowing both to travel the path of cultivation together. Share in fortunes and misfortunes, bear each other¡¯s burdens, and lend your strengths to each other in dire times. Perfect for dual cultivation. His jaw dropped. This was the first time he had seen anything about dual cultivation. Of course, he hadn¡¯t exactly been looking for it, but he hadn¡¯t expected it to appear as a headliner item at an auction in his sect. Dual cultivation, as he understood it, had a terrible reputation. It generally ended with one partner bing a parasite, ruining the other. This bracelet implied it was more like a marriage, except with far more benefits. ¡°Really, Junior Wei?¡± Lan Yang hissed when he reached his side, ¡°Now I¡¯m definitely not going to have a chance.¡± William actually felt terrible. If whatever rtionship Lan Yang had was this serious, it was the equivalent of missing the chance to buy the perfect engagement ring. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Senior¡ª¡± he was cut off. ¡°Oh, Junior Wei!¡± Rong Yun practically teleported beside him, ¡°This is what interests you?¡± He read the card and frowned, ¡°I rmend that you stay away from such artifacts at your age. You should be sure your partner¡¯s potential can match your own to avoid tragedy.¡± It was nice that William had his assumption about one partner turning into a parasite immediately confirmed. Still, it was odd to pretend that Rong Jun hadn¡¯t heard his conversation with Lan Yang. Nor did he know why the prince was acting oblivious. ¡°It¡¯s not for me, my prince.¡± ¡°Ah, then it¡¯s for Lan Yang,¡± Rong Jun nodded, ¡°Who is the lucky woman?¡± ¡°Nobody of consequence, my prince,¡± Lan Yang replied stiffly. ¡°Then you wouldn¡¯t mind if I bid for this trinket, would you?¡± Wei Ming suddenly interjected, appearing next to Rong Jun. At this point, this was simply bullying. William had already felt bad enough that Lan Yang couldn¡¯t propose¡­ or whatever the equivalent was called when it ended with literally melding souls. Wei Ming needling him was going too far. So. This was a genuine Young Master. ¡°Brother Ming, Lan Yang isn¡¯t used to your personality. He will think you are being serious.¡± William noticed a sh of something appear on Wei Ming¡¯s face before it was wiped away. ¡°Well, that¡¯s boring. I wouldn¡¯t want something like this, Yang. You can have at it.¡± ¡°Well, this worked out perfectly. There are no conflicts between us with the items we want!¡± Rong Jun paused, ¡°Well, with these items. The others are up for grabs.¡± ¡°My prince. It¡¯s time.¡± The same nascent soul realm cultivator stepped forward to remind Rong Jun it was time to leave. ¡°Hm,¡± Rong Jun frowned, ¡°If we don¡¯t meet again during the auction, I¡¯ll see you both after it.¡± Wei Ming stared at William before walking away from the stage beside the prince, the guards following closely behind. ¡°¡­ What the hell was that, Junior Wei?¡± Lan Yang asked, sounding just as confused as he was. ¡°I think you just won those bracelets,¡± Williammented, ¡°as long as you can win it from the others.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true... but why?¡± He didn¡¯t know the answer to that. He had a feeling that Wei Ming had actually wanted to buy the bracelets, but Rong Yun had put a stop to it. The most obvious guess was that it was a small favor to him, with Lan Yang benefiting by proxy, but he couldn¡¯t be sure. William shook his head in frustration. He didn¡¯t want to deal with the whirlwind that was Rong Yun and Wei Ming at the moment. Some time to absorb what happened would greatly help get more rity, and there was a perfect way to do that in their reserved room. He wanted to cultivate and distance himself from all the annoyances. The joy of knowing Princess Jin sessfully passed her tribtion had been killed far too quickly. ¡°Senior Yang, I¡¯m returning to the room. Could you let me know when the auction starts?¡± Lan Yang was staring longingly at the bracelets but was paying enough attention to nod. William let him be and moved to leave the stage, ncing at the card for the egg as he passed by. Spirit Beast Egg The Jade Healing Sect guarantees that the spirit beast inside the egg is not from a low-ss species. The size signifies that it is at the edge that separates the eggs of a mid-tier and high-tier spirit beast. The sect estimates an even chance of hatching either type from this egg. He stopped to stare at the egg, his desire to own it spiking momentarily before he ruthlessly crushed it. He ripped his eyes away and sped up his walk back to the room. The temptation has already started. Luckily, Rong Yun wasn¡¯t here for him to do something stupid. B2 - Chapter 24: Qi Refining Room B2 - Chapter 24: Qi Refining Room It wasn¡¯t until the door closed behind him that William realized that Lan Yang might not have a way to enter the room since he had the only pass. He didn¡¯t let it concern him too long. One of the staffers could probably allow him inside. Xu Feng had still locked himself inside the Qi Refining room, and he had the right idea. William would do the same. He entered the room beside the one Xu Feng upied and frowned in disappointment. At first nce, it didn¡¯t match his expectations with how much it cost to use. It was a barren room without a hint of Qi that existed in the refining rooms he had visited in the past. William sighed as he closed the door. At least he would be able to practice his martial skills. The door shut behind him, and the room immediately darkened. ¡°Choose your mode: Cultivation or Martial Skills Practice.¡± The nk, genderless voice made him flinch in surprise. It took everything in him to not activate [Force Multiplier] in a panic. The only reason he didn¡¯t was that his Qi wasn¡¯t ready to activate that skill. ¡°Cultivation,¡± William said unsurely after calming down. The change was instant. Darkness was reced with a soft light, and thick Qi filled the room, making him feel something familiar. A prickling sensation on his skin. It was reminiscent of what William experienced when he cultivated in the Shard. Of course, it was to a lesser extent, but it still lifted his hopes. The density of Qi in his surroundings was so great that his body was warning him that he was close to the limit of what he could safely handle. William carefully moved to the center of the room, ensuring the prickling sensation wouldn¡¯t suddenly change to something dangerous. It really brought him back to theke in the oasis. When he sat crosslegged on the stone floor, he hoped that cultivation would be just as simr. His senses turned inward for the first time in weeks. Like always, it was hard not to admire that pure Qi flowing calmly in his pathways. However, his hope and expectation of massive experience gain ended quickly. The original intention before he felt the denseness of the Qi in the room was to add some points to his Spirit attribute. William still intended to wait and speak to Elder Yu about the Heaven-Tier Martial Skills before making any significant investments into his attributes, but after he had seen the cost to use [Detailed Observe] on Mei Lingxi, he figured it wouldn¡¯t hurt to increase his Spirit a little. Even if it was only enough to use [Detailed Observe] on Mei Lingxi. Of all his attributes, excluding Luck, assigning points to Spirit was something he wasn¡¯t concerned about. He was a cultivator, and having a higher Spirit attribute could only help. A slight smile subconsciously formed on his lips when he sensed the first ¡®pulse.¡¯ The odd effect on his cultivation was caused by the existence of the system. Where the density of his Qi grew to the limit before it was converted to an experience point. In the oasis, this ¡®pulse¡¯ happened so quickly that it almost seemed like his spiritual pathways shined brightly with an uninterrupted glow. That was not the case here. The smile on William¡¯s lips fell. The pulse was still quick, there was no doubt about that, but nowhere close to what he had experienced in the Shard. He didn¡¯t give up immediately. Even though it had been too long since he started cultivating, patience was something he was learning, at least in these types of situations. William fell into a trance as he kept circting his Qi for an unknown amount of time. Shutting his mind off after the encounter with Rong Yun and Wei Ming was precisely what he needed. It was as hypnotizing as before, watching his Qi rush through his spiritual pathways under hismand. There was little doubt his state would havested longer if it wasn¡¯t for the slight change he sensed with his Qi. Something that let him know instinctively that he had greater control over his Qi. It had happened a few times before, resulting in far quicker activation of his martial skills. Of course, those were only the basic skills he had picked from the Outer Sect¡¯s library. Now, it could involve [Force Multiplier]. William¡¯s excitement broke instantly, bringing him out of the trance. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the blue text, but he ignored it for now. He started the activation process of [Force Multiplier], eager to see how much it had reduced. A secondter, he found himself sorely disappointed. Nothing had changed. ¡°Well, that was a waste,¡± William said to himself as he finally turned his attention to the system alert. [Cultivate in a Qi-dense environment for 3 hours and 37 minutes: +337 XP] The Qi Refining room gave a hundred experience points for every hour he cultivated. That was¡­ ridiculously good. Again, not close to the Shard, but enough that he wanted to find out if he could permanently reside here. At this rate, he could level up approximately every week. The cost to use the room was extremely high, each day requiring seven Spirit Stones and two hundred Qi Stones, but the benefit it offered made it well worth the price. However, William didn¡¯t have the luxury to shut off his mind and simply cultivate at this time. He had to work under the assumption that he would only have the opportunity to use this room while the auction was running. He would need to switch to the martial skills practice mode and see how much it would help him. If the benefits were on par with cultivation mode, then the choice would be obvious. Improving his martial skills would be exponentially more helpful than leveling up once in his limited time in the room. Before that, there was one thing he wanted to do before he switched the mode. Raise his Spirit attribute. William¡¯s attempt of [Detailed Observe] on Mei Lingxi informed him that he needed six hundred Spiritual Energy to use the skill. Spiritual Energy: 550/550 (20% per Hour) He wasn¡¯t too far off. All he had to do was raise his Spirit by ten, but there was also this to consider. Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 130 2. Eligible for Level 130 He was still some ways off before having to think about the next minor realm, but he might as well add ten more points since a hundred and thirty was the minimum required. [+20 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 550 ¡ª> 650] William closed his eyes and calmly directed the newly added Qi to his Stomach Meridian. He didn''t bother to test his Lung and Heart Meridians when they pulsed threateningly as the Qi passed by. The result would be a scattering of the new Qi. He waited for the Stomach Meridian to absorb all the avable Qi, having done this too many times already. That was his mistake. It seemed like the Stomach Meridian barely sipped on the avable Qi before it reacted violently. The dense fog of Qi that filled the meridian copsed rapidly into a familiar speck of light, but one that wasrger than what the other meridians contained. As wasmon after this, adding more Qi was impossible. William tensed as the speck of light pulsed strongly, scattering the remaining Qi away, but thankfully, he was expecting that. He quickly brought it back under his control before it could cause any damage. It was necessary to choose another meridian. There were only two left, so he quickly made up his mind. The closest one was the Liver Meridian. He directed the remaining Qi into the empty meridian, warily observing if there would be any other surprises. Luckily, there wasn¡¯t. By the time everything was absorbed, a thin wisp of Qi had spread in the liver meridian. William waited some more, wanting to be doubly sure nothing would go wrong until he feltfortable to pull his attention away. He slowly opened his eyes, wondering about what had just happened. As shameful as it was to admit it, he didn¡¯t spare much thought about why those specks of light appeared in his meridian after a certain amount of Qi was added to it. The cultivation manual, Horizon¡¯s Seeker, didn¡¯t say much other than it was expected. William knew that the manual he was given was at the human-Tier, the lowest tier for martial skills and cultivation techniques. However, Lan Yin also said an earth-Tier manual was avable once he mastered Horizon¡¯s Seeker at the human-Tier. The thing was, the manual he received didn¡¯t specify how it could be mastered. But he was starting to think that the specks of light were the answer. Perhaps he needed all five of his meridians in the same state. B2 - Chapter 25: Specks of Light B2 - Chapter 25: Specks of Light Williambed through his memories, studying the times when the change urred in his meridians. Each speck of light was slightlyrger than the previous one, leading him to make a guess he felt would be proven correct. What he gathered already pointed in that direction. While the Lung Meridian seemed to skip the stage where the Qi was a fog in varying stages of denseness, he wrote that off as a consequence of changing his cultivation technique to Horizon¡¯s Seeker. Even if it wasn¡¯t, it seemed like an anomalypared to the following three meridians. The Heart, Stomach, and Liver Meridians all acted in a simr manner. They all had a predictable path. A thin wisp of Qi spread throughout the meridian before it slowly changed to a thick fog, then came the speck once it reached a certain point. More importantly, he could pinpoint the range his Spirit attribute was at when the meridians rejected additional Qi. The Lung Meridian did this when his Spirit was in the high twenties. The Heart Meridian around sixty. As for the most recent one, the Stomach Meridian, couldn¡¯t be much more than a hundred and ten Spirit. The rejection urred with barely any of the new Qi absorbed. William thought about it carefully. The Spirit needed for each following rejection increased drastically, or at least it seemed that way with what he had just recalled. There was far too little data to draw any patterns from, but if it continued, he guessed that the Liver Meridian would reject any additional Qi when his Spirit was around two hundred. The only way to test this out was to assign his unused points. Points: 303 William had plenty to spare, but he would need to use a quarter of it just to see if he was correct. ¡­ This was not the move. He had to keep repeating that to himself since it seemed there were no other benefits to be had, even if he was proven correct. But on the other hand, this was the Spirit attribute. How much could it set him back if it turned out to be a suboptimal idea? In the worst case, he would be able to recover the seventy points that would be spent in seven levels. A benefit of the Foundation Establishment Realm is that each level-up gave him ten stat points instead of the five he had be used to. William needed to find out. [+40 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 650 ¡ª> 850] He closed his eyes, cautiously guiding the newly added Qi into the Liver Meridian. Everything was absorbed without issue. As expected, the thinly spread wisp of Qi in the meridian thickened into a transparent fog. It wasn¡¯t enough. He added more, far less than before, to ensure he wouldn¡¯t miss the crossing point. [+20 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 850 ¡ª> 950] The same thing happened. The Qi inside the meridian became more dense but still showed no sign of forming the speck of light. Again. [+10 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 950 ¡ª> 1000] There was still no rejection. His Spirit had already reached two hundred. He had to think if his assumption was way off. William decided to try one more time before letting it go. [+10 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1000 ¡ª> 1050] Even though the past several tries had been uneventful, his guard was still up. The Liver Meridian absorbed all of the Qi just as easily as before, making him think for the briefest of moments that he would need to give up. The appearance of a dim light in the center of the fog of Qi was sudden, and before he could process it, all of the Qi in the meridian started to copse rapidly toward the center. Soon, the only thing left was the speck of light in the center of a mostly empty Liver Meridian. It seemed that William had found his exact number. To test it, he added one point to Spirit. [+1 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1050 ¡ª> 1055] The speck of light in the Liver Meridian pulsed in warning as he directed the minuscule amount of Qi to pass by. He proceeded to lead it to the Kidney Meridian, thest one which had been untouched till now. William opened his eyes and exhaled slowly before a chuckle escaped him. That gave him the Spirit he needed to add to repeat the process in the Kidney Meridian. Working backward, he calcted the Spirit required to ¡®fill¡¯ the Lung Meridian. It was twenty-five. The Heart Meridian needed ten more than that, totaling thirty-five. Twenty more for the Stomach Meridian, totaling fifty-five. This continued with each subsequent meridian. A geometric progression that quickly made the Spirit required reach to unreasonable numbers. He supposed he should be happy there were only five major meridians to worry about. Still, it was massive. Three hundred and eighty-five. That was what his Spirit attribute needed to be to fill the Kidney Meridian. He could do it right now, but that would require depleting nearly eighty percent of his unused points. Unthinkable, but that was alright. Time was on his side. If he really was in such a rush, it might be possible to hunt those subhumans who thought they could walk the demonic path without issue. Taking out a group of that trash would be more than enough. William blinked, realizing his heart was beating faster than it should. Simply thinking of those walking meat sacks of experience points made him furious. He shook his head to rid his mind of them. As he mentioned to Elder Yu, it would be doing himself a disservice to spare a thought to the likes of them¡­ when they weren¡¯t in range for an easy kill, of course. ¡°Cultivation is a waste,¡± William said out loud to get himself back on track. ¡°I need to practice my martial skills.¡± ¡°Would you like to exit cultivation mode?¡± That was a convenient side effect of talking to himself. ¡°Yes.¡± The Qi Refining room transformed. His surroundings were suddenly depleted of the thick Qi, the soft light changing into something much brighter and lit up the dull, grey room. It allowed William to see the arrays carved into the walls before they started to glow a brilliant blue. [External force is affecting the user¡¯s mind] That was a familiar alert. The dull room disappeared from his vision and was reced with endless grasnd. Simr to the Qi Refining room in Xuanjing City. ¡°State the desired level of your opponents.¡± William kept his mouth shut. He couldn¡¯t say he wasn¡¯t surprised by a disembodied voice speaking to him, but it wasn¡¯t the oddest thing he had seen so far in this world. As for what the voice told him, that would greatly depend on which skill he would be practicing. He wanted to focus on [Force Multiplier], but that seemed counterproductive since he already had that hundred percent next to it¡­ not that he knew what it stood for. He pulled up that submenu to confirm it for the first time in a while. Martial Skills (4): 1. Force Multiplier (100%) 2. Thunderous Palm (90%) 3. Thunderous Kick (90%) 4. Earth-Shaking Stomp (70%) William stared nkly, wondering when thepatibility his weaker skills had increased in percentage. Thest time he had seen them, they were below fifty percent. It certainly wasn¡¯t from practice unless it counted the killing spree he went on with the mobs in the Shard. At the very least, it made his decision easy. He wanted to see if there were any changes to his basic martial skills. But there was something William wanted to try before it slipped his mind again. ¡°What does the percentage next to the martial skills mean?¡± He asked out loud. ¡°Query not applicable. State the desired level of your opponents.¡± Whatever controlled the room answered him instead of the system. As was expected. There was a reason he often forgot to ask the system something. It was a waste of effort. ¡°Give me an opponent in Early Stage Foundation Establishment Realm.¡± ¡°epted.¡± A humanoid opponent appeared around a hundred feet away. He could have chosen something higher for a better match, but that was forter. William wanted an easy fight to test out his weaker martial skills. B2 - Chapter 26: Training B2 - Chapter 26: Training He grimaced when his palm sliced through flesh effortlessly, almost bisecting the faceless humanoid the room created for him. The extremely dead thing disappeared into thin air. William used [Thunderous Palm]. It was too effective. Since the humanoid being was the creation of the formation in the room, his system couldn¡¯t show any of the attributes. It would have been helpful to see the specific attributes to evaluate how strong the humanoid was. ¡°State the desired level of your opponents.¡± Instead of saying the general cultivation he thought would be sufficient, he decided to try something else. ¡°Create one that can withstand my strike.¡± ¡°Creating Middle Stage Foundation Establishment Realm opponent specializing in closebat.¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± William yelped in surprise. A heavy fist smashed into his raised forearm, pain exploding from the point of contact. It was easy to ignore, especially when it wasn¡¯t apanied by a system alert telling him of lost health. This was all a simtion. It was an impressive illusion, but that¡¯s all it was. William¡¯s Qi-covered palm speared into the humanoid¡¯s face, or rather, attempted to. It hit nothing but air. Pain exploded at his elbow before it was quickly followed with his chest almost caved in from a brutal punch. ¡°Defeat. Would you like to try again?¡± He blinked when his body was reset. All the damage disappeared instantly. The enemy created by the room had returned to its original position a hundred feet away. William knew he couldn¡¯t aplish anything with the opponent at this level. He didn¡¯t think it was the cultivation that was making it impossible. It was the martial arts. It wasughable how defenseless he was without [Force Multiplier]. ¡°I want my opponent to be restricted to defense only.¡± ¡°epted.¡± William tensed, expecting it to rush at him. When it didn¡¯t advance, he wanted to facepalm. Of course, it didn¡¯t. He was the one to make it only defensive. Since that was the case, he would make his move. The distance between him and the humanoid was covered in the blink of an eye. A Qi-covered palm thrust at its chest soon after. There must be a significant difference between their Agility since William¡¯s palm mmed into a forearm instead of a chest. He pulled his hand back, ignoring the sting from the brick wall that apparently stopped him. His constion prize was that the humanoid¡¯s forearm was bleeding slightly, so he at least caused some damage for his own satisfaction. Time to try [Thunderous Kick]. William took a small step back from the motionless humanoid before nodding to himself. This would let him do the most damage with a kick. His leg flew towards the humanoid¡¯s ribs like a whip. He expected that he would get blocked again. And it was. William¡¯s shin met the humanoid¡¯s forearm and bicep with a sharp crack, leaving some damage but even less than his palm did. He brought his leg down and hopped back, wondering why it had been so ineffective. He had been under the impression that his kicks were stronger than anything he could do with his hands, but that didn¡¯t seem to be the case here. ¡­ New martial skills were needed. Sure, he could curb stomp enemies even stronger than this humanoid with [Force Multiplier], but that was limited to two uses and two minutes. After that, he would die either from the penalty of overusing [Force Multiplier] or from the enemy he couldn''t kill in time. William suddenly recalled what the voice told him. The thing it created was specialized in closebat. ¡°Remove the opponent¡¯s specialization.¡± ¡°epted. The opponent is no longer specialized in closebat.¡± The humanoid was restored to full health. He tried again. [Thunderous Palm] first. His palm speared toward its chest again, but the block wasn¡¯t as clean this time. Like before, the humanoid blocked him with the forearm, but instead of being slightly injured, he felt bone snap underneath his palm. The humanoid was pushed back slightly when its broken forearm mmed into its chest, but there was no other damage caused. William pulled back with a frown. He didn¡¯t think the difference would be so drastic. ¡°Restore it back to full health.¡± ¡°epted.¡± He didn¡¯t waste time in repeating the kick. He targeted the ribs again, a grunt leaving his lips as his legs powered to the target. As expected, there was an attempted block. Thest time William tried this, the humanoid shrugged it off like nothing had happened. That was no longer the case. The arm that was trying to absorb the kick shattered, his shin almost slicing through it before crashing into the original target. William could feel the ribs give way under his shin, cracking under the force of his attack, and copse inward before his foot was lodged inside the humanoid¡¯s chest. It disappeared not long after. ¡°State the desired level of your opponents.¡± He ignored it, thinking about what he had just experienced. All he had asked for was to have an opponent who wasn¡¯t an expert in closebat, and that had changed from him being unable to cause significant damage to being able to deal out death with a kick. Of course, this was also with a restriction of the humanoid only being defensive, but the point still stood. Knowing how to fight was perhaps more critical than knowing shy moves. Forget martial skills. He needed to learn a martial art first. That way, he could find the perfect skill toplement his fighting style. William tilted his head, thinking of how the room could create those humanoids that were skilled in closebat. ¡°Teach me martial arts¡­ or closebat.¡± ¡°Request sent to manager on-site. Head to the lobby and present your pass to a staffer. Exiting Martial Skills Practice.¡± ¡°No! Wait¡ª¡± William cut himself off when the grassy field disappeared, reced with the dull room. ¡°Enter Martial Skills Practice mode!¡± He waited for the room to react, but after a few seconds of nothing, he groaned in exasperation. ¡°Enter Cultivation mode!¡± That was William¡¯sst-ditch effort. Nothing happened. He was locked out for wanting to learn martial arts. It wasn¡¯t such a big deal, all things considered. It was even great, but getting cut off when finally learning something interesting about his martial skills was infuriating. Plus, William had no intention of going to the lobby without Lan Yang. As distracted as his mentor was and as short of a time he had to know the man, he still trusted Lan Yang over whoever this manager was. He also needed to ask him what martial arts would be the best fit for him. The only problem was that he doubted Lan Yang had returned to the room. The man was probably still keeping an eye on those bracelets and those who showed an interest in them. William didn¡¯t even mind. Lan Yang was picking out the equivalent of an engagement ring, so of course he would be careful. That didn¡¯t stop him from being annoyed that his time in the room was cut short. Both of those were valid issues in William¡¯s mind. Lan Yang was fretting over his Dao partner¡¯s potential new gift, and William was annoyed about the room booting him out. He eventually shrugged and let out a sigh. Not everything would be smooth. He left the Qi Refining room and froze when he saw Xu Feng in the process of cing two Spirit Stones on the table. Xu Feng had a simr reaction as he looked at him with surprise, which he quickly got over. ¡°Brother Wei, I want to use the Qi Refining room for longer than I expected. This is my payment for it.¡± ¡°Er, that¡¯s fine,¡± William nodded awkwardly. ¡°Thank you for telling me.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Xu Feng smiled, ¡°I shall return to the room and leave you be.¡± He watched the boy about to enter the Qi Refining room directly to his right. ¡°Wait.¡± Xu Feng stopped and looked at him quizzically. ¡°Since we are going to be around each other for possibly the next week, why don¡¯t we get to know each other?¡± William fought to keep the frown off his face, feeling that he phrased that incorrectly. Luckily, Xu Feng didn¡¯t see anything strange in it. His eyes almost lit up in excitement, making William confused. ¡°It would be my pleasure, Brother Wei.¡± B2 - Chapter 27: Xu Feng B2 - Chapter 27: Xu Feng Perhaps this hadn¡¯t been his best idea. William had impulsively told Xu Feng that they should get to know each other because he looked like a scared puppy. The problem he now faced was that he didn¡¯t know where to start, and Xu Feng was of no help since he seemed more than happy to keep smiling at him as they sat across from each other. A small table separated them in the middle. William cleared his throat. ¡°So, Brother Xu, what made you want to buy the guest spot?¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Xu Feng¡¯s smile slipped off his face, baffling William, ¡°I apologize, Brother Wei. I wish I could pay you its true worth, but I couldn¡¯t afford to without losing the chance to bid in the auction.¡± He had already assumed it was worth much more, but that was set aside when he epted Xu Feng¡¯s offer. ¡°I never said anything about wanting more from you,¡± William reassured before asking curiously, ¡°but now you brought it up, what do you think I could have gotten for the spot?¡± Xu Feng frowned, his thoughts almost visible. ¡°Maybe fifty Spirit Stones? It would depend on whether the buyer could use the discount effectively. Someone like Senior Lan would dly pay hundreds since he is bidding on the most expensive items in the auction.¡± ¡°That makes sense,¡± William nodded calmly. Not that he was sure if it came out that way. Internally, he was screaming in rage. If he knew it was this valuable, there was zero chance he would have given a damn about looking respectable in front of that Nascent Soul Realm Elder. Fifty Spirit Stones. Five thousand Qi Stones. That¡¯s what he gave up like an idiot to avoid looking like a money grubber. It wasn¡¯t often he thought Wang Xiaoling¡¯s presence would be a benefit, but he sorely missed her at the moment. If the queen of misers were here, this would have nevere to pass. Then again, she would have swindled most of it from him. ¡°Brother Wei?¡± Xu Feng¡¯s voice broke him from the self-loathing that was drowning him. ¡°Sorry, I was distracted, Brother Xu,¡± William said weakly, ¡°Did you ask me something?¡± Instead of answering, Xu Feng took out ten Spirit Stones and carefully ced them on the table. ¡°I can see this is affecting you, Brother Wei. This is the most I can spare right now, but I will pay you the full fifty in the future.¡± ¡°¡­ Is there something wrong with you?¡± William blurted out, making Xu Feng give him a confused look. This was either the most naive kid in the Tianxia Empire, or this was some ploy to quickly gain his trust. Either way, there was wealth behind Xu Feng. If William had to bet, he would guess thetter. He had seen how quickly cultivators stopped caring for anything unrted to their interests, and Xu Feng suddenly showing how much of an innocent and ethically upright person he was set off all the rms in William¡¯s mind. ¡°Did you want everything now?¡± Xu Feng grimaced before moving to take out more Spirit Stones. ¡°Stop!¡± William stood up, making Xu Feng drop his hand to the hilt of his sword. He noted that and continued, ¡°I don¡¯t go back on my word, Brother Xu. Take those back and use them for what you need.¡± This pained him, but he couldn¡¯t fleece someone from another sect. Not when he was a newly admitted Inner Disciple and had the attention of Elder Yu and the Grand Elder. The chance to make money on the guest spot was lost at the entrance of the auction house, and he would have to ept it, no matter how much he didn¡¯t want to. ¡°Thank you, Brother Wei!¡± Xu Feng quickly snatched the Spirit Stones ced on the table. ¡°Hm,¡± William sat back down, ¡°Senior Yang said you are from the Heavenly Sword Sect.¡± The geography lessons Zheng Tao gave him were already helpful. ¡°That¡¯s at the border of the Empire, right?¡± ¡°Yes, Brother Wei. We are a small sect, but I believe it¡¯s the best one in the world!¡± William raised an eyebrow at the boldness. He didn¡¯t care too much about it. Still, he imagined other disciples would take personal offense that someone imed any other sect was greater than the Jade Healing Sect. ¡°That¡¯s nice to hear you think highly of your sect, Brother Xu,¡± William teased, again noting that Xu Feng¡¯s hand dropped to the hilt of his sword. So, the boy wasn¡¯t as sweet and naive as he portrayed himself. If the mildest of jokes had a reaction like that, then this had to be a fake persona. In the meantime, William kept his Qi in a constant ready state to active [Force Multiplier]. He seriously doubted it would ever be needed since attacking him here would be suicide, but he wasn¡¯t going to use logical thinking as a reason to be unprepared. If Xu Feng dared to make a move, he would end up as a smear on the walls. ¡­ On second thought, he should ensure his assumption of easy victory was true. He usually used [Observe] on a target, but Xu Feng¡¯s age made William curious about his Luck attribute. So [Detailed Observe] it was. [-20 Spiritual Energy] Name: Xu Feng Age: 14 Level: 109 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 685/685 Spirit: 137 Strength: 139 Stamina: 141 Agility: 173 Luck: 60 Xu Feng was young. It was an obvious statement, but one that had to be pointed out. Far younger than William had assumed. He was under the impression that Xu Feng might be around Li Xinyue¡¯s age. After all, she was considered a rare type of cultivator, but seeing that he was actually around the same age as himself baffled him. William thought about what had been necessary for him to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm at this young age. Xu Feng suddenly didn¡¯t seem so naive and innocent anymore, unless all he needed to do was breathe to cultivate at a monstrous pace. However, Xu Feng¡¯s Luck attribute made it hard for William to ept that the fast cultivation was normal. It was stupidly low. He hadn¡¯t used [Detailed Observe] on many people, but without fail, the more impressive the cultivator¡¯s Luck attribute was, the faster their advancement had been. Xu Feng must have had outside help of some kind. ¡°It¡¯s true,¡± Xu Feng defended himself. ¡°We are like a family instead of a sect.¡± William¡¯s dissection of the boy¡¯s stats hadn¡¯t taken more than a second or two. Still, he almost forgot why Xu Feng responded so adamantly. ¡°Well, so is mine,¡± he decided to be stubborn, acting his physical age for once. ¡°I¡¯m guessing the Jade Healing Sect isrger, but everyone is amodating. How do you think my cultivation is so high?¡± ¡°My senior brothers say that can help me advance even faster. I can match Brother Wei when I am your age!¡± William paused. ¡°My age?¡± ¡°Yes, Brother Wei must be fifteen,¡± Xu Feng smiled. ¡°I am only fourteen years old.¡± This was the first time someone had called him older than he was. It felt nice. After having most of the cultivators he met calling him ¡®cute¡¯ and ¡®adorable,¡¯ it took a toll on his ego. It didn¡¯t help that every cultivator that had called him that also happened to be a woman. ¡­ Speaking of women, he just realized that it was far moremon to see women instead of men in the sect. Nothing outrageous that stood out immediately, but enough where it would be noticeable eventually. That would have to be something he would need to bring up with Lan Yang. He snapped his thoughts off the sect''s demographics and returned to the matter of Xu Feng, who still looked far too proud. William started to think the politeness came from Xu Feng''s mistake of thinking he was younger. It''s too bad he had to break the bad news. ¡°I¡¯m not older than you,¡± William said bluntly, enjoying the nk look on his face. ¡°¡­ You¡¯re not?¡± ¡°Not at all,¡± William confirmed with a grin, ¡°In fact, I¡¯m younger.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± Xu Feng stood up in shock, ¡°How? Did you also bathe in a spiritualke, too?¡± He was about to deny that but then remembered theke in the oasis. With how dense the Qi was, it could be considered a spiritualke. ¡°I¡¯m just that awesome, Brother Xu.¡± William settled on ignoring it entirely. It did no good to confirm or deny it. ¡°¡­ For some strange reason, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re wrong,¡± Xu Feng muttered, looking even more like a lost puppy than he had at the start. Before William had the chance to feel bad that he forgot his original intention to be friendly with the kid and instead started arguing about who was better, the door opened. ¡°You¡¯re already out,¡± Lan Yangmented as he immediately walked to the entrance of the bidding area, ¡°Follow me. It¡¯s about to start.¡± William shared a look with Xu Feng before doing as told. B2 - Chapter 28: Auction Start B2 - Chapter 28: Auction Start He was already stepping out into the bidding area when he noticed that there were no footsteps behind him. ¡°You don¡¯t want to participate?¡± William asked with confusion. What was the point ofing to an auction if you didn¡¯t participate? Xu Feng hesitated before he nodded firmly and walked toward him. ¡°It¡¯s hard to decide between the Qi Refining room and the auction.¡± He could understand that. After William saw how the auction was held to satisfy his own curiosity, he intended to lock himself inside the Qi Refining room. ¡°I¡¯m guessing your sect doesn¡¯t have something like that,¡± Williammented as they left their room. Every seat in the bidding area was packed. Most were clearly from outside the Jade Healing Sect. A few people nced at them after their entrance but quickly returned to the soft conversations they were having previously. Lan Yang waved them down, already having taken a seat with two others empty beside him. ¡°Very funny, Brother Wei,¡± Xu Feng huffed as they made their way to Lan Yang, ¡°It¡¯s rude to say that when you obviously know it doesn¡¯t.¡± ¡°Why would it be obvious?¡± William didn¡¯t know much about the Heavenly Sword Sect besides its location. The sect wasn¡¯t mentioned as something special either, so he didn¡¯t know any specifics. ¡°The only sect with Qi Gathering rooms of this capability is yours.¡± He nced at Xu Feng and found the boy staring at him strangely. ¡°I¡¯m new here.¡± ¡°¡­ Clearly,¡± Xu Feng muttered before smiling brightly when they reached their seats, ¡°Thank you for saving us ces, Senior.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t. They were already reserved,¡± Lan Yang said gruffly, ¡°Junior Wei, how did you like the Qi Refining room?¡± William raised a brow at the tant way Xu Feng was ignored. ¡°It was good.¡± ¡°Just good?¡± Lan Yang stared at him. ¡°I was told to go to the lobby to speak with a manager,¡± William dove right into the issue. ¡°Apparently, approval is needed before I am allowed my request. It was sent to the manager. If it wasn¡¯t for that, the room would have been great.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Lan Yang narrowed his eyes in thought, ¡°We¡¯ll do that after this auction round.¡± ¡°Thank you, Senior Yang,¡± William said sincerely, ¡°I also have some other questions, but they can wait.¡± ¡°Hm,¡± Lan Yang nodded absentmindedly as he stared at the empty stage below. William followed his gaze to where the bracelets had been ced at the viewing. ¡°Did you see anyone else interested in what you wanted?¡± ¡°Some, but nobody to be concerned about,¡± Lan Yang was still tense. ¡°I¡¯m mostly worried about the Wei n member. He might cause trouble just for amusement.¡± That didn¡¯t seem too far from his own perception of Wei Ming. ¡°Is it going to be auctioned today?¡± ¡°Thankfully, no. The cauldron is scheduled for this round,¡± Lan Yang sighed. ¡°Ignore me, Junior Wei. I¡¯m too invested. Just enjoy the auction and bid on something for fun.¡± As a cultivator with the great wealth of two Spirit Stones, William didn¡¯t think he could buy much of anything. Unless¡­ ¡°Are you offering to cover my bid, Senior Yang?¡± He asked hopefully. ¡°We¡¯ll see after by the end.¡± William¡¯s eyes lit up, but he kept his mouth closed. The bracelets would likely be the decider. Xu Feng was content being left alone as he read something that looked like a menu at first nce. There were more on the shared table before them. William assumed it was for the bar and was going to take a look, but the lights suddenly dimmed, leaving only the stage to be brightly lit. [Name: Xia Qing | Level: 199] A woman who could rival Mei Lingxi walked onto the stage with a charming smile. Her long ck hair was coiled up in a bun, secured by a striking green jade hairpin that contrasted the form-fitting red robes embroidered with dragons and phoenixes. Xia Qing stood at the center, looking at the pping disciples on the first floor with bright eyes. William was proud of himself for not staring wistfully at her like Xu Feng was doing. He was more curious about how she was allowed to have dragons and phoenixes embroidered into her robes. He was reasonably confident that it was reserved for the Imperial Family. ¡°Shame this will likely be herst auction. She should be advancing soon,¡± Lan Yang muttered, ¡°It¡¯ll be odd to not have the flower of the Inner Court be the auctioneer.¡± ¡°Are the bracelets for her, Senior Yang?¡± William teased, but immediately regretted opening his mouth. The re Lan Yang gave him could have destroyed cities. ¡°No.¡± He nodded rapidly, his heart only calming down when Lan Yang turned his attention back to the stage. So, that was off-limits. Good to know. ¡°The Jade Healing Sect wees you to the one thousand seventy-second annual auction!¡± Xia Qing waited for the ps to slow. ¡°Before I bring the first lot to the stage, allow me to remind the neers of the rules. They are the standards suggested by the Tianxia Empire.¡± ¡°One,¡± she held up one slender finger. ¡°Most lots are assigned numbered grades. The higher the number, the higher the cultivation needed to make full use of it. Do not bid on an item meant for a lower cultivation than you currently have. The opposite is not prohibited.¡± William tilted his head, initially finding it ridiculous, but he supposed lower cultivation almost always meant less funds. He guessed the sect didn¡¯t want to lock out its own disciples. ¡°Some lots have not had their grades identified,¡± Xia Qing continued. ¡°There are no restrictions on who may bid for those.¡± ¡°Two,¡± two fingers were held up, ¡°To our patrons on the Red Floor and Gold Floor. Once you make a bid, only ten more bids are allowed after yours, none of which can be from you. Once the ten bids are submitted, or the bidding is finished, you have the opportunity to buy the lot by beating thest bid.¡± That took a good second to process, and it seemed Xia Qing knew that would be the case since she paused for an extended period. He could see Xu Feng was in the same boat as him. But in the end, William realized this was the ultimate gamble. Sure, it might work out and cut off the bidding quickly, but how often would that be the case? The more likely scenario was a cascade of bids, some because they were interested in the item and some purely due to curiosity about why it was desired by a peer. The price could shoot up quickly. Even if the original bidder had the option of buying it for arger price than thest bid, it could easily fall out of an affordable range. ¡°Third!¡± Xia Qing¡¯s red lips formed a smile, showing her white teeth to the crowd. ¡°The Empire requires us to ept Qi and Spirit Stones, but nothing stops you from using your sect points! Happy bidding!¡± The dimmed light brightened again as Xia Qing waved from the first lot to be brought onto the stage. ¡°Senior Yang,¡± William leaned toward him and spoke quietly, ¡°how often does that ten bid rule fail to bring in a high price?¡± ¡°Rarely,¡± Lan Yang said grimly, likely due to thinking about the bracelets again. He nodded in reply. It was as he thought. William might not get to see cultivators lording over each other, warning others to stop bidding due to their great backgrounds. Still, he would see a tremendous amount of wealth being thrown around due to the same type of ego. He saw the first item get uncovered and settled in for the show. Note: If you are reading this on a website that is not Royal Road, Scribblehub, Spacebattles, or on my Patreon, you are reading a pirated version and that website does not have the permission of the author to host the story. Instead, please read the story on the sites mentioned above. B2 - Chapter 29: Broke B2 - Chapter 29: Broke ¡°As in the past, let¡¯s open the auction a grade one lot, the Blood Essence Pill!¡± William blinked in surprise when the wall behind the stage showed a closeup of the blood-red pill. He wasn¡¯t an expert on the appearance of pills, other than the Vitality Restoration Pill, of course, but he did have the opportunity to see other pills in the Treasure Pavilion. They were all white. From his minimal reading on alchemy in the library, the white color of pills represented purity. ¡°This pill is perfect for when you need something more than a standard restoration pill! It will let you recover from more serious injuries, and there is even a chance to regrow a recently lost limb!¡± William noticed the excited movements of the people sitting below. He remembered how he regrew his leg by gorging on Vitality Restoration Pills. The description of the Blood Essence Pill suggested that should have been impossible, as he had guessed. ¡°The Jade Healing Sect can produce five Blood Essence Pills each month. Winning this lot will give you rights to the pills for the next year! Let¡¯s start the bidding at one Spirit Stone!¡± The bids poured in. ¡°Five Spirit Stones to the handsome man on the right!¡± ¡°Fifteen Spirit Stones!¡± ¡°Forty!¡± ¡°Seventy-eight Spirit Stones! Last call for a higher bid!¡± Xia Qing paused dramatically before pping, ¡°Sold!¡± William watched all this silently, his hands clenched tightly. This was just the first lot. He nced at Xu Feng, finding him staring at the stage with longing. This time, he didn¡¯t think it was at Xia Qing, but for the year''s supply of pills that had just been sold. As for Lan Yang, he was still lost in his own thoughts. ¡°Brother Xu, it looked like you wanted to bid on this.¡± Xu Feng finally turned his attention away from the stage to look at him. ¡°I did, but I¡¯m not here for that. My senior brothers and sisters wouldn¡¯t be able to use the pills.¡± William noticed that Lan Yang shifted in his seat. ¡°Ah, I see,¡± he thought about the pills being ssified as grade one, ¡°So they are all of a higher cultivation than you?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Xu Feng nodded, admiration in his eyes. ¡°They are all in the Core Formation Realm at the minimum.¡± William¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. Xu Feng had reason to think that his sect was the best if this was the case. He implied that there were seniors of his in the Nascent Soul Realm. What did that mean for the cultivation of the elders of his sect? It was hard for him to believe that the Heavenly Sword Sect wasn¡¯t more well known if all of this was true. Perhaps it hadn¡¯te into focus in the lesson n that Zheng Tao had created since it was more focused on the Empire itself. ¡°All of them?¡± Lan Yang interjected, surprising both of them. ¡°Even Zhou Chen and Xue Li? It hasn¡¯t been long since I¡¯ve seen those two.¡± ¡°¡­ Senior?¡± Xu Feng stared at Lan Yang in surprise, ¡°You know my senior brother and sister?¡± ¡°Saying I know them is a bit of an exaggeration,¡± Lan Yang corrected, ¡°but I havepeted against them in the past.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Xu Feng still looked stunned. ¡°Well? Have they advanced to the Core Formation Realm?¡± Lan Yang prodded, seeming to William like he was too insistent when they were mere acquaintances. ¡°Yes, Senior,¡± Xu Feng confirmed. ¡°It was only a few weeks ago.¡± Lan Yang fell silent, something neither of them wanted to break. There had to be another reason for the questioning. He spoke again when the next item was ready to be auctioned. ¡°Give them my congrattions.¡± Xu Feng nodded and chose to say nothing further. William cleared his throat when the next lot was disyed on the wall. Another pill. Unlike the Blood Essence Pill, this was purely white in color. It was set in something simr to a jewelry box, plush fabric surrounding it as it sat securely in the center. ¡°Up next is a grade three lot, the Soul Tempering Pill!¡± Xia Qing announced proudly. This time, he saw all the cultivators on their floor straighten in their seats. ¡°Thest time the Jade Healing Sect was willing to let such a precious pill leave its territory was twenty years ago. Don¡¯t lose your chance to own the pill that can change your cultivation path!¡± Xia Qing¡¯s eyes sparkled as she stared at the pill, showing how much she desired it. ¡°The pill is one of the few that can strengthen a cultivator''s soul in the Nascent Soul Realm! A necessity to surviving the heavenly tribtion,¡± She reluctantly tore her gaze from the pill. ¡°The bidding starts from one hundred Spirit Stones! Every bid must be a hundred higher¡ª¡± ¡°One thousand,¡± a voice boomed from above. Xia Qing didn¡¯t miss a step. ¡°One thousand Spirit Stones from the Gold Floor!¡± ¡°One thousand five hundred.¡± William looked to his right, staring at an unfamiliar man who put in the bid. The following bids came in quickly as more and more people started to join in. ¡°Senior Lan,¡± William leaned toward him and whispered, ¡°Can you buy any of this in the sect¡¯s catalog?¡± Lan Yang was following the bidding intently but still spared him some attention. ¡°No, nothing in the auction can.¡± He nodded in thought. That made sense. Otherwise, there was no reason for any sect members to bid on pills that appeared in the auction. ¡°Five thousand,¡± Lan Yang suddenly said out loud, shocking William into muteness. ¡°And five thousand Spirit Stones is the tenth and final bid!¡± Xia Qing announced, ¡°To the man on the Gold Floor, would you like to beat the bid by a hundred Spirit Stones?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± a voice replied calmly from above. ¡°Sold!¡± Xia Qing pped. William didn¡¯t pay attention to anything or anyone other than Lan Yang. He assumed the man was well off when he gave Mei Lingxi a nk check, but this was a different level. Lan Yang met his eyes before addressing the other person in just as much shock, ¡°Sword boy, why don¡¯t don¡¯t you order something from the bar?¡± Xu Feng nodded rapidly as he stood up and went to the bar. However, William did see numerous backtakes on his way there. ¡°You have something to say?¡± Lan Yang addressed him this time. ¡°Does the auction house allow you to bid freely?¡± ¡°Freely?¡± Lan Yang frowned, ¡°Do you mean above the ability you have to pay?¡± William nodded. ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t. Nor did I really want to buy this. I recognized that voice as one of the guards that followed Wei Ming. I just wanted to empty their funds slightly.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± he stared. He wasn''t sure how wise it was to provoke that man. Still, it was nice to know his mentor was wealthy beyond imagination. ¡°That makes me feel better about what Sister Lingxi is doing.¡± ¡°¡­ What do you mean?¡± Lan Yang asked with narrowed eyes. ¡°Well, the Grand Elder took us to the Jade Lotus Teahouse. We loved it and wanted to return, but the price was far beyond us. I imagine Sister Lingxi is enjoying that tea daily with the free rein you gave her.¡± ¡°JADE LOTUS?¡± Lan Yang almost shrieked, drawing eyes from others and stopping Xu Feng in his tracks with panicked eyes. The boy was bncing three drinks that looked like shakes. ¡°How were you even allowed in?¡± Lan Yang hissed with a much lower voice once he realized the attention he had attracted. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t answer. It¡¯s the Grand Elder.¡± William wasn¡¯t sure how to take this. The tea the Grand Elder treated them to was ten Spirit Stones. Even if Mei Lingxi had that twice daily for an entire week, it came to a hundred and forty Spirit Stones. He shuddered at thinking it was affordable, but considering this was a worst-case scenario, it shouldn¡¯t be devastating for someone with Lan Yang¡¯s wealth. ¡°Will that affect your bidding, Senior Yang?¡± William asked carefully. ¡°No, it won¡¯t.¡± He calmed a little, but that was too soon. ¡°Because I borrowed all of this, Junior Wei,¡± Lan Yang hissed. William had many questions. The biggest one was how Lan Yang could borrow this much if the idea of losing a hundred Spirit Stones distressed him. That wasn¡¯t his business, but he could still satisfy his curiosity. ¡°¡­ Why would you give Sister Lingxi the freedom to spend whatever she wished?¡± William had to ask. This could have been easily avoided. ¡°Because I needed to fix my image after our disastrous introduction!¡± Lan Yang seemed to be in actual pain at this point. That shouldn¡¯t have made him smile, but it did. ¡°It¡¯s not toote to tell Sister Lingxi to stop spending,¡± William offered. It had only been several hours since they separated, so it wasn¡¯t the end of the world. ¡°After I gave my word?¡± Lan Yang said sharply. ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so. But you can forget about me potentially covering your bids, Junior Wei.¡± He forgot about that offer. It made him want to protest at the unfairness, but there was no obligation Lan Yang had to buy him something. At least he learned that the man thought keeping his word was a top priority. ¡­ That was good. B2 - Chapter 30: Anomaly B2 - Chapter 30: Anomaly William stayed silent, smartly choosing to let Lan Yang calm himself down. Thankfully, Xia Qing had started speaking on the next item. A white flower that resembled a tulip with a soft purple glow on the edges. ¡°This grade two lot is from His Highness, Prince Rong Yun!¡± The wall behind her showed Rong Yun sitting next to Wei Ming. When the prince noticed he was on disy, he smiled and gave a small wave. ¡°The Tranquility Tulip is exclusively grown by the Imperial Family in the capital. They are usually given out as gifts to dignitaries of sufficient status, but now, you have a chance to own one yourself!¡± William saw Xu Feng hurrying back with three different drinks. For some reason, he had returned to the bar to rece the shakes he had previously. Now, it looked like a cocktail. ¡°Tranquility Tulips are perfect for creating a calming atmosphere for cultivating more efficiently. For the lucky few, it might even help you understand Dao! The bidding starts at ten Spirit Stones, with bids in minimum increments of five Spirit Stones!¡± ¡°Ten Spirit Stones!¡± Xu Feng called out the moment he arrived in their little area. ¡°The opening bid is from the Red Floor!¡± Xia Qing announced with a blinding smile. ¡°Use the ten bids left wisely!¡± The price quickly climbed, but thankfully for Xu Feng, it didn¡¯t seem out of his reach. At least, his bodynguage suggested that to William. ¡°The final bid was for six hundred and forty! Original bidder, would you like to beat that bid?¡± Xu Feng nodded rapidly before realizing he had to speak. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Sold!¡± ¡°Congrattions, Brother Xu,¡± William said with a confused smile, unsure why he rushed to buy the flower. It didn''t seem practical for someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Xu Feng copsed into his seat with a wide smile while carefully bncing the drinks he held without spilling a drop. ¡°Brother Wei, I¡¯ll be able to give you those fifty Spirit Stones earlier than I thought.¡± William was tempted to ept. He really was, but as good as the offered money seemed, was it worth it? If Xu Feng had ess to so much even when he was barely older than him, and Lan Yang seemed to have the capacity to borrow a truly ridiculous sum, how valuable was it really? It also couldn¡¯t be forgotten that Ren Bo also had ess to a surprising amount of wealth. Spirit Stones might not be as challenging to acquire as William had assumed, especially not for someone like him. He no longer fooled himself by thinking he wasn¡¯t considered a ¡®genius.¡¯ It might have resulted from his cheat of a system, but it still didn¡¯t change the obvious. The Jade Healing Sect was ready to heavily invest in him, and they showed no signs of hesitation in showing him how much. Not when he was able to meet the Grand Elder, who was apparently usually aloof with sect matters. Not when Elder Yu pulled all the strings she could to get him into favorable situations. No, William decided he didn¡¯t have to worry about Spirit Stones. At least, not to a point where he had to ept them in a situation where it might be better not to. ¡°Brother Xu,¡± he raised a hand to stop Xu Feng from insisting, ¡°I already said that I don¡¯t need it. Unless you don¡¯t see me as a friend.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. There was another reason William was willing to forgo the Spirit Stones. It might make him sound mercenary, but it was hard not to think about the benefits of forming a friendly connection with a cultivator like Xu Feng. Though, the boy¡¯s low Luck attribute did baffle him. Even if Xu Feng turned out ordinary in the future, the sect he belonged to sounded impressive. With Lan Yang recognizing some disciples, it wasn¡¯t some borate scam. ¡°If you insist,¡± Xu Feng sounded reluctant as he backed down, but that sullen expression didn¡¯tst long. ¡°Oh, Senior Lan, Brother Wei, I bought you some drinks. That man called it the Ice Berry Cocktail! If you won¡¯t ept the Spirit Stones, you must let me treat both of you.¡± Lan Yang raised a brow before he nodded, taking a sip of the red drink with a slight smile. Looked like this calmed him a little. Good. William decided to follow suit. ¡°Thank you,¡± William epted the offered cocktail and sniffed it discreetly. It didn¡¯t smell like alcohol. A small sip chilled his entire body with surprising quickness. It didn¡¯t seem like there was any other effect. ¡°Good pick, Brother Xu. Guess you made the right decision when you switched drinks.¡± ¡°Ah, that,¡± Xu Feng nced to Lan Yang, ¡°The credit belongs to Senior. He said he disliked the Sweet Jade Lotus Shake, so I got these instead.¡± William couldn¡¯t stop the smallugh that escaped if he tried. Not when Lan Yang also struggled to keep a straight face. So that was why Xu Feng froze when Lan Yang was panicking about the Jade Lotus teahouse. ¡°Yes, an excellent choice,¡± Lan Yang cleared his throat and stood up, drink still in hand. ¡°Junior Wei, you needed help with the Qi Refining room, correct? I¡¯ll get the manager here so you don¡¯t waste time watching the auction¡­ unless you wanted to stay here?¡± ¡°Oh, no,¡± William denied quickly. ¡°I''d rather go back to the room, Senior Yang.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be back shortly.¡± Lan Yang left them quickly. ¡°Looks like Senior doesn¡¯t detest me as much,¡± Xu Feng said with a smile. ¡°Hm,¡± William thought of the strange way Lan Yang acted around the boy. There was something more behind it. ¡°Is Senior Yang close to your senior brother and sister?¡± ¡°You mean Brother Zhou and Sister Xue?¡± Xu Feng frowned. ¡°This is the first I¡¯ve heard about it. I don¡¯t think they ever mentioned Senior.¡± William nodded as he stared at the next item prepared to be auctioned, taking small sips of his cocktail. It wasn¡¯t a surprise that he didn¡¯t know. It was entirely possible that they only met by chance and considered each other acquaintances. Still, it felt off. ¡°I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter,¡± he shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Xu Feng agreed, pausing for a little, staring at the stage before asking, ¡°Brother Wei, do you not intend to bid on anything? You seemed uninterested in everything so far.¡± ¡°Well, I guess it depends on what will be auctioned,¡± William chuckled uneasily. The only way he would bid was with Lan Yang¡¯s grace, which was no longer avable. ¡°I¡¯m mostly here to enjoy the auction itself.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Xu Feng nodded with admiration. ¡°It is no wonder Brother Wei has such a high cultivation. My Master tells me that gazing at the myriad of mysteries will lead me to the Dao. This enjoying of the auction must be simr.¡± Xu Feng said that with such confidence, all William could do was smile in response. ¡­ He was dragged into the auction so Lan Yang could convince some girl to be his Dao partner. Poor girl. There was no myriad of mysteries in that. ¡°Right, Brother Xu, what made you buy that Tranquility Tulip?¡± William was desperate to change the attention from cultivation wisdom, which he had little of. ¡°I wanted to buy something that would benefit all my seniors, and the Tranquility Tulip was perfect!¡± Xu Feng¡¯s eyes gleamed. ¡°I¡¯ve heard it is still effective for Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. So you were sent here to buy for your seniors?¡± ¡°¡­ Not exactly. This was meant to be my gift from advancing to the Foundation Establishment Realm, but what¡¯s the point of buying something that will only benefit me?¡± William blinked in surprise. He didn¡¯t expect that. Either Xu Feng was an elite brown noser, which could be true with how polite he was to Lan Yang no matter the disregard, or it could also be possible that Xu Feng was precisely what he looked like. Something William discarded due to his recent trust issues and the unlikelihood of it being true with the nature of cultivators. The possibility that Xu Feng was kind. ¡°Junior Wei!¡± William tore his eyes away from Xu Feng¡¯s visage to see Lan Yang calling for him. He stood from his seat and downed the rest of his drink, ¡°I¡¯ll be heading back in, Brother Xu.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll follow after today¡¯s auction ends, Brother Wei.¡± He nodded before returning to the room, wondering if someone like Xu Feng could exist without getting killed. Then again, the boy was quick to touch his hilt when teased about his sect. Not a doormat, but also not endlessly prideful. William was interested in getting to know Xu Feng better. B2 - Chapter 31: Back to the Grind B2 - Chapter 31: Back to the Grind ¡°You get along with the sword boy,¡± Lan Yangmented when he entered the room. ¡°I like him,¡± William shrugged, staring at therge green jade tablet held in his hands. ¡°What¡¯s that, Senior Yang?¡± ¡°This is what you needed from the manager,¡± Lan Yang lifted his hand, as if to show off the tablet. ¡°So, she told me you wanted to learn martial arts.¡± ¡°Yes?¡± William replied unsurely, wondering if this was a problem. ¡°There are a few Sentinels that have a barebones knowledge of it, and all have learned through experience instead of practice.¡± Lan Yang exined, tilting his head curiously. ¡°You are not a body cultivator. Why bother?¡± That was a fair question. He didn¡¯t set out to be a pseudo-body cultivator, not when he passed up the cultivation technique that would lead him to the true path of body cultivation. ¡°My martial skills are all closebat. The Qi Refining room made me realize how poor I am with the only thing I can do.¡± Lan Yang stared at him, clearly puzzled. ¡°So why did you not fix this by learning a ranged skill?¡± ¡°How? The ones in the library didn¡¯t seem worthwhile, and I had no way to get one from outside sources.¡± William didn¡¯t mention the main reason he didn¡¯t bother too much was the Heaven-Tier martial skill that he had yet to pick. There were some choices there that would solve his current deficiency. ¡°Picky,¡± Lan Yang smirked. He handed William the tablet and motioned for him to enter the Qi Refining room, ¡°I¡¯ll see if anything suitable shows up in the auction. If it does, I¡¯ll call you out.¡± ¡°Really?¡± William couldn¡¯t even act like he wasn¡¯t stunned. ¡°I¡¯m notining, nor do I want you to take back that offer, but did you forget about how you borrowed thousands of Spirit Stones?¡± ¡°¡­ No, I didn¡¯t,¡± Lan Yang said with narrowed eyes. ¡°I borrowed enough to buy the bracelets even if I didn¡¯t have the discount the Red Floor would give me. With the sword boy offering to pay more, I would be ashamed to not do the same.¡± William thought that was a flimsy reason, but he wasn¡¯t about to put more effort into reminding Lan Yang this might be a bad idea for his wallet. ¡°Thank you, Brother Yang.¡± ¡°There we go!¡± Lan Yang rolled his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s what you should have said at the start. Has anyone told you that you talk too much, Junior Wei?¡± He stared. If anything, he didn¡¯t talk enough. Most of these thoughts were kept bottled up because of too much paranoia. So many issues he currently had could be solved simply by asking the right person¡­ or it might also lead him to death. There was a reason he was too paranoid. ¡°Now you don¡¯t speak,¡± Lan Yang chuckled. ¡°Make good use of that tablet, and maybe I¡¯ll have good news for you.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± William stopped him from leaving. Something had been at the back of his mind that he had ignored until now. ¡°A voice in the Qi Refining room responds to me, almost like a person is overseeing the room. That can¡¯t be right, is it?¡± He knew it wasn¡¯t, but it was a stretch for him to immediately think about artificial intelligence. That couldn¡¯t be a thing in this world. ¡°It¡¯s a feature built into the formation running the room,¡± Lan Yang replied with a shrug. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me any specifics since I am far from a formation master, but there are elders in the sect that specialize in it. I¡¯ll introduce them to you if you want. They will be able to tell you how it works.¡± ¡°Thank you, Senior Yang. I¡¯ll hold you to that.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. ¡°Hah!¡± Lan Yangughed. ¡°You¡¯re learning. Focus on your training, Junior Wei. Use the room well.¡± William could barely nod before his mentor left to return to the auction. ¡°Well, I hope you meet my expectations,¡± he muttered to the tablet in his hand as he entered the Qi Refining room. The door closed behind him, and the voice spoke. ¡°Choose your mode: Cultivation or Martial Skills Practice.¡± ¡°Martial Skills Practice.¡± ¡°Module detected. ce tablet on connection area.¡± A part of the wall started to glow softly in a shape that happened to be the size of the jade tablet in his hands. The more he discovered about the room, the more his curiosity about formations grew. His interest in them was initially to protect himself since it seemed that most things worth protection were done so with formations, but the room revealed a utility that he had considered. The closest thing he couldpare formations to wereputer programs. Even that wasn¡¯t exact since formations often directly affected the real world. They were versatile, with possibilities that seemed endless. ... Maybe artificial intelligence, or an equivalent, wasn''t an oundish idea. He ced that tablet on within the glowing part of the wall and let go. ¡°Martial arts training module epted. Position yourself at the center of the room.¡± William did as the voice instructed. He found himself back in the grassy in. ¡°Calibration needed. Showcase your maximum striking power. Refrain from using martial skills.¡± A floating, transparent box appeared in arm¡¯s reach, the word ¡®punch¡¯ above it. William couldn¡¯t help butugh. He had a system gamifying his cultivation, and now, it was like he was in an actual game. He didn¡¯t waste time. His fist punched through the box. It disappeared, only to be reced with something simr, only a little lower. This box had the word ¡®kick¡¯ above it. That¡¯s what William did. His shin sliced through the waist-high box. It disappeared. ¡°Matched. Early Stage Foundation Establishment. Defeat the created opponent. Refrain from using martial skills.¡± William grunted in surprise, barely raising his forearm to block a fist. Itnded a solid hit on him, the dull pain automatically making him think of blowing the created humanoid away by activating [Thunderous Palm]. He didn¡¯t fail the task given to him immediately. He shifted to the side to avoid the next punch. It left him free to counter. Williamnded an uppercut on the humanoid¡¯s torso, making it stagger back slightly. He didn¡¯t wait for it to recover and followed the strike with a haymaker right to its unprotected, featureless face. It crumbled underneath his fist and instantly disappeared. ¡°Creating opponent with a minimal knowledge of martial arts. Defeat the created opponent. Refrain from using martial skills.¡± This time, William was ready. He jumped back to avoid a swift kick aimed at his knee. The newly created humanoid looked to have some type of form it was holding. All he knew was the equivalent of an alleyway brawl, and the only reason he was majorly sessful in all his fights was an overwhelming power difference. He was shown this reality over the next few seconds. William tried to block a punch like usual. His forearm snapped, bone sticking out. He ignored the shock of failure and tried tond an uppercut. It was blocked by the humanoid¡¯s leg. The next thing he knew, his jaw was fractured, and he was lying on the ground. ¡°Training level calibrated.¡± William¡¯s body was reset back to a perfect condition. He stood up, still stunned at how easily he had lost. To something that only had ¡®minimal knowledge.¡¯ ¡°Rmended start is at the novice stage. You may also pick the intermediate and expert stages. Would you like to start at the novice stage?¡± [Side Quest: Be a martial arts expert] [Information: You have discovered that youck skill in martial arts and wish to fix that. Be an expert who can overwhelm peers of simr physical strength and agility.] [Reward: 70000 XP] [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Elder Yu and Lan Yang] [ept: Y/N] The quest was a no-brainer. William was already motivated to be an expert, and the quest only added to that. The penalty was of some concern, but failure wasn¡¯t even something he considered possible. This quest had no time limit. ¡°Yes,¡± William said with determination in his voice. [Side Quest epted | Be a martial arts expert] ¡°Training started.¡± Interlude: Mei Lingxi Interlude: Mei Lingxi Mei Lingxi hummed in pleasure as she sipped the hot tea. It wasn¡¯t as good as the tea from Jade Lotus Teahouse, but it was the next best thing. She wasn¡¯t talking about the tea itself, though it was eptable, but more about the whole atmosphere. Mei Lingxi had been worried that she would no longer be able to snap her fingers and make overeager male cultivators do her bidding. She was not used to the way Lan Yang had casually brushed her aside and put his full attention on Wei Liang. In fact, she couldn¡¯t recall anything simr happening in the past. There were signs that she learned to pick up during her time as a cultivator. No matter how subtle, she knew when attention was on her. She used it as a weapon when she was in Xuanjing City. With Lan Yang¡¯s unabashed disinterest, Mei Lingxi wondered if she had epted a position beyond her station. Prince Yuan often boasted of how there were women far more attractive than her in the upper echelons of the cultivation world, but that had never been something she took to heart. It was hard to when the boasting only started once she firmly rejected his advances. Lan Yang¡¯s reaction made her think that perhaps the Inner Court of the Jade Healing Sect was filled with rare beauties that she had somehow missed on the initial trip when the Grand Master treated her. That was not the case. At all. Mei Lingxi hadn¡¯t immediately rushed to buy whatever she desired with the nk check given to her. Instead, she strolled around themon grounds and observed. She was still unmatched, her looks unparalleled. The overeager cultivators surrounding her meant she wasn¡¯t biased. There were two of them moring to pay for Mei Lingxi¡¯s tea while unsubtly talking about their great and powerful backgrounds. If she was someone lesser, perhaps it might have worked. Unfortunately for them, she had heard all of this before. Sure, the names they were throwing out were more impressive, but it was all the same in the end. She didn¡¯t leave her mortal life, rejecting a future as a magistrate¡¯s wife only to be something simr in her immortal life. Mei Lingxi couldn¡¯t think of a worse future for herself. Thankfully, she met Wei Liang. Her Young Master. She blinked, pausing in the middle of her sip. Referring to him as Young Master in her mind was new. ¡°Beauty Mei is amused by my joke.¡± Mei Lingxi¡¯s attention was returned to the man across from her. It was rude of her, but the two men who invited themselves to sit at her table were so forgettable that she avoided mentioning them by name. Mainly because she couldn¡¯t be bothered to remember them. She would have shooed them away if it wasn¡¯t for their eagerness to point out the ces of interest in themon grounds. Mei Lingxi gently ced the teacup on the saucer, a practiced smile on her lips. ¡°It¡¯s rare to find someone who can make me smile so easily.¡± ¡°Hah, Beauty Mei, don¡¯t be fooled by him. I¡¯ve seen him recite these jokes, hoping to use them on any woman willing to look at him.¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. She nced at the man on her right. It came to mind that it might be best for her to give the two ceholder names to identify them. Asking for their actual names was far toote, and even if it wasn¡¯t, it was likely unwise. It wouldn¡¯t do to make them think she was more interested than they delusionally thought she already was. That was a mistake she made when she first started to work at the Treasure Pavilion. A wealthy patron assumed that her interest in making him spend money was the same as her interest in him. ¡°You must know each other well,¡± Mei Lingxi smiled, internally rolling her eyes at how the man smirked at his¡­ friend? Rival? She couldn¡¯t really tell. ¡°We grew up together. He¡¯s practically my brother. Trust me when I say he is all talk.¡± She tilted her head slightly. With a ¡®brother¡¯ like this, where was the need to have an enemy? Rat. That was the perfect ceholder name for this trash of a man. Mei Lingxi turned her attention back to the man across from her, wanting to see his response. There wasn¡¯t one. He just chuckled awkwardly and looked away. She supposed it had something to do with his backgroundckingpared to Rat. Doormat. That would be this one¡¯s designation. ¡°Practiced or not, it made me smile,¡± Mei Lingxi chuckled, though this was directed at Rat. After all, she didn¡¯t want Doormat to feel toofortable. Again, another easy way to gain an unwanted pursuer. She waved at the hostess, ignoring Rat''s attempts to speak to her. ¡°Would you like to order something else?¡± The hostess was a cute girl, one that was acting far too bubbly. Mei Lingxi sympathized. She was the same when she was inexperienced in dealing with patrons in the Treasure Pavilion. ¡°No, thank you,¡± Mei Lingxi shook her head. ¡°I¡¯d like to pay.¡± ¡°Certainly!¡± The hostess pulled out a nk te. ¡°May I see your pass?¡± ¡°Beauty Mei, please, let me take care of this!¡± She waved off Doormat and handed the pass Elder Yu provided to the hostess. It was pressed to the te, which glowed a soft white. ¡°There you are,¡± the pass was returned to Mei Lingxi. ¡°Fifty credits were deducted from the ount. Thank you!¡± The hostess promptly left, and she was set to do the same. Rat and Doormat had mentioned some interesting ces that fit her current needs. Besides, she was finding it hard to stomach their increasingly irritating personalities. ¡°Thank you for keeping mepany. Both of you,¡± Mei Lingxi gave them the same practiced smile, almost hoping that they would realize how fake it was. ¡°Unfortunately, it looks like we must part ways.¡± ¡°Beauty Mei, that doesn¡¯t have to be the case,¡± Rat stood, giving her what he must have thought was a charming smile. ¡°You said that you were new here, and what better way can I show the sect¡¯s weing nature than by being your guide?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to decline.¡± That was the first direct statement Mei Lingxi had said to these two. ¡°I¡¯m interested in the lectures you mentioned. The one about formations, and I prefer to be alone when focusing.¡± ¡°I could help you.¡± Mei Lingxi stared at Doormat in surprise. She figured he had lost whatever courage he had mustered. Good for him, though it still wouldn¡¯t change anything. ¡°I specialize in formations,¡± Doormat said with pride. ¡°I even have a chance to enter ck Tortoise Peak in the future!¡± ¡°Is that so?¡± Mei Lingxi put her full attention on Doormat. ¡°Do you have connections with anyone on ck Tortoise Peak?¡± ¡°I do!¡± Doormat looked proud. ¡°My Senior Brother entered the peakst year.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Mei Lingxi weighed her decision, but it was a no-brainer. ¡°Perhaps you can help me if I have questions about the lecture.¡± ¡°I would be d to, Beauty Mei!¡± Doormat almost shook in excitement while shooting Rat smug looks. ¡°Maybe you can leave us to it, brother.¡± Mei Lingxi rolled her eyes discreetly when they started taking unsubtle shots at each other. Most cultivators under a hundred years old often acted like this around her. She would make sure to let her Young Master know the sacrifice that was made here. She had little interest in formations, but her Young Master seemed to drool after formation manuals. He obviously felt the opposite, so this was all for him. Mei Lingxi nced at the Jade Lotus Teahouse in the distance. That was another thing she needed to tell the Young Master about. She had every intention of enjoying herself on Lan Yang¡¯s dime, but that had quickly disappeared when she thought of the ramifications of being such a spendthrift. She would have done nothing wrong, but Lan Yang¡¯s impression of her Young Master might have taken a hit. That wouldn¡¯t do, especially since Lan Yang was the Young Master¡¯s mentor. Mei Lingxi¡¯s thoughtfulness led her to a much cheaper teahouse, and it also saddled her with Doormat and Rat. Yes, she needed to let her Young Master know so he would be appreciative. He could pay her back in the far future. B2 - Chapter 32: Novice Stage B2 - Chapter 32: Novice Stage One thing he appreciated about training in the Qi Refining room was that he never ran out of stamina. It was temporary since everything was simted. William wasn¡¯t sure how long he had been getting absolutely destroyed by the novice stage humanoid, but it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration when he thought it had to be at least a day. It was mentally tiring, feeling the bones of various parts of his body getting snapped repeatedly right before the killing strike ended the spar. It was good that he was also improving quickly enough to eventually match the featureless humanoid blow-by-blow. William was no longer as hopeless as he had been at the start. The fights still ended with his face receiving a killing strike in the form of a brutal kick or an equally skull-cracking punch. Still, instead of that happening within a few seconds, it took several minutes. Just like the fight he was putting up now. Its hand was pulled back. Obviously telegraphing the attack, but William had been destroyed enough where he didn¡¯t lunge at the false opening. There was a slight shift in its leg. Far too subtle for him to notice normally, but repeated ass-kickings had forced him to learn by necessity. This was the moment his ribs would be cracked under the weight of a brutal kick. William took the gamble that his assumption was right. He lunged forward with his leg lifted. The momentum the humanoid needed for an effective kick was killed. It left him free to counter. His fist ruptured the skin on the humanoid¡¯s torso, cracking the ribs underneath. The blow was followed by another. Then another. Again and again until his fist pierced through the humanoid¡¯s body. It disappeared. The first time that happened while it was in the novice stage. William felt satisfaction seep into his tired body as he took heavy breaths, waiting for the room to reset his injuries and restore his stamina. ¡°Opponent at the novice stage defeated. Would you like to try again or move on to the intermediate stage?¡± He was back to his peak physical condition. It was still strange how he was out of breath one second, then back topletely normal the next. William had returned from the edge of death and even regrown a limb, but restoring Stamina? He had never experienced that in the real world. There had to be something that would have a simr effect. He made a mental note to find out. It would be as valuable as the Vitality Restoration Pills. He wasing to realize that against skilled enemies of simr cultivation, it was likely that he would be exhausted even if he had won. It could be a disaster if he still needed to fight others after that. The most obvious solution in a scenario like that was to use his ever-reliable trump card, [Force Multiplier]. However, it wouldn¡¯t be a trump card if he resorted to it too much. The drawback he would have to suffer was harsh enough that he was hesitant to use it lightly. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Another more sustainable solution was to get good at martial arts. Really good. ¡°How long have I been training?¡± ¡°Twenty-five hours, thirty-one minutes, and fifty-eight seconds.¡± Just over a day of being destroyed by the novice stage. William didn¡¯t fool himself by thinking he could consistently beat the novice stage humanoid. Not at all, but at least he now had a chance. He decided to ept theing torture and move up a stage. ¡°Change to the intermediate stage.¡± ¡°Training started.¡± William''s eyes sharpened, tracking the movement of the newly created humanoid. It was already in his personal space, fist cocked back and ready to end the fight. He recognized this move. It wasmon in the novice stage at the start. A feint that was meant to distract him from the true danger. William shifted, one leg sliding forward. Ready to stop the attack from below. On the slight chance the fist wasn¡¯t a feint, he was prepared to block that, too. Pain exploded from his knee. He was barely able to register that it had shattered when a fist plowed into the bottom of his jaw. ¡°Defeat. Would you like to try again?¡± His body was reset back to perfect health, leaving him to stare at the immobile humanoid. If he tried again, he would die before he even knew what was happening. That excited William. Not the dying part. That was depressing. It was the thought of being able to reach this level that excited him. Even though the humanoid was practically at the same cultivation with simr physical attributes, he hadn¡¯t been able to see how it killed him. This was the result of intermediate-stage martial arts. He wanted that. He needed that. Still, he was nowhere near ready for this stage. ¡°Go back to the novice stage.¡± ¡°epted.¡± *** William smacked the iing fist to the side. His leg shot up to knee the humanoid in the bottom of its ribs. He felt them crack sharply. He mmed his elbow down on the humanoid¡¯s thigh, stopping it from doing the same to his ribs. He put all his weight into the punch with his free hand. William felt satisfaction when he saw its featureless face crater inward. The humanoid disappeared. ¡°Opponent at the novice stage defeated. Would you like to try again or move on to the intermediate stage?¡± There was no reset to fix his injuries. He had none. In fact, thest time he had been touched by the humanoid had been over five fights ago. It was safe to say that William was now unbeatable in the novice stage. ¡°How long have I been training? ¡°Thirty-six hours, fifty-seven minutes, and twenty-two seconds.¡± All things considered, it was much faster than he had initially assumed. With Lan Yang telling him it was rare to find cultivators that bothered to learn martial arts, William believed that it was a difficult skill to learn. He had mastered the novice stage in a day and a half. That was practically nothing to the long-lived cultivators, so there was no reason this wasn¡¯t widespread. Unless mastering the intermediate stage would take exponentially longer, with the expert stage even more so. The issue with this was the quest he had received, mainly the reward. [Reward: 70000 XP] That sounded like an impressive amount of experience points, and it would have been when he was still in the early Qi Gathering Realm, but not now. All it would do is take him past the next few levels. The reward implied that bing an expert would be reasonably easy to do. ¡°Junior Wei!¡± William blinked owlishly, almost confused at hearing something that wasn¡¯t the genderless voice the room had. ¡°Senior Yang?¡± ¡°Exiting Martial Skills Practice.¡± The vast grasnd disappeared, the dull room recing it as the door opened. Lan Yang stood at the entrance with a wide smile. ¡°The staff have alerted me that some skill manuals that might suit your needs will be auctioned soon.¡± He stared for a moment before a broad smile appeared on his lips. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Senior Yang!¡± B2 - Chapter 33: Ranged Martial Skill B2 - Chapter 33: Ranged Martial Skill William left the Qi Refining room and froze after he saw Spirit Stones piled on one of the seats. ¡°Xu Feng left that for you before he locked himself inside the Qi Refining room after the first day of the auction.¡± He approximated the Spirit Stones and raised a brow. ¡°There¡¯s enough for forty days.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± William hid the excitement he felt deep inside. He had shown himself to be someone above such shallow matters like wealth, even though he was salivating at taking possession of the Spirit Stones piled on the seat. ¡°Let me guess,¡± William said wryly, ¡°Xu Feng insisted on paying me and took advantage of my absence.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right again!¡± Lan Yang said with a slightly mocking tone. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll talk to him when he leaves the room.¡± William was banking on that talk to be less than productive. He had no intention of letting his Spirit Stones leave his possession, no matter how much he imed he didn¡¯t need the wealth. He had to fight the urge to turn back and stare at the Spirit Stones as they exited the room. ¡°So, how much have you progressed with martial arts?¡± Lan Yang asked casually, leading him to their area. ¡°I¡¯ve mastered the novice stage. I hope to do the same with the intermediate stage before the auction ends.¡± ¡°Novice stage?¡± Lan Yang stopped with a frown. ¡°How much time was spent cultivating?¡± ¡°Er, none?¡± William replied unsurely, concerned at the way he was being looked at. ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing martial arts nonstop.¡± Lan Yang tilted his head with confusion. ¡°I have to say I didn¡¯t expect that. Those who show interest in martial arts take a few hours to master the novice stage.¡± He struggled to keep the grimace off his face. With Lan Yang¡¯s expected timeline, he had still been getting his face beaten in without being able tond a solid hit on the novice stage humanoid. ¡°What¡¯s the usual time for the other stages?¡± ¡°Those vary much more,¡± Lan Yang continued to their seats, motioning to the one beside him. ¡°The intermediate stage is usually mastered in a few months, and the expert stage a little over a year. Mind you, this is if one is fully dedicated to martial arts. These are the fanatics that skip cultivation in favor of it.¡± William''s expression matched Lan Yang¡¯s; a frown was prominently disyed. Those timelines weren¡¯t outrageous, but disregarding cultivation for a year when a cultivator was young would be akin to self-muttion. It wasn¡¯t done by anyone sane. He was starting to understand why martial arts were given little thought. It was most beneficial when at low cultivation but detrimental to learn. When the time cost was negligible due to high cultivation, so were the benefits martial arts could offer. Shifting the effort to other areas would be more worthwhile at that point. ¡°No, fanatics is too mild of a description. Lunatics would be more fitting,¡± Lan Yang said, insulting those who learned martial arts. William ignored his muttering. ¡°Is expert the highest stage then?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± Lan Yang replied instantly. ¡°There is the master stage beyond that and grandmaster after. But it is impossible to reach those stages with the Qi Refining room. You will need someone aplished in body cultivation to be your master.¡± ¡°Body cultivation,¡± William repeated slowly. ¡°So those stages are reserved for them, I assume?¡± Royal Road''s content has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Reserved isn¡¯t the correct word. Anyone with enough determination can try. However, as I said, they are all lunatics if they aren¡¯t body cultivators.¡± ¡°¡­ Senior Yang, is this your way to tell me that I should quit trying to learn martial arts?¡± ¡°This is my way to tell you it shouldn¡¯t be your priority. The martial arts grandmasters hold immense power, but traditional cultivation can easily match or beat their best with less effort.¡± ¡°I see,¡± William nodded. He understood why Lan Yang was being so forceful about this. To a normal cultivator, it might be better spent actually cultivating instead of practicing martial arts. However, to William, cultivating wouldn¡¯t be worth it unless he was receiving an unbelievable amount of experience points. It sounded like the snobbiest way to think of himself, but he wasn¡¯t like other cultivators. William shoved the sudden feeling of superiority and was about to ask Lan Yang more about these martial arts grandmasters but was blocked by the older cultivator¡¯s palm. ¡°She¡¯s introducing the first skill manual.¡± He blinked at the hand before turning his attention down to the stage. He had almost forgotten about the reason he left the Qi Refining room. The same applied to Xia Qing, something he was sure Xu Feng would find unbelievable. The sword-wielding boy probably had her imprinted in his mind. ¡°It¡¯s not usual that we allow human-tier manuals in our auction, but the Rising Merchant House has contributed greatly. Exceptions were made, and I¡¯m sure many of you will be interested. We have found that none of the items offered by the Rising Merchant House are simple.¡± William stared at the wall behind Xia Qing. Instead of a close-up view of the item being sold like with all the previous times, there wasrge text exining what the skill manual could do. ¡°This grade two lot will greatly interest disciples in the foundation establishment realm! The Swift Step¡ª¡± He tuned Xia Qing¡¯s voice out and read the information on the wall. The name of the skill made the effect obvious. It increased the movement speed by up to three times the baseline while the skill was active. It''s not exactly what William would call a ranged martial skill, but it certainly fit his current repertoire well. It would allow him to close the distance with far greater ease without having to resort to [Force Multiplier]. The only unfortunate thing was that it was a human-tier martial skill. With how [Force Multiplier] had a depreciated effect after he advanced to his current cultivation realm, it would be safe to assume the same will happen with [Swift Step]. ¡°Let¡¯s start the bidding at ten Spirit Stones!¡± ¡°What?¡± William said in shock at the starting bid. It didn¡¯t help when the bids poured in. ¡°Senior Yang, what am I missing here? This is only a human-tier skill.¡± ¡°Movement skills are some of the harder manuals to find. Most are held tightly by sword sects, so anything outside their control is valued highly.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± William shifted in his seat when a woman on their floor bid a hundred Spirit Stones. ¡°We have a bid from the Red Floor!¡± Xia Qing smiled brilliantly at their floor. ¡°Ten more bids are allowed. Good luck!¡± William was tempted, but he wanted a true ranged skill, not one that might help his helplessness when his enemy was too far away for one of his punches. He did his best to ignore the bids that were slowly eroding the ten allowed. ¡°You want this skill,¡± Lan Yangmented as the fifth bid was announced. ¡°It would be nice to have, but I¡¯ll still be left with the same issue I have now.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Lan Yang nodded. ¡°Be sure to be the first bidder on this floor if you want an uing skill. No need to ask me for permission. I can approve or deny after the fact.¡± William nodded in eptance, thinking about the rule that seemed counterproductive to the auction house, no matter what he initially thought. With Lan Yang¡¯s instruction to be the first bidder from the Red Floor, it was easy to figure out the importance of doing so. Xia Qing took the tenth and final bid. ¡°To the original bidder on the Red Floor, would you like to beat the bid by ten Spirit Stones?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± a soft voice replied without hesitation. ¡°Sold!¡± Predictably, [Swift Step] was acquired by the initial bidder that started the countdown. ¡°Senior Lan, no matter what you say, it seems like this ten-bid rule is terrible for the auction house to put in ce. So far, every single person seemed more than happy to beat the highest bid at the end. The price isn¡¯t going high enough.¡± ¡°Wrong,¡± Lan Yang dered immediately. ¡°The sect profits no matter the price, and you overestimate how high the bids can go without conflict erupting. All cultivators have their own personal limits, and when those are passed, trouble arises. This happened in the early days of the annual auction before the sect decided it wasn¡¯t worth the headache.¡± ¡°The next lot is another item from the Rising Merchant House!¡± Xia Qing interrupted Lan Yang¡¯s exnation. ¡°And there is the other reason why the sect doesn¡¯t care,¡± Lan Yang smirked. ¡°Outside the imperial auctions, our sect holds the most prestige in the Empire, with a reputation for fairness and safety. It is an honor for one to be able to list their wares in this auction.¡± ¡°One of the very few ungraded lots in the auction! The earth-tier martial skill, Heavenly Thunder Scripture!¡± Xia Qing announced without taking her eyes off the skill manual, as if she wanted to take it for herself. William heard a hush fall over the auction hall as he read the text that appeared on the wall. Transcending Dreams Book 1 now on Kindle Unlimited! Transcending Dreams Book 1 now on Kindle Unlimited! It''s time. I''ve said this at the end of Book 1, and I feel I can''t say it too much. Thank you for reading Transcending Dreams. None of this would have been possible without the readers on Royal Road, Scribblehub, and Spacebattles. I seriously love all of you... in a writer-reader sort of way lolol Let me tell you what has changed in the Amazon version of Book 1.
  1. It has been professionally edited. You know, the usual stuff. Grammar, spelling, structure, h h h. It''s a better read.
  2. Chapters are longer. They average around 4000 words on Amazon. The book totals about 216,000 words.
  3. Plotholes fixed.
  4. All action scenes were given a massive overhaul, with some entirely rewritten. Almost all the rewrites are in the Shard arc.
If you want to help the novel get visibility on Amazon to give it a better chance of sess, please consider reading and rating the book there. If buying/reading it on Amazon isn''t doable, submitting a review is possible without buying it, and it would help massively. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Click here to check it out! And thank you again! Blurb on Amazon:
Monsters, both human and beast, surrounded him. He needed power to survive this new world... but he arrived as a mortal. One moment William was at work. The next, he was captured by lunatics. He had never believed in the fantastical, but he had no choice after finding himself in another world surrounded by demonic cultivators trying to extract his soul. If he couldn''t find an escape, his journey would end just as abruptly as it started. William was inches from death when a benevolent cultivator saved him from that fate. Seeing his pitiful state, the cultivator decided to give him an opportunity in the form of a tool: A system to guide him on the path of cultivation. William would use it to w his way to the peak of the cultivation world. Don''t miss this weak-to-strong LitRPG Isekai! Enter a world where powerful sects and empires control thend, with even higher powers lurking in the background. Expect action, slice-of-life, a dash ofedy, and punching! Lots of punching. A popr serial on Royal Road with over 3 million views, entirely revised and edited for Amazon! Buy a copy of the definitive edition or read for free on Kindle Unlimited!
B2 - Chapter 34 B2 - Chapter 34 Even Im tempted, Lan Yang muttered. He ignored that. Senior Yang, I want this one. William had doubts that he could be the first bidder with the interest most on the Red Floor were showing. As they should. He reread the text on the wall as Xia Qing continued her speech about how rare the skill manual was, as if anyone needed more motivation. [Heavenly Thunder Scripture] allowed the user to harness the power of thunder as the name suggested, with mastery of the human-tier skill allowing for the infusion of those properties into the body. Very useful for closebat. At the earth-tier, the user could summon thunderbolts from the sky, unlocking the full potential of the martial skill. William felt like he was fated for the [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. It was too perfect of a martial skill for his needs. Enhancing closebat while providing a strong range option at the higher tier. The only negative he could think of was the need to be under the sky to fully use the capability of [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. It was a concern, but the skill''s benefits allowed him to overlook that. So does every other cultivator in the auction, Lan Yang said with a frown. This might be one of the most expensive items sold, other than the headliners. It wasnt a good feeling to have his hopes dashed so quickly. Still, the smallest amount was hanging by a thread. Maybe it wont cost too No, Lan Yang interrupted, even you can see how much interest it has gathered. Id still like to try, William replied stubbornly. Theres no harm in doing so. Hm, Lan Yang narrowed his eyes at him. Very well, but dont be too disappointed when its out of reach. He nodded but knew that would be the case anyway. It was an impossible ask. Feeling disappointment was natural if this martial skill got away from him. Lets start the bidding on this lot at one hundred Spirit One hundred! William stood from his seat and raised his pass high to make sure there was no chance he could be missed. He knew he had interrupted Xia Qing in the middle of her senate, but he couldnt help himself. Looks like someone doesnt have the patience to wait, Xia Qingughed. This isnt the norm, but Ill take the bid! But first, let me exin the minimums. Sit down, Lan Yang hissed. You broke an unwritten rule. William didnt argue and fell back to the seat. He noticed that Lan Yang might be onto something about that unwritten rule. Every single person on the Red Floor was staring directly at him, not bothering to hide the anger they were feeling. He blinked and looked away, pretending he couldnt see them ring daggers. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Each bid must be fifty Spirit Stones higher than the current bid, Xia Qing paused before staring up in the direction William was sitting. Since the impatient guest is from the Red Floor, the ten-bid rulees into y immediately. I now wee the new bidders! One thousand! William blinked like an owl, staring at the lower floor in shock. This had to be the highest bid from that floor so far, and with Lan Yangs apparent surprise, it was likely the case. From one hundred to a thousand! To the man on the left Xia Qing was interrupted. One thousand one hundred! William liked this. The second bid wasnt much higher than thest, rtively, of course. This was still an amount of Spirit Stones he personally couldnt fathom. One thousand two hundred! Three bids were used up. Only seven more go. There was a chance. William could feel his hope rising, especially when he saw that Lan Yang didnt seem concerned at the bid level. This was still within range Three thousand. Williams heart dropped, not only because of the drastically higher bid, but also because Lan Yang was shaking his head. It was out of range. Oh my! Three thousand is now the winning bid! Xia Qings excited voice sounded muffled to William. The disappointment was setting in. He had ns on what to do if he could win [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. His choice in the yet-to-be-picked heaven-tier martial skill would have likely changed if he already had a reliable ranged skill. Now, that was out of consideration. Three thousand four hundred and fifty! William didnt care that the bid hade from the lower floor. What did it matter at this point? The martial skill wouldnt be going to him. I said dont be too disappointed, Junior Wei, Lan Yangforted awkwardly. I know the feeling of losing something you desire, but maybe this could be a hidden benefit. What if you find something that fits you better? Yeah. William couldnt even try and make himself sound upbeat. If something better came up in the auction, the cost would exceed [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. No more bids? Xia Qing called out. All you need to be the highest bidder is fifty more Spirit Stones than thest. Dont lose your chance to own this one-of-a-kind martial skill! William hadnt realized it till now, but the bids had stopped after the person on the lower floor took the lead. That was only the fifth bid. It seemed like the price was too high. He looked away from the jade token containing the [Heavenly Thunder Scripture] on the stage, not wanting to torture himself with the sight of something he could never have. That inadvertently let him catch the people standing just to the side of the stage. William had rarely bothered to take his eyes off the items being sold during the auction, and the time he did, it was to nce at the one who made a bid. He didnt know if standing near the stage wasmon, but that didnt matter. He recognized the ones standing there. Senior Yang, William spoke over Xia Qing trying to draw in more bids, who are they? Lan Yang looked to where he was pointing. Those are the owners of the item. They have the option to be anonymous, but since a merchant house is the owner, it is beneficial to have their identity known. Oh, William blinked dumbly. When Wang Xiaoling had taken ten thousand Gold from him for an investment, he had written that off as a lost cause. Besides being annoyed for a few days, he didnt think much of it. After all, why should he? It was supposed to be a lost cause. So seeing the miserly, short-tempered, self-proimed number-one merchant Wang Xiaoling, the overly affectionate guard Li Jie, and Fatty Xu standing off to the side of the stage was a shock. Especially since the misfit group was supposedly the owners of Rising Merchant House. Looks like there are no more bids, Xia Qing announced regretfully. Ill close the bidding for this auction in five four William tuned her out and looked at Lan Yang with sharp eyes. Senior Yang, are you sure those are the owners? Hm? Lan Yang took his sweet time to answer. Xia Qings countdown was at one. Of course. The rules dont allow anything else. One. The bidding is over! Xia Qing called out. To the original bidder on the Red Floor, would you like to beat the highest bid by fifty Spirit Stones? William saw Wang Xiaoling and her group celebrating. He could vaguely hear Lan Yang consoling him again. Everything was muted. He had tunnel vision because he was getting ready to do something that only a scumbag would do. Gambling with money that wasnt his. Yes! B2 - Chapter 35 B2 - Chapter 35 Sold! To our impatient guest! Xia Qing cheered, though she didnt forget to add a slight admonishment. For future lots you wish to bid on, please wait until I officially open the bidding. William winced when a hand firmly gripped his shoulder. Senior Yang, I can return most of the Spirit Stones. Is that what you think? Lan Yang sounded suspiciously calm. He nced at the older cultivators expression to see the frightening nkness it possessed. The next lot will be brought on stage after a short break! In the meantime Come with me, Junior Wei, Lan Yang might have made that sound like a request, but how he practically dragged William showed this was not an option. With the way most people on the Red Floor were staring at him, William wasnt sure what was safer. To stay out there or enter their reserved room for more privacy with a clearly infuriated Lan Yang. He was trying to fool himself. Of course, it was better to be where there were plenty of witnesses. Of all the stupid things he had done, having the audacity to spend thousands of Spirit Stones when clearly instructed not to might top the list. Especially when the Spirit Stones were borrowed. William tensed when the door shut behind them, and Lan Yang turned to face him. This time, his expression wasnt nk. It showed a nearly murderous rage. Mentors are supposed to wee their juniors into the Inner Court, Lan Yang said with clenched fists. Only I have had the pleasure of a junior having the confidence to rob me blind. I know this looks bad, but I have a n, Senior Yang, William backed away, terrified that fists would be thrown. Rightfully so. Three thousand five hundred Spirit Stones, Lan Yang gritted out. An amount that most would literally kill for. If you werent my junior, I would have taken your life I still might if you dont give me a satisfactory exnation. He didnt want to point out that he was trying to exin but wasnt being heard. That would just be poking an already enraged dragon. I know the owners of the martial skill! Itll be fine if I can talk to them, William blurted out. That gave Lan Yang some pause, his anger no longer rising to new heights. He opened his mouth briefly before shaking his head and changing his mind. Go. Now. The owners can leave immediately since the auction hall pays them the winning bid from my deposit. If you cant fix this before the bracelet" Lan Yang took a deep breath. "I rmend you make yourself scarce until I dont feel like taking your head. Give it a hundred years. With that, Lan Yang turned away in disgust and stormed back to the bidding area, leaving William alone. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. [Quest: Recover Lan Yangs Spirit Stones] [Information: You have been reckless and used Lan Yangs Spirit Stones for your own benefit. Instead of exacting deserved punishment, Lan Yang has given you a chance to return enough Spirit Stones for him to get the item he desires. Do this before Xia Qing brings the Soul Binding Bracelet on stage.] [Reward: ?] [Penalty: Loss of Lan Yang as mentor | Loss of reputation with Lan Yin | Loss of reputation with Elder Yu] [ept: Y/N] [Warning: Declining the quest will be the same as failing the quest] He skimmed the details as he rushed out of the room toward the lower floor. He didnt need the quest to tell him there was limited time to act. [Quest epted | Recover Lan Yangs Spirit Stones] William didnt have an option other than to take the quest. He exited the hallway and entered the main chamber, ignoring the crowd mingling during the auction break. His eyes searched for Fatty Xu, the most noticeable of the trio that he had seen from the Red Floor. Hey, youre the one that just won the Heavenly Thunder Scripture. He frowned as he nced at the man speaking to him, not in the mood for pleasantries. I was wondering why Senior Xia let your poor etiquette go so easily. Youre one of us! The man continued to speak. William had disabled the basic status the system usually showed him due to the sheer number of people in the auction hall. The absence of it above the mans head made him want to facepalm. That would be one way he could find them quicker. He turned it on. It was a mistake. The burst of blue text was so jumbled up that he could barely read the letters if they were too far from him. Entirely useless for finding Wang Xiaoling, who wasnt in his line of sight. Look, how about we make a deal. I have some seniors at Sentinel Peak who will really appreciate that martial skill. You know how hard it is to gain their ear. This is your chance. William blinked, havingpletely forgotten about the man trying to talk to him. If it wasnt for the idiotic sentence he had just heard, he would have walked away without paying closer attention. Blue robes. No marks on the sleeves. Slightly pudgy face with aically untrustworthy look in his eyes. This man wasnt part of the Jade Healing Sect. And he was making a hriously lousy attempt at swindling him. Forget that there were so many red gs, William didnt even have the martial skill yet for him to take. Get out of my way, William shoved past the man, ignoring the indignant squawk he let out. William would have wondered why someone like that was inside the auction hall, but he didnt get the chance. He saw plenty of people looking his way, having far too simr looks in their eyes. Seemed like there were swindlers aplenty in the auction hall, and nobody batted an eye. He followed suit and ignored them as he returned to searching for his targets. More of the swindlers tried to get his attention, but he knew better than to waste his time to listen. It took a few seconds before he finally found therge form of Fatty Xu. He was near the exit. William moved as fast as he could without sprinting. He was aware he drew some looks, but he was more concerned that Fatty Xu would somehow disappear. A silly fear, but Fatty Xu was a strange being in the first ce. He didnt forget that therge man was one of the few living beings for which the system didnt show a basic status. William smiled when he had an unobstructed view of Fatty Xu. Li Jie and Wang Xiaoling were right beside him. Sister Xiaoling! William called out happily, for many reasons. One is that Lan Yang wouldnt murder him out of anger after he got the Spirit Stones. And the other, the look he expected from the queen of misers as she handed him her precious money. It was her own fault for taking startup money from him. Brat?! Wang Xiaoling said with shock, stopping William in his tracks. He had forgotten how abrasive the woman was. What an excellent way to greet him after so long Brat? Williams smile turned into a smirk as he brushed his shoulders, drawing attention to his sleeves. Is that how you greet an inner disciple of the Jade Healing Sect? B2 - Chapter 36 B2 - Chapter 36 When Wang Xiaoling stared at him with an open mouth, he thought he finally had one over her. Unfortunately, that feeling of superiority didntst long. Only a bit of time away, and you already talked back to me? Wang Xiaoling growled. William wasnt surprised that she became more aggressive. That was almost a given. What did surprise him was the headlock he found himself in. He had initially tried to carefully escape the embarrassing situation he found himself in. He was mindful that Wang Xiaoling was a mortal, and he was a foundation establishment cultivator. Too strong of a movement might seriously injure her. At least, that was William''s reasoning to try to be gentle when pushing her away. Dont test me, brat! Wang Xiaoling rubbed his hair roughly. You think youre some fancy cultivator just because youre an inner disciple? Ha! You make meugh! What have you been eating for the past few months! William threw away the foolish thought of being careful and put more strength into his struggle. It did nothing. You disrespect me, and now youre calling me a glutton? Wang Xiaoling switched from rubbing his hair to digging her knuckles into his skull. ... It actually hurt. William wasnt sure what to think at this point. First, Princess Jin had gained a ridiculous power-up that immediately put her in the nascent soul realm. Now, Wang Xiaoling had somehow gotten strong enough to still manhandle him. Maybe he should have insisted on apanying Wang Xiaoling on her merchant path instead. Xiaoling, you might actually hurt the kid at this rate. William immediately took a step back when Li Jies warning released him from his prison, just out of reach of Wang Xiaolings arms. He patted his hair as he enabled the basic system status for the trio. With the strength the crazy woman showed, he needed the numbers, the exact amount of change they went through. [Name: Wang Xiaoling | Level: 3] [Name: Li Jie | Level: 23] Fatty Xu still didnt have a basic status. William didnt expect that to change in the first ce. Li Jie had gone from a mortal to the second level of the Qi gathering realm, which was an improvement but nothing close to what he had experienced in the past few months. The issue was Wang Xiaoling. She was still at level three. There was no change at all. That should have been impossible, not with how she manhandled him. He tried to use [Observe]. [The skill Observe is not avable on target] William already knew what would happen if he tried to use [Detailed Observe]. But he had to. [Spiritual Energy insufficient for Detailed Observe on target] It felt like it had been ages since he thought about the odd quirk Wang Xiaoling had. He remembered how this was simr to when he returned from the Outer Court and assumed that he would no longer be under Wang Xiaolings thumb, only to be proven wrong. However, William was much stronger nowpared to thest time he was thrown around by her. There was no logical exnation where this made any sense. As for his Spiritual Energy being insufficient, that was even moreughable. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Spiritual Energy: 1055/1055 (20% per Hour) He couldntwouldnt believe that it wasnt enough for someone who was supposedly at level three. The only option was that Wang Xiaolings level must be obscured in some way. Perhaps the same way Prince Yuan had obscured his level. Little Brother Wei Liang, Li Jie smiled apologetically. Its been some time. Brother Li, William replied with a nod, still making frequent nces at an annoyed Wang Xiaoling. Sister Wang knows someone so scrawny? Fatty Xu butted in. Hmph, Ill introduce you to some good meals to make you healthy. He blinked, realizing that Fatty Xu didnt recognize him. Weve met before. Doubt it. I dont associate with masochists who starve themselves. William gave a confused nce to Li Jie and Wang Xiaoling, not sure what this was about. He didnt interact much with Fatty Xu other than a few sentences exchanged, but he distinctly remembered there was no mention of his unhealthiness. Brother Xu, maybe leave that forter, Li Jie chuckled awkwardly. How about we move to somece less crowded? Were drawing too much attention. He nced around to see that Li Jie was right. Though most of the attention was on him and Wang Xiaoling, it was primarily Jade Healing Sect members that were looking. Maybe it could have been due to the strangeness of seeing a mortal treat a foundation establishment realm cultivator like a rag doll. With the clear disregard the sect had toward mortals, seeing an inner disciple letting a mortal have the audacity to act like that must be shocking. Only if they knew how much of a hidden monster Wang Xiaoling was. William had always assumed that she was exceptional in some way, but it was even more significant than he had ever imagined. His resolve when he was just a mortal came back with full force. Stay on Wang Xiaolings good side though he didnt know how that was possible when he needed to take Spirit Stones from her. Brother Li is right, William nodded eagerly. How about we go to my room? Room? Wang Xiaoling repeated, looking him up and down. How do you have a room here? I thought those were for the elites? He had wanted to boast that he was one of those said elites, but that was no longer an option. No need to hint to her that he could be one of the bidders, no matter how unlikely it was toe to that conclusion. My mentor has it reserved for the duration of the auction. He thought it would be something for me to strive for. Huh, maybe you should introduce me to this mentor. Sounds like a generous person. William caught the greedy look in Wang Xiaolings eyes. It was nice to still have something predictable about her. Li Jie cleared his throat. That sounds perfect, Little Brother. We can catch up there. Great! Let me lead you there. Wait, Wang Xiaoling interrupted. Xu, get the ingredients ready for tomorrows meals. And Li Jie, follow him to ensure he wont overspend. Yes, Sister Wang! Fatty Xu looked like he couldnt be happier, unlike Li Jie, who couldnt be more displeased. Xiaoling, I should be there when you meet Wei Liang s mentor. And do what? Wang Xiaoling asked in her charming way. Meaning, it wasnt at all. Itll be more helpful if you stop Xu from bankrupting us. Le Jie sighed before nodding, leaving with Fatty Xu without another word. He was as much a pushover as ever with Wang Xiaoling, perhaps more than ever. Lets go, brat, she ordered. And tell me how you became an inner disciple. Did that girl from the clinic help you that much? William led her toward the hallway to the Red Floor. I havent seen Sister Li since Xuanjing City. I do earn things on my own merit, Sister Xiaoling. Really? She didnt need to sound so doubtful. I suppose there must be a reason this sect epted you. His eye twitched in irritation as they entered the hallway, the dull noise of the conversation disappearing behind them. I guess my first impression of you is too strong, Wang Xiaoling patted his shoulder. You will always be the failed scammer to me. His eye twitched. Again. Very funny, Sister Xiaoling. I know I am. Li Jie cant stopughing. Says I should be aedian. William rolled his eyes. Of course, the pushover thought that. He held the pass to the door and pushed it open, sighing in relief when he saw that Lan Yang wasnt in the room. He wanted to talk with Wang Xiaoling without him as a distraction. Nice room, so wheres this mentor of yours? He''s outside in the bidding area, William replied, closing the door behind them. Sister Xiaoling, I saw you standing next to the stage. Looks like you were sessful in setting up a merchant house. You saw that, did you? Wang Xiaoling turned to him with a wide smile. Its just luckWell, no. I worked hard and got lucky! The Rising Merchant House is on track to be one of the biggest in less than five years! Thats amazing! William cheered with her. I didnt think I would be such a great investor. It''s my first, and its already so sessful. Its all because of you, Sister Xiaoling! Wang Xiaolings smile froze for a moment before bing even brighter, though more strained. I did say you wouldnt regret it. Youre right about that. B2 - Chapter 37 B2 - Chapter 37 William wanted to lead her into admitting that he owned part of thepany, but he didnt think she would admit it outright without any prodding. How can I help? He asked eagerly. You did the hard work to build it to a point where you could enter the annual auction, but Im not aplete dead weight. I can be of more use than just providing the start-up funding. Im friendly with some of the administration in the sect. Wang Xiaolings strained smile suddenly reverted to normal, eyes glimmering at the prospect of growing her new business. Williams offer wasnt a lie. He might not have had any interest in Wang Xiaolings venture when she had taken ten thousand Gold from him, but now that he could see the sess she was experiencing, he would definitely help. It was in his interest to do so. Lessening Wang Xiaolings anger before he inevitably asked for thousands of Spirit Stones was a very happy side effect. This might be just what our Rising Merchant House needs! Wang Xiaoling almost vibrated in excitement. Most of the things I have in mind are useful far into the future, but one way you could help immediately is to help reduce the fees were paying to the auction hall. He wanted to p himself. Of course, the auction had fees. How much do they take? Forty percent, Wang Xiaoling said with a grimace. Its the cost we have to pay as someone new. If I knew you were already promoted, I would have looked for you before listing in the auction. I imagine that wing back the fees is much harder than having it waived from the start. William nodded, noticing that all the lightheartedness had disappeared from her tone. Being around Wang Xiaoling and knowing her personality made it difficult for him to fathom how she was a sessful merchant, but then she showed shes of what she was capable of. As for the auction fees that hurt. The auction hall was getting a thousand four hundred from the sale of [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. He hadnt been lying to Wang Xiaoling about knowing people in the sects administration, but the only elder he knew that would likely help him was Elder Yu. There was the Grand Elder, but he would require far more convincing, and William had a shallow rtionship with him at best. It would be preferable not to take that route. But this was an issue for another time. The priority right now was to make sure Lan Yang was no longer angry. I might have an idea, Sister Xiaoling, William said slowly, thinking of the best way to say it without raising suspicion. Im close to Elder Yu, who seems to have the ear of the Sect Master. Instead of dealing with the overseers of the auction hall, it might be best to go that route. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. The Sect Master? Wang Xiaoling repeated in disbelief. How much does this sect value you? Are you ying with me? Im warning you, Wei Liang, it wont be pretty if you are. Im not! William insisted, which was true. Though it might be necessary to offer something on my side to not seem too greedy He cut himself off, pretending he got an idea. Sister Xiaoling, how much of the merchant house do I own? Er, I cant really say for sure, Wang Xiaoling immediately started to deflect. Its moreplex than saying a number, you know. I must consider the effort I put in and the favors I cashed in. And I dont think I slept much the past few months! Its been really hard on me! William nodded in understanding. He didnt question her ims, except for not knowing the percentage. There was no doubt she knew the exact number, and her hesitation to tell him was a good sign. He wasing to recognize that while Wang Xiaoling might seem flighty and unreliable, with matters that involved money, she could be trusted as long as you hadnt agreed to an already bad deal. There were multiple situations in the past where she could have easily cheated people of money, but whatever was promised had always been delivered. Even if the original agreement itself came from suspect negotiations. We should figure out that number, William pretended he didnt see her falling mood. Elder Yu would probably be more willing to help if she knew howrge my part was. Unless its really small? He ended unsurely. Wang Xiaoling sighed, No, its not. This isnt exact, and Ill have to confirm itter, but my guess would be around thirty-five percent. Oh, William blinked, not having to act like he was shocked since he actually was. A little more reevaluation was needed. It looked like trusted would be understating when describing her honesty with business matters. He wasnt some investing guru or anything close in his old world. Nor did he know a lick about business, but even to him, owning such arge percentage would have been the key to fixing the drought of Spirit Stones he was made hyperaware of during the auction. It was unfortunate that he would likely have to give his shares up in return for immediate Spirit Stones. Not ideal, but neither was getting killed by Lan Yang if he didnt do this. Seemed like getting those Spirit Stones to Lan Yang would be far more straightforward than he realized. Thats amazing! William cheered, acting like his physical age. It means Im rich! Ha! Wang Xiaoling snorted. Ive been living on the bare necessities, and that wont change for years. This is the building phase, brat. Every Spirit Stone has to be ounted for and spent in a way that will help grow the merchant house. His heart sank, and it must have been obvious since she noticed it. Why do you care so much? William had a few choices in front of him. He coulde clean, revealing that he was the buyer of the martial skill she put in the auction, or continue the lie and try to get the Spirit Stones under a false pretense. He could think of a way that would be believable. Arge amount of Spirit Stones for greasing the hands of key people in the sect, lobbying for Rising Merchant House. However, that would start a cycle of lies that could end up destroying the dream Wang Xiaoling had. Even if she had swindled him for true all those months ago, which she didnt, he couldnt go that far. No matter how easily it could solve Williams self-made problem with Lan Yang, he couldnt ruin this for her. He would have to deal with the consequences of his idiocy like an adult, no matter how preferable it was to act like a child and pretend he didnt know better. I bought the Heavenly Thunder Scripture. B2 - Chapter 38 B2 - Chapter 38 Wang Xiaoling chuckled, not with amusement, but with disbelief. If you tell me that was a poor joke right now, Ill let this go. William stayed silent, wondering if it was possible to get a hold of Elder Yu before the bracelets were put on stage. So all this talk about helping was false? Wang Xiaoling clenched her fist. He eyed her warily. If she could casually put him in a headlock, it wasnt a stretch that she would be able to cause serious damage if she grew angry enough to throw a punch. Of course not! William shook his head emphatically. I have every intention of helping you, Sister Xiaoling. I just put myself in a tough spot by winning the marital skill. How did you even get the Spirit Stones to bid that much?! Wang Xiaoling froze before her shoulders slumped, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. Did you somehow manage to borrow that much? William grimaced, giving her a slight nod. Technically, that was true, though it was more urate to say he took Lan Yangs borrowed Spirit Stones without permission. So stolen, really. Wei Liang, remember what happened when you tried to punch me? I feel that you deserve the same response right now. He took arge step back in fear. How could he forget? That was practically his greeting to this world. It was a foolish action done due to an overload of stress and frustration, and it had ended with his ribs greeting Wang Xiaolings foot before he wasunched by her kick. She had nearly ended his life by ident. Oh, rx, Wang Xiaoling scoffed. Im not going to hurt you, though I should. You somehow chose to bid on the only thing given to me on consignment. I cant magically waive off the money you gave me since half it owed to the man that used to own the martial skill. He hadnt thought of the possibility that she didnt own the martial skill outright. With the sect taking one thousand four hundred Spirit Stones as the fee, it left around a thousand Spirit Stones to be split between Wang Xiaoling and the original owner of the [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. I get it, William sighed. You not in a position to help me. I didnt say that, she corrected, bringing his hopes back from the depths it had sunk. I have conditions that must be agreed to before I give you that amount of Spirit Stones. This would be the money I had nned to use to expand into Qingyun City, but you can be the recement for it. He wanted to say yes immediately, but there was an issue. Im not sure how I could help with the expansion, Sister Xiaoling. I never visited Qingyun City. Youre part of the Jade Healing Sect, brat, Wang Xiaoling rolled her eyes. They are deeply tied to the city. Im sure you can figure out a way since you im to be favored. William never imed that verbatim, but it wasnt far off. Ill try my best. There is no try, Wang Xiaoling narrowed her eyes. You will do it, and it has to be within the next year, or the Rising Merchant House will be set back until I can build up the funds again. [Quest: Help Rising Merchant House gain a foothold in Qingyun City] If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. [Information: In return for giving you the Spirit Stones you need, Wang Xiaoling needs you to help her expand the merchant house into Qingyun City in the next year.] [Reward: ?] [Penalty: Rising Merchant House will fall into financial hardship | Loss of reputation with Wang Xiaoling] [ept: Y/N] This had to be one of the more vaguely worded quests he had received. In all honesty, he would have done this even without the quest being offered to him. The unknown reward didnt annoy him either, especially since having the merchant house grow was enough of a benefit by itself. Ill do it, William nodded firmly. Thank you, Sister Xiaoling. You dont know how much you helped by doing this. [Quest epted | Help Rising Merchant House gain a foothold in Qingyun City] He yelped when she pulled him toward her, angrily ruffling his hair. I didnt have a choice! You dont make stupid financial decisions and live happily, brat! The people that offer this amount of Spirit Stones will literally take apart your body to recover their funds if necessary! William let himself be manhandled again, by choice, of course. It had nothing to do with the ufortable fact that he couldnt free himself even if he tried. He should correct her assumption that he had borrowed from some loanshark-types, but maybe being too truthful wasnt the best idea. Instead, he focused on what her offer meant. Sister Xiaoling, William said when he was freed, smirking, does that mean you care for my well-being? Obviously! Wang Xiaoling admitted instantly, making his smirk turn in a warm smile. Youre like a younger brother to me! One thats a country bumpkin and knows nothing about basic financial knowledge, but still, an annoying younger brother. William was about to return the sentiment that Wang Xiaoling would be his honorary older sibling from now on. But then she kept going. It reminds me of a couple years ago when I adopted a stray cat out of pity, Wang Xiaoling tapped her chin. It slowly learned to be useful by attracting more customers to my stall, so my care wasnt aplete loss when I had it. Of course, I sold that cat to a young child from some rich n, so it turned out to be great for me. Did you justpare me to a feral cat? William asked incredulously. Of course not! Wang Xiaoling looked shocked at his usation, Youre far more important than some cheap cat, Wei Liang. Youre a member of the Jade Healing Sect! Youre a hundred, no, a thousand times more important! He suspected that her measure of importance was calcted by how much she sold this feral cat to some poor child. It was best to ept this and move on before she said something worse about him. I see. Thank you, Sister Xiaoling, William said after clearing his throat. Hm, I am pretty great, arent I? She smiled before touching the small bag hanging off her hip. Four notes appeared in her hand. Here you go, thats what you spent. Go pay the debt immediately to avoid more interest. William stared at therge denomination bank notes to was given. Three were worth a thousand Spirit Stones each, and one worth five hundred. He had seen bank notes representing Gold coins and Qi Stones, but with Xu Feng lugging around actual Spirit Stones, he assumed that notes didnt exist for them. These are from the sect, right? The design was simr to the Qi Stone notes that Wang Mei gave him. Speaking of, he had forgotten entirely that the Jade Healing Sect gave him an allowance that he needed to redeem every month or lose. Not that five Qi Stones a month was much to him these days. Still, he made a mental reminder to speak to someone about it. Money was money, no matter how little. They are, Wang Xiaoling nodded. Redeem them if you borrowed from outside the sect. Remember, this isnt a gift. These are operating funds have been taken out from our merchant house. Keep your word, Wei Liang. I will, William said seriously, matching her change in tone. Thank you again. Wang Xiaoling waved him off. So this mentor you told me about. Is he real, or was that a lie to get me alone and ask for money? Er, hes real. Good! Introduce me! It may be of help to us. Give me a few minutes, Sister Xiaoling. Ill go get him, William said, happy to do so. He made to leave but was stopped just as he opened the door. Whats with all of this? He turned to see Wang Xiaoling staring at the pile of Spirit Stones sitting on the seat. It was almostforting to see the greed in her eyes. It had been disconcerting to have her be so generous. Thats the fee a guest paid to get on the Red Floor. And a little for using the Qi Refining room. And its just sitting there? Wang Xiaoling waved her hand at the Spirit Stones. Your mentor must be wealthy. Er, yes. Somewhat. If being in debt for thousands of Spirit Stones was wealthy. I look forward to meeting him. B2 - Chapter 39 B2 - Chapter 39 Senior Yang. Lan Yang held a drink in his hand as he stared at the empty stage. It stood out when most others on the Red Floor mingled in small groups. So, you found that your friend couldnt help. I wasnt joking, Wei Liang. I rmend that you keep away from me. Ill tell Elder Yu to rece me as a mentor if youre concerned about that. William frowned at the dead tone and noticed how Lan Yang refused to look at him. Perhaps to avoid looking at the person who stole an emperors ransom yes, that was likely the reason. Words would likely just serve to enrage Lan Yang, so he let the money do the talking. Literally. William positioned himself to block the view of others. He wordlessly passed the folded notes to Lan Yang, a slight grin appearing when the man froze as he stared at them. Yes, my friend was able to help. He would rather have said something that passed as a joke to break Lan Yang out of his shock, but that felt highly inappropriate. William had to step back with Lan Yang shot to his feet. I have to add these to the deposit. Stay here. [Quest Completed | Recover Lan Yangs Spirit Stones] [+3000 XP] [Reputation with Lan Yang increased] A tension that he didnt even know existed within him was gone. It was like the problem still existed until the system told him it was over. Of course, the rewards helped too. The experience points were a nice bonus, but it wasnt much for him at his level. The reputation increase was far more interesting. Only if there was a number the system could use to quantify this reputation. Instead of knowing exactly where he stood with someone, it was necessary to be human and figure that out himself. [Karmic Information not avable. Understanding of Karma Dao required.] Williams mind nked for a fraction of a second, and that also let Lan Yang walk away from him. Senior Yang, hold on, William stopped him from rushing off, pushing away thoughts of the system message. My friend wanted to meet you, and I told her yes. I can deposit them for you while you do that. Lan Yang seemed to have a hard time trusting him with the bank notes, which waspletely understandable, but William still felt insulted. He had just handed him the notes. It wasnt like he would run away to spend them. And you know where to go to make the deposit? Lan Yang asked with a raised brow. You could tell me, Senior Yang. Now youre just being difficult. Isnt that deserved? Lan Yang finally smiled. Theres no rush anyway. The Soul Binding Bracelets wont be auctioned till the end of the day. Ill just speak with her first. That works, William shrugged, but be honest, you dont want to hand that back to me. No, I dont, Lan Yang admitted readily. So this friend, Im guessing she wants to confirm with me that you really need that many Spirit Stones? No! He shook his head firmly. In fact, I would prefer it if you didnt talk about the Spirit Stones at all. Lan Yang looked at him strangely before nodding. I suppose this is your business, but this makes me suspicious, Junior Wei. You are sure she really is your friend? Theres no doubt, William confirmed. The way Lan Yang asked that question, it reminded him of what Wang Xiaoling told him about the people who lend substantial amounts of Spirit Stones, and how willing they were to take drastic measures to recoup funds. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Hm, if you say so, Lan Yang didnt seem convinced. Come, lets meet this friend. William followed him back to the room, confused as to why there was so much concern all of a sudden. Maybe to make up for the fact that Lan Yang very recently threatened to take his life. Whatever it was, he wasnt too concerned about it. Karma Dao, which the system revealed out of nowhere, upied most of his mind. They entered the room to see Wang Xiaoling studying the Spirit Stones that Xu Feng ced on the chair. At least, thats what Lan Yang would have thought. William could see that she could barely keep herself from taking the Spirit Stones. He didnt feel the amusement that he usually would have. It would probably take until he fully paid her back for saving him when she really didnt need to, especially when she barely asked for anything. The request to help establish Rising Merchant House was nothing. It was basically helping himself, so it didnt count in his view. Junior Wei didnt tell me that you were so beautiful. Lan Yang seemed to stand taller as he walked towards Wang Xiaoling, every movement much more controlled than usual, and his voice just the slightest bit deeper. William stared incredulously as Lan Yang seemed to be trying to flirt with Wang Xiaoling. So much for his theory that the man would get furious at the thought of any other woman than his mystery beloved. Maybe Lan Yang getting angry at the suggestion of Xia Qing had more to do with her specifically. Honestly, it was disappointing. He never liked how shallow the romances were in most cultivation stories, and Lan Yangs tunnel vision for his mystery love was refreshing. William even felt sorry for Li Jie. If the choice was between him and Lan Yang, thetter would win almost every time, at least on a shallow level. And Little Liang didnt tell me his mentor was so handsome, Wang Xiaoling smirked. She had never called him an affectionate name before. Unless brat counted as affectionate. There was a possibility that she was reciprocating Lan Yangs flirting. He winced but couldnt look away. It was like watching an inevitable wreck, horrific and eye-catching at the same time. Im Lan Yang, but you can call me Yang. William thought he might have gagged at seeing the shining smile Lan Yang had stered on his lips. Pleasure, Wang Xiaoling loosely sped her hands together in her front as she nodded slightly. Im Wang Xiaoling, and you may call me Merchant Wang. He blinked in surprise, and from the odd, choked sounding out of Lan Yangs mouth, he wasnt alone in feeling that way. Excuse me? Lan Yang sounded taken aback. Im not interested, Wang Xiaoling was blunt. I originally wanted to meet you to see if we could do business, but that changed when Liang told me how many Spirit Stones he borrowed. You, his mentor, allowed someone like that to get close to him. Lan Yang shot him a look, and William tried to put everything in that short nce to tell the man to keep it quiet. At this point, it wasnt the worry of Wang Xiaoling taking back her offer of the Spirit Stones but the disappointment he would face. It was funny how quickly his perspective changed about Wang Xiaoling. From a short-tempered, miserly, opportunistic woman who drove William mad half the time, she seemed to have depths that never had the chance to be discovered. Wang Xiaoling was surprisingly caring, which, in hindsight, was hinted at by her actions. Even the very first thing she said about Li Jie when they were entering Xuanjing City, something about not using friends as connections, was telling. Of course, that didnt mean the negative traits about her werent valid. Just that William thought Wang Xiaoling was a short-tempered, miserly, opportunistic woman who was also capable of stunning kindness. Youre right. It was my mistake, Lan Yang shot William another look, silently telling him that a favor was required for taking fault. He nodded discreetly in agreement. Oh, well, good. It seemed that Wang Xiaoling expected far more pushback. And I apologize for my actions. While you are indeed beautiful, I already hold another in my heart. William cleared his throat lightly to stop hisugh from escaping. Lan Yang was still speaking in that strange lower pitch. Is that so? Wang Xiaoling looked doubtful. How convenient for you to only remember that when I rejected you. Lan Yang shot William another look. He wasnt sure how these nces would help, but whatever was necessary. Looks like we both expected far different people, Lan Yang said as a peace offering. Let me treat you to lunch. I can tell you what I have nned for Junior Wei over the meal to calm your worries. Wang Xiaoling narrowed her eyes before smiling. I have a better idea. I know someone who is an unmatched cook, and I have been looking forward to his dishes all day. Why dont you join me? Sure, that works, Lan Yang shrugged before turning to William. Junior Wei, you can use the Qi Refining room while we''re gone. The auction ends tonight, so use it wisely. Nonsense! Wang Xiaoling cut in. Little Liang can use something like that any time he wishes. He will regret it if he doesnte with us. Sister Xiaoling is right, Wim spoke for the first time. For many reasons, he wasn''t keen on leaving Lan Yang alone with her. Besides, I want to spend more time with her before we have to part ways again. Then its settled! Wang Xiaoling smiled, Come, Fatty Xus cooking waits for us! B2 - Chapter 40 B2 - Chapter 40 There were times when his physical age was at the front of his mind, and this was one of them. With Lan Yang and Wang Xiaoling on either side of him, it felt like he was their much younger brother or with how young most cultivators looked while centuries old, their son. It also didnt help that they kept giving each other looks filled with suspicion over his head, using him as a living divider. So, really, it looked like he was the son that was keeping a failed marriage together. Do you know what were having for lunch? William cringed internally, his attempt to break the silence only making it worse. Now, it looked like he was the child asking what he would be given for food. Wang Xiaoling understood his pain if the smirk she had on her face was anything to go by. Still, she spared him from further embarrassment, likely because Lan Yang was there. Its a surprise for me, too, Wang Xiaoling replied. Fatty Xu tries to make dishes that I have never tasted before. That sounds amazing, William admitted, thinking about how luxurious it would have been if a cook like that followed him around. Where did you find him, Sister Xiaoling. FattyEr, Brother Xu is very talented. If you can believe it, I found him in the middle of the road, Wang Xiaoling tilted her head in thought. Come to think of it, it was just like how I found you, except I actually ran Fatty Xu over. William winced at the ending, but he could believe it. He could easily visualize Wang Xiaoling running Fatty Xu over due to some perceived insult, and he could also believe that somehow led to her gaining an unmatched cook. It had to be her Luck ying a huge factor. Still, he had to ask. How did he end up working for you? To repay me for breaking my wagon, of course, Wang Xiaoling replied, as if that was normal. To her, it might be, but at least Lan Yang felt the same as him. They were both giving Wang Xiaoling puzzled looks. Merchant Wang, Lan Yang cleared his throat, where is yourpanion cooking for you? Some restaurant, Wang Xiaoling waved her hand at the nearing exit. They begged Fatty Xu to take over the kitchen after he agreed to teach them a few tricks. Whats the name of the restaurant? No idea, she shrugged. Must not be good if Fatty Xu is better than their cooks. He hasnt even been trained by a master! William had a feeling it was very much the opposite. Everything Wang Xiaoling touched turned into gold, and this shouldnt be any different. Besides, whatever the truth was, they would find out soon enough. They passed through the exit of the auction house. Disciple Yang. Done already? It was the elder who acted as a guard. Well return, Elder, Lan Yang bowed. Were heading out for lunch. Hm, the elder nced at William and Wang Xiaoling without a change in expression. Be sure to have your junior apany you. Of course, Lan Yang nodded his head. Thank you for the reminder. Wang Xiaoling led them to the restaurant, which happened to be located the past the auction house. An area William had never seen. Stolen novel; please report. Unlike the entertainment district, with numerous small shops and Jade Healing Sect disciples making up the whole crowd, this was the opposite. In ce of small teahouses, there were restaurants many times their size; in ce of the eateries, there were hotels that looked to be meant for the ultra-wealthy. While some people in the area belonged to the Jade Healing Sect, most were guests from other sects. So, the terrible restaurant is here? William was proud that he asked that calmly. Wang Xiaoling nodded, looking a bit lost. Its here somewhere. The sect ced me in a nice hotel. The restaurant was right in front of it. The Celestial, Lan Yang interrupted. Is that the name of the hotel? Thats it! Wang Xiaoling pped. You know where it is? Youre saying that yourpanion has reced the head chef in the restaurant across from that hotel? Lan Yang asked, ignoring her question and asking his own. I think so, Wang Xiaoling frowned. The man who saw Fatty Xu cooking said he was the head chef. Whatever it is, well find out when you lead us there. Lan Yang grunted in agreement and took the lead. Restaurants and hotels werent the only buildings in the area. There were the asional teahouses, some that resembled massage parlors, and small, fairlymon shops that sold pills. Senior Yang, is this area only for the visitors? Lan Yang nodded as they arrived at a guard post. Yes, this is where they are free to explore. That freedom ends at the auction house. Beyond there, a sect member will need to apany them. Show your pass. William nced at the basic status of the guard who spoke to Lan Yang. [Name: ? | Level: ?] Another nascent soul realm cultivator acting like amon guard. He could only assume that this overkill protection would only be for the duration of the annual auction. I let a friend borrow mine, Elder, Lan Yang said apologetically. But you know me. Hm, the guard, who was also an elder, grunted, though it was with a small smile. You can enter. Thank you, Elder, Lan Yang bowed before motioning for them to follow him. Not bad, Yang, Wang Xiaoling spoke a few secondster. Looks like youre someone of status. I was told not everyone could pass. Lan Yangs eye twitched at the way he was addressed. He clearly didnt like that she took his offer to just call him Yang. William hid the smile by pretending a in-ish teahouse was the most interesting thing in the world. Of course I am, Merchant Wang, Lan Yang stressed. I passed the examinations to enter Sentinel Peak. There are few ces in the sect I dont have ess to. Thats amazing, Yang! Wang Xiaoling stressed his name back. William interrupted their needling, not wanting them to talk over him, literally, more than they already were. This is the ce, isnt it? The Celestial didnt have any signage showing the hotel''s name. However, there was only one extravagantlyrge building here, and it was easy to guess what it was. More than the building itself, he was surprised to see the massive spirit boats parked at the front of the hotel. It was simr to what he had seen in his old world, but with expensive cars instead. He was curious about why they werent just stored away inside a storage bag or spatial stone, but perhaps that was the wealth of the Jade Healing Sect influencing his thoughts. After all, such storage devices were usually far more expensive than a spirit boat. This is it, Wang Xiaoling nodded before turning around. Look! Fatty Xu has already started! Lets go, Little Liang! William still wasnt used to being called that, but it seemed to be the new normal with Lan Yang around. That quickly left his mind when he saw where she was speed walking to. He had wondered why he hadnt seen a stupidly luxurious restaurant on the opposite side of the hotel. He had expected something far more impressive than the only other restaurant he had visited in this world, the Phoenixs Nest, but it was the exact opposite. William was staring at the dinkiest of food stalls, with a small crowd waiting in line for food. He guessed it was either because of the food quality or the auction taking most potential customers. Perhaps abination of the two. He could see arge body move around behind the stall, cooking while a scruffy-looking man jotted something down. Li Jie was doing his part by taking orders. Looks like Sister Xiaoling found the worst Quiet, Lan Yang ordered quietly. That man cost the sect greatly to recruit. Do you know what immortal chefs are, Junior Wei? William shook his head, eyes wide as he stared at Fatty Xu with even more confusion than before. They are myths that can create dishes that rival the pills of the greatest alchemists. Of course, they aren''t real, but this is the closest our sect can hope for. He scratched his head as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. If Chef Yi is so amazing, why does Brother Xu look to be better? I dont know, Lan Yang stared into the stall. Lets have a taste and see for ourselves. B2 - Chapter 41 B2 - Chapter 41 Wang Xiaoling barged her way past the line, and any protests that could have been made had died when Fatty Xu saw her. Sister Wang! Youre finally here! Fatty Xu lifted his skewer. I found Moon Rabbit meat! This might be your best one yet, Fatty Xu! William and Lan Yang followed her slowly, ignoring the disgruntled looks given to them by the twenty-ish people waiting in line. Why is Chef Yi cooking in a shack? William asked quietly. Shouldnt he be in one of those fancy restaurants? Dont ask me how his mind works, Lan Yang sounded bitter. The sect paid a fortune to draw him here, and Chef Yis condition was that he could cook whatever he wanted, wherever he wanted. This is what he chose. A shack, William repeated nkly. He chose a shack to make the best dishes possible. Apparently, Lan Yang frowned when Chef Yi spoke to Fatty Xu enthusiastically. They heard the specifics clearly when they reached the counter. Brother Xu, how did you spice it without eroding the essence of the moon rabbit? I have tried the same years ago before giving up! Fatty Xu looked displeased that he had to speak to Chef Yi when Wang Xiaoling was present, but that didnt stop him from showing how he did it. Watch closely, Fatty Xu used raw meat that William guessed was Moon Rabbit. A reddish glow appeared on his fingers before it blurred. Fatty Xu was literally attacking the meat, with a quickness that his eyes couldnt track. He expected the rabbit meat to be shredded at best, and erased from existence at worst. Neither happened. The meat looked untouched to the naked eye. After that, add the spices you want before cooking, Fatty Xu pinched a bit of red powder and sprinkled it around the meat. They were immediately absorbed as if it was never added. Never do it after its cooked. That will ruin the essence. Amazing! Chef Yi eximed. Brother Xu, your preparation technique is one-of-a-kind. I could barely keep up with your movements! You have an envious control over your Qi! How long did it take you to create the technique? It took a while, Fatty Xu admitted before looking at Wang Xiaoling. Sister Wang, are you ready to eat? William ignored Lan Yang, who was moving to join them, and narrowed his eyes at Chef Yi. He wasnt able to see Fatty Xus movements at all. He looked at the chef''s basic status. [Name: ? | Level: ?] The guards were at the nascent soul stage, which William could easily ept due to the unique circumstances. But a chef being at the same level was hard to swallow. Perhaps Lan Yang saying Chef Yi was the closest thing to an immortal chef should have clued him in, but that was stretching it. He wasing across cultivators in the nascent soul level far too much. Werent they supposed to be rare? In the back of Williams mind, he was aware that the question marks in the basic status could also mean that Chef Yi was at a realm even higher than nascent soul, but that was so slim that he didnt really consider it. After all, it was highly doubtful that a spirit severing realm cultivator would lower themselves to cook for low-level cultivators. Stolen novel; please report. Oh good, youre here, Fatty Xu interrupted his existential crisis. Me? William pointed at himself, noticing that Wang Xiaoling was already digging into her skewer without hesitation. Who else? I said I would give you a good meal. Here it is, Fatty Xu offered a skewer with bits of cooked meat on it. A kebab, basically, but one that was making him gulp down the saliva building in from the delicious scent. Alright, stop right there! It was fine for one person to cut in front of us, but now we have to let these two do the same? I dont think so! They either get in line, or youll lose our business! William blinked in surprise, having forgotten that this was an open food stall and customers were waiting to order. I do apologize, but they already had their orders ced well in advance. Li Jie yed the part of a service worker well, but therge man, who was the only oneining, wasnt satisfied. I dont care! At this point, William wondered why the man was bold enough to cause trouble when high-level cultivators were keeping close watch. He let the system show him the basic status. [Name: Wei Si | Level: ?] Core formation realm. Thest name suggested that the man was from the Wei n, but it wasn''t confirmed. Do you know who I am? I already had to wait for fifteen minutes like a peasant! It is already humiliating to eat food prepared in a stall! Scratch that. After that I am very important speech, it was highly likely the man was from the Wei n. Then leave, Fatty Xu said without care. The food I make isnt fit for someone like you. Wei Si blustered briefly before sneering at them and turning around. Fine! All of you, dont give this ce your Qi Stones. Ill treat you to something much better! Come with me. William took the offered skewer from Fatty Xu and munched a bit of meat as he watched the show. That failed immediately since his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head as he let out an embarrassingly loud moan. And that brat is mocking me! Wei Si roared. Give me tha He was vaguely aware of the rage targeted at him, but he was happy to ignore it as he absorbed the taste of the rabbit meat. However, the sound of choked protests forced him to take his attention off the most delicious food he had the pleasure of tasting. Wei Si was a few feet away, a meaty arm extended over Williams head, hard wrapped around the previously raging mans neck. It wasnt a gentle grip. Wei Sis eyes bulged in panic as he wed at the hand choking him, making it clear how bad it was. I dont care for your yapping, but you crossed a line by trying to harm Sister Wangs friend, Fatty Xu still sounded bored, but somehow that made it more menacing. Let me show you out. William ducked to avoid Wei Sis legs as Fatty Xu pulled the man closer. He protected his precious kebab and moved to stand next to Wang Xiaoling, just in time to see Wei Si get treated like a javelin. He watched with wide eyes as Fatty Xu strolled a few feet away from the stall, hoisted Wei Si over his shoulder, cocked his arm back, andunched the man with a slight grunt. With Wei Sis fading scream in the background, Fatty Xu stared at the others in line. Any moreints? There was a unified shake of heads, and while they looked disturbed at what just happened, none left because of it. Good, Fatty Xu nodded before returning to stall and frowned at William. Is it not to your liking? He was still gaping at Wei Sis increasingly smaller form, wondering if the man had just been killed because of his frustration over a few extra minutes of waiting. Still, he took another bite of the delicious rabbit meat on the skewer. After swallowing, William licked his lips and said, Its so good! Fatty Xu grunted and returned to the stove to make more with Chef Yi nearby to observe every movement. He didnt miss that Chef Yi seemed utterly uninterested in interacting with anyone else. That was fine with William. He quickly finished the three other pieces of rabbit meat, hoping to get more afterward. [+10 Agility] [+5 Spirit] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1055 > 1080] The alerts surprised him, but he quickly put as much focus as possible when not cultivating to direct the newly added Qi to his Kidney Meridian. There was no danger of the meridian rejecting the Qi since he was nowhere close to the maximum it could contain, so he wasnt worried. William stared at the clean skewer after he was done with greed. Fatty Xus cooking gave him additional attribute points, and more importantly, he wasnt penalized with increased impurity. Delicious, Brother Xu. You are a talent. He looked up to see Lan Yangplementing Fatty Xu while holding a skewer of his own. William needed more. There should have been an increase in impurity. He could clearly remember Li Xinyue blocking him from easing too much in the Phoenixs Nest due to his body being unable to handle it. It had to be due to Fatty Xus cooking that there was no impurity to worry about. William needed to find a way to keep him close by, which meant Wang Xiaoling was the one he had to convince. B2 - Chapter 42 B2 - Chapter 42 Ill follow you in a bit, Sister Wang. Wang Xiaoling waved Fatty Xu off. Take your time. The auction will be over soon anyway. Very well, Fatty Xu nodded, ncing at him. If you apany Sister Wang again, Ill treat you to a Starry Night Cake. Eating good food is the main reason to live, and you are not living. I agree, William nodded rapidly. Thank you, Brother Xu. The moment they walked away from the stall, which had far happier customers now that they would get their food, he asked the question weighing his mind. Whats a Starry Night Cake? No idea, Wang Xiaoling shrugged. Fatty Xu alwayses up with a new dish, and desserts are one of his specialties. Im sure itll be as good as his past attempts. He looked forward to it. It would make up for the unfortunate fact that he wasnt able to eat more of the delicious rabbit meat. Even though there were no restrictions on the quantity his body could consume, there was only a limited amount to go around. Even Wang Xiaoling only ate one skewers worth, so when Fatty Xu declined to make him more, he could only sulk in silence. [Side Quest epted | Fatty Xu makes delicious food with miraculous effects. Keep him nearby] [Information: You have had one taste of Fatty Xus cooking and require more. Find a way to keep him inside the Jade Healing Sect so you are not limited to that one taste.] [Reward: ess to Fatty Xus cooking | ?] [Penalty: N/A] [This side quest was automatically epted due to having no penalties for failure] William weed the quest. He had already been trying toe up with an idea to do exactly that when he gained those attribute points from the kebab. This just added extra motivation. Merchant Wang, do you have other items for sale in the auction? Lan Yang asked. Nope, Wang Xiaoling said, ending the word with a pop. That headlining item looks pretty interesting to me. There was a customer from the Sunrise Kingdom who seemed interested. I might make a y for it if it goes for cheap. I see, Lan Yang gave him an rmed look, silently asking for help. If he had to make a choice between helping Lan Yang and Wang Xiaoling, he would pick thetter without hesitation. Not only did they have a greater history together, the woman had just given him a treasure trove of Spirit Stones to save him. In this case, he would prefer not to do anything to prevent her from getting what she wanted. Though, a selfish part of his mind pointed out the obvious. This could be an opening to convince her to spend more time inside the sect. Sister Xiaoling, what would you say about skipping the end of the auction? Wang Xiaoling looked at him strangely. You have something better for me to do? Maybe, William said unsurely. He turned to the hopeful Lan Yang. Do you think I could meet Elder Yu right now? I cant say for sure. Your best bet would be to go to the Administration Peak and ask for her. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Thats the best advice you have for me? William stared. Do I look like I have a way to track elders? Fair enough, He nodded begrudgingly said. It will probably still be worth the try, Sister Xiaoling. Hm, as you say, Little Liang. That made William feel worse even though he genuinely thought this would benefit her more. They passed the nascent soul realm guard before Lan Yang broke the silence. Well split up there then. Junior Wei, you know the way to the peak, correct? He nodded. It was one of the few ces he had visited at themon grounds. Good, Lan Yang nodded to Wang Xiaoling. Merchant Wang, it has been an honor. Same here, Yang. Lan Yangs eye twitched, but he gave her a tight smile before swiftly walking toward the auction house. So, brat, are you finally living up to your title as a scammer? Williamughed involuntarily, not expecting the title she stuck on him at the start to make a return. Youugh, but I know youre working with that Yang against me. Its coincidental, Sister Xiaoling, William reassured. Senior Yang does want those bracelets, but it would be a better use of your time to speak to Elder Yu. Is this about Qingyun City? The suspicion in her lessened significantly. Yes, he confirmed. I could talk to her by myself, but you will be able to exin the specifics better. And if the sect needs something in return, we can use my shares. No, Wang Xiaoling stopped him with a re. What? Your percentage of the merchant house isnt up for grabs. I wont allow it, especially when dealing with a sect. That closes off my surest way to convince them if necessary, William frowned. Are you sure your mind cant be changed, Sister Xiaoling? Like I said, brat, its out of the question. There are plenty of other ways to deal with this instead of directly jumping to giving up a portion of the merchant house You know what? Its good that Iming along. Alright, William settled on simply agreeing. Wang Xiaolings current mood was at the worst he had seen so far. It looked like she was legitimately angry at him, with no hint of teasing anywhere in her expression. Even his revtion of the debt he had taken on had brought up less intense emotions from her. Im not good at business, Sister Xiaoling, William conceded. Ill follow your lead when we get there. Hm, lets take the scenic route. I need to think of a n on the way there. Alright, William nodded, but remember that I cant guarantee we will meet Elder Yu. Its fine, she waved his warning off. I will be able to tell you what to doter if needed. Its all the same as long as you dont blurt out something stupid like giving up part of your shares. Heughed awkwardly as he started to lead her to the Administration Peak. When Wang Xiaoling said she needed to think of a n, she wasnt joking. That was all she did, not bothering to take in the sights on the scenic route that she requested him to take. William had no problem doing that in her ce. The trek back to the teleportation hall was short. With no crowds rushing to the auction house, there was nothing to slow them. Instead of heading directly to the residential area, he took a turn to see a new part of themon grounds. Lan Yang was a piss poor guide, but that didnt mean he had to stay ignorant of what themon grounds had to offer. The buildings here were muchrger, looking like they could easily fit hundreds at one time. Its a shame there wont be another lecture on formations for a week. I heard the Elders Chen were the ones who came down from the peak for the lecture a few days ago. They just had to do it on the first day of the auction. Williams ears perked up when he heard some familiar names and came to a stop, making Wang Xiaoling almost walk into him. He ignored her grumbles and stared at the two disciples sitting under the shade of a tree. I keep forgetting they arent just the masters of White Crane Peak. Healing might be their specialty, but formations are a close second. Dont speak as if youre the only one who knows this, Zhou. This ismon knowledge. So? Its still interesting! You dont have to ruin the mood by being annoying, Xin! Wang Xiaoling stared at the bickering disciples and then at William. Eyebrows raised in question. Well, you did say the scenic route, William defended. That could involve me talking to others. I would say thats a stretch, but go ahead, Wang Xiaoling shrugged. He immediately made his way toward the arguing disciples and took a look at their basic status. [Name: Ningyu Zhou | Level: 163] [Name: Liu Xin | Level: 159] Excuse me? William interrupted their sniping. What! They turned in unison and growled. However, the girl, Liu Xin, immediately turned apologetic. Oh, a neer, Liu Xin winced. Sorry about that. You didnt deserve that anger. How can we help you? B2 - Chapter 43 B2 - Chapter 43 Its alright, William smiled, I was the one who interrupted. I overheard that there was a lecture on formations here? Are these buildings all for that purpose? Wheres your mentor? Ningyu Zhou asked after realizing Wang Xiaoling wasnt even part of the sect. At the auction, William replied, adding more when they frowned. I wanted to explore while he was busy. Hm, I guess your mentor can be excused with the circumstances, Liu Xin''s expression said the opposite. Im Liu Xin, but you can call me Sister Liu. And this is Ningyu Zhou. You can call him Annoying Zhou. You dont speak for me! Ningyu Zhou stood in anger, but it was obviously shallow. You can call me Brother Ningyu. Since your mentor is busy, would you like us to take his ce? We dont have much to do today anyway. William could already see Wang Xiaoling shaking her head. He agreed with her. I wish we could, Seniors, but we must get to the Administrative Peak soon. The most I could do right now is look around on the way there. They seemed curious about why it was necessary to go to the peak but didnt ask about it. Then we wont keep you, Liu Xin nodded. As for the buildings, yes, most are lecture halls. You are free to join any lecture being held if you get there before the start. Thank you, Sister Liu, William bowed slightly. Do you know when the next lecture about formations will take ce? Im aplete beginner, so it would need to be basics only. A beginner, Ningyu Zhou repeated with a slight frown. You might need self-study then. Or you can ask an elder to give you permission to return to the Outer Court. The lecturers there focus on the basics, Liu Xin added. Oh, thats also an option, Ningyu Zhou nodded. However, it will be tough to get that permission. The sect tries to separate outer and inner disciples unless its absolutely necessary. William didnt think he would have much trouble with that. Elder Yu was in his corner. Even without that, he already had free ess to the Outer Court. Thank you again, Seniors, he smiled. Well take our leave. Liu Xin waved. Come find us in the future if you need any help! William stayed silent until they walked out of earshot. There was another reason he didnt want to take them up on their offer. That was rude of them. I apologize, Sister Xiaoling. For what? Wang Xiaoling asked, apparently clueless. Theypletely ignored you. And? She questioned with a raised brow. How is that a surprise. In their view, Im a short-lived mortal. Cultivators, especially ones belonging to a sect like this, couldnt care less about people like me even if they tried. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. That was mostly true. But something else stood out to William. What do you mean, in their view. Are you not a mortal? It was a question he had for a long time, but one he didnt dare to bring up. Now that there was a natural reason to, he jumped at the chance to ask. Do you really think Im just a mortal? Ive seen your face whenever I surprise you. In fact, you deserve an award for not bringing it up before now. I didnt want to push, William lied. Though I did wonder how you could overpower me so easily. Keep wondering, brat, Wang Xiaoling grinned. You wont get anything out of me. That basically confirmed she wasnt a mortal, which made her level all that more suspicious. Just like her ims when they met. Sure, but there is something I deserve to know. How much of what you imed was a lie, Sister Xiaoling? When she stared at him with a nk face, he expanded. When we met. You imed many things that dont fit what I now know. Ah, you remember that, Wang Xiaoling chuckled awkwardly. They are mostly true, even if I did twist them to fit the circumstance. That did little to clear up his confusion. If anything, it added more. Does this mean youre a cultivator? No, Wang Xiaoling denied firmly. I never was, and I never will be a cultivator. William thought he heard a bit of disgust there, but he couldn''t be sure. The reluctance to allow the sect to have a share of the merchant house suddenly had a different possible reasoning other than purely business sense. Then again, Wang Xiaoling treated him pretty well, and he was a cultivator, so the disgust might have been imagined. I hope you know that doesnt help, Sister Xiaoling, William said dryly. It wasnt supposed to, brat, she looked aggressively proud of that. Anyway, lets go meet your elder. I know what to do. He looked at the massive courtyard they were walking toward, the building at the centerrger than the auction house. It was a bigger version of the library in the Outer Court. It was a shame he could only look at it from a distance, but there would be plenty of time to go through it at his leisureter. He needed to rece his most basic martial skills, [Thunderous Palm], [Thunderous Kick], and [Earth-Shaking Stomp]. As useful as they were when he was in the Qi Gathering realm, they would quickly be obsolete. Even now, the diminished effect of the skills was noticeable. Besides that, William needed to find a way to create an Earth-Tier version of [Force Multiplier]. It was still highly effective, but just like his basic martial skills, his trump card would lose more and more effect as his cultivation rose. Not to forget about formations. That was something William intended to study to the best of his abilities. There was a lot to do. It made him feel good. What are you smiling about? Wang Xiaoling asked suspiciously. Nothing, he smirked for no reason whatsoever. You have your secrets. So do I. She rolled her eyes as they left the librarys courtyard. William took a quick path that led them to the entertainment district. He wondered if they would run across Mei Lingxi as they walked into the bustling street. They didnt. It was an uninterrupted walk through the street and into the residential area. Then came the market with stalls set up by the disciples, though it was far emptier than when he was here with the Grand Elder. Like most of the other decreases in traffic around the sect, he med it on the auction. Well, I didnt expect this, Wang Xiaolingmented as they approached the Administration Peak. You havente across any of the peaks? William asked with doubt. After all, they were hard to miss. I had no reason to visit the edges of themon grounds. Not like I was allowed to in the first ce. Ah, right, William muttered distractedly as they stopped. He wasnt sure if they were supposed to just walk up or wait. Thankfully, he didnt have to make a decision. A willowy woman appeared before them, wearing silver robes that threw him off. [Name: Xiu Jing | Level: ?] Wee to the Administration Peak, disciple and guest. Do you have an appointment? Er, no? William grimaced. I didnt know we needed one. I wanted to speak with Elder Yu. Xiu Jing tilted her head, looking like she wasmunicating with someone, before nodding. Elder Yu will meet with you. Follow me. Interlude: Yu Yanhua III Interlude: Yu Yanhua III You might think it was justified, Elder Yu, but I dont appreciate being used in such a way. Yu Yanhua frowned as she nced around. This was not the ce she wished for this to happen. You are greatly misconstruing what I did, Elder Zhiqing. This had been a topic that had been revisited far too much, in her opinion. She understood that her fellow elder felt disrespected about his selected protege getting the worst of the Shard. Still, it was more than a little ridiculous that he felt the need to me it on her. Little Bo was mistreated and harassed! He deserved rpense! And yet you dont say how this rpense would ur, she did her best to not sound irritated. If you give me valid avenues, I will dly help. I already have! That boy Wei, he has benefited greatly, and now you request the council for Superior Spirit Stones! Let me use a few on Little Bo, and I will consider this settled. I said valid avenues, Yu Yanhua said sharply. You know just as well as I that this is not an option. I didnt ask for the Superior Spirit Stones to spend on Disciple Wei. To imply that I did is close to being an usation. If that is your intention, we can proceed to the Punishment Hall. When it seemed Elder Zhiqing wouldnt let her be, she sighed in resignation. Ill request the Sentinel Peak Master to make an exception and open the formation. Would that be enough to settle whatever perceived slight you have with Disciple Wei? Fifteen minutes, Elder Zhiqing added immediately. Yu Yanhua narrowed her eyes. Nobody is allowed that. Three minutes, and that is not a starting point for negotiation. That works, Elder Zhiqing nodded in satisfaction. It has been a pleasure as always, Elder Yu. Let me know when Little Bo is given permission. Yu Yanhua rubbed her brow in frustration and hoped this was thest issue that would pop up. The Sect Master might have permitted her to use the discretionary funds, but such arge amount still needed a nod from the elder council. It would basically be a rubber stamp approval, but the main reason behind it was to inform them of where the funds were being used. Of course, the council wasnt told that Wei Liang was the intended recipient of such arge amount of wealth. It would have raised far too many questions and instantly received the attention of the Grand Elder. The timing was already suspicious enough for the Grand Elder to look closer. Still, the way Yu Yanhua nned this was above the board. Handing the prize to Wei Liang directly was out of the question, but it didnt matter since they intended to do it in an impartial way. Or at least one that seemed impartial to outside eyes. Yu Yanhuas lips twitched in amusement when she remembered the Sect Masters reaction at having to approve three times the originally nned cost. Still, it was to the sects benefit in the end. Three disciples would be able to visit the Deste Land, and one of them would be Wei Liang. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Junior Yu, it seems Zhiqing got on your nerves. Yu Yanhua turned to see Chen Zhi walking toward her with a smile. She looked behind him to see only a few elders still on the peak as they conversed with each other. The far less social brother, Chen Yi, was nowhere to be seen. Senior Chen, she returned his smile. Elder Zhiqing has been pushing for something since Disciple Ren returned to the sect. That was impossible to miss, Chen Zhi chuckled. Still, it doesnt mean you had to give in to his demands, Junior Yu. I know, Yu Yanhua nodded, but he wasnt in the wrong. Disciple Ren has been unsatisfied with his trip to the Shard, and if using the formation on Sentinel Peak will decrease that, so be it. He is on track to enter your peak, Senior Chen. Chen Zhi frowned. His attitude has much to be desired, but Disciple Rens talent in the healing arts cannot be denied. Yu Yanhua agreed silently, waiting for the real reason Chen Zhi chose to speak to her. They were of different generations, with her being a new entrant into the Inner Court when Chen Zhi was about to leave and join the ranks of the elders. The best way to describe their rtionship was as respected colleagues or friendly acquaintances. She only needed one hand to count the times when they had a casual chat with no meaning. Junior Yu, I was thinking There it was. about making the selection a little easier for disciples focused on healing. It took every bit of control Yu Yanhua had to stop from recoiling in shock. It was one thing for someone like Elder Zhiqing to ask for a portion of the approved discretionary funds, but when an elder like Chen Zhi did the same, it generally meant nothing good. Elder Zhiqing was an Inner Court elder. High in status, yes, but still low on the totem pole of power. Elder Chen Zhi was a Peak Master who only answered to the Sect Master and the Grand Elder. For someone like that, to ask for help was not a good sign for the person being asked. Senior, youre putting me in a tough spot, Yu Yanhua frowned. This might have been my request, but the Sect Master is the one that has final approval in the process. Come now, both of us know that the sect has pushed tremendous resources to developing the sentinels. This is another initiative since you are taking the lead, Chen Zhi held up a hand when she opened her mouth to counter. I am not against this, Junior Yu, but the disciples on my White Crane Peak are noticing. There is no doubt it is the same on the other peaks. Yu Yanhuas expression froze before she pressed her lips together. Ill pass your concerns on to the Sect Master. It has already been done, Chen Zhi sighed. Think about it, Junior Yu. The ones talking will be our sects core in the future. They dont see the big picture, but with how the sentinels have been shown favoritism recently, can we me them? No, I understand that, but not how I am to help if the Sect Master already knows of the issue. You have his ear. Perhaps it wont change anything, but if a high-ranking Sentinel shared our concerns, it would weigh on Guan Feng. Telling him once in passing is not enough. Yu Yanhua was left with no choice but to agree. Chen Zhi, a peak master, wasnt asking for anything intrusive, just her support for the well-being of the sect. She would look ungrateful if she denied something so simple. Especially after he had personally helped remove the impurity from Wei Liang. Ill speak to the Sect Master, Senior Chen, Yu Yanhua bowed slightly. The disciples will appreciate this, Chen Zhi smiled apologetically. I know you are ufortable with this. I wish there was another way. No, Im happy to be of help. I didnt know this was this Yu Yanhua stopped, a whisper appearing in her mind. Elder Yu. There is a disciple and an outsider here to meet you. The identity is Wei Liang. She quickly gave permission. Seems you have a visitor, Chen Zhimented. I wont keep you. And Ill remember this favor, Junior Yu. He disappeared, leaving Yu Yanhua staring at the Grand Hall. She was the only one left on the peak. She took a second for herself before shaking her head. If a peak master went to this length, it would be necessary to take the concerns into ount. This also meant the qualifications to get the opportunity to visit the Deste Land would not necessarily be Wei Liangs strength. Speaking of him, Yu Yanhua had to go down the peak to meet the boy. B2 - Chapter 44 B2 - Chapter 44 Senior William cut himself off. She hadnt introduced herself yet. Are you part of the Jade Healing Sect? The looks he received from Xiu Jing and Wang Xiaoling said enough of how they felt about the question. You may call me Senior Xiu, she noticed how she was addressed awkwardly. And yes, I am indeed part of the sect. I am a probationary elder. I see. William didnt see. He didnt know that position existed. Do you have to be in that position long, Senior Xiu? I wouldnt say so, but it depends on the individuals expectation, Disciple Wei. He narrowed his eyes in confusion. He had never introduced himself, nor did he think he was important enough for his name to be well-knownunless that was indeed the case. Xiu Jing led them to apact building that couldnt have beenrger than a storage shed. Of course, with this being the Jade Healing Sect, it would have been the most aesthetic-looking storage shed ever created. Enter, Xiu Jing motioned to the door. Elder Yu is waiting. This was another one of those teleportation doors unless Elder Yu liked to be in pathetically small spaces. Thank you, Senior Xiu, William bowed. He opened the door to confirm that it was indeed a door that led to another area, likely one of the buildings higher up the mountain. He let Wang Xiaoling enter first before following her, closing the door behind them. They were transported to a well-furnished office. A beautiful white desk sat in the center, surface covered in documents and small jade tokens, yet it was somehow organized. The shelves that covered most of the wall behind the desk were just as busy, with manuals leaving no space unfilled. As for the rest of the office, it was minimal yet tastefully designed. The centerpiece was the small seating area consisting of a two-person couch and two single seats that exceeded the quality he had seen on the Red Floor. Xiu Jing was wrong. Elder Yu wasnt waiting for them. So, Wei Liang, is it a hobby of yours to make a terrible first impression? Huh? William replied dumbly. Oh, Senior Xiu, how long will you be stuck in that powerless position? Wang Xiaoling mocked in a deeper voice. I didnt say that! William defended himself. He truly didnt. It sure sounded like it, brat. I warned you to watch your words when we first met, and yet you clearly do not, Wang Xiaoling shook her head. You are in safe territory, so it matters little, but be more careful outside. I would have to agree with those words, Elder Yus voice made both flinch in shock. However, I would say the same applies to you, mortal. Williams eyes darted between Elder Yu and Wang Xiaoling. Whatever thetter was, Elder Yu couldnt sense it. There was no other reason Elder Yu would have called her mortal with such disgust. Before you lecture my disciple, perhaps you should consider your own words. Be careful when you arent in a safe territory. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. This was a disastrous exchange. It was like Wang Xiaoling had personally offended Elder Yu. Whatever it was, he needed to stop it before the n truly fell apart. Its fine, Elder Yu. Sister Xiaoling has known me from the start. She could be considered family. This one? Elder Yu asked with disgust that William started to think he was missing something. Otherwise, this was a severe overreaction. I apologize for any disrespect I may have shown, Elder Yu, Wang Xiaoling bowed deeply. I never intended any. His knowledge of her personality meant that she must have been pained to give an apology where none was needed. Still, there was no sign of that unwillingness in her expression. She was trying. Elder Yu didnt care and looked ready to express how much she didnt care if William hadnt interrupted. Er, Elder Yu, is this really about how Sister Xiaoling spoke to me? He fidgeted when she put her full attention on him. That mortal is a reason I lost a promising talent, Elder Yus re somehow grew stronger. You think Li Xinyue is the only one from her family that had potential? William blinked owlishly as he realized who she was talking about. Li Jie?! You know him? Elder Yus rage was thrown, but only for a moment. No matter. Thats the name. The boy who refused to cultivate to follow this mortal. Elder Yu, I had no idea he made such a decision. Nor did I know he even had the opportunity! Now, I see you next to her, Elder Yu ignored Wang Xiaoling. What has she been whispering in your ear, Disciple Wei? Williamsfortable future was getting increasingly out of reach the more Elder Yu spoke. Fatty Xus cooking. Owning part of a prosperous merchant house. ess to plenty of Spirit Stones. All disappearing. A nce at Wang Xiaoling let him know she was at her limit too. It was possible for her to still throw him around like it was nothing, but that definitely didnt mean she could do the same to a nascent soul realm cultivator. Elder Yu, could we speak in private? William didnt get a reply, but the door behind them opened. Xiu Jing was on the other side. The mortal can wait out there until I call her back. Of course, Wang Xiaoling bowed with an apologetic smile. I hope any misunderstandings are cleared up. William stared at her as she walked out until the door closed, leaving him alone with Elder Yu. He had never seen Wang Xiaoling with such dead eyes. As if all her emotions were suppressed to nothing. It made her look like a different person. Elder Yu, Sister Xiaoling has been of great help to me, and I can be sure that she has nothing to do with Li Jie declining the sect. I dont care for Li Jie, Elder Yu narrowed her eyes. That is in the past. What Im concerned about now is her presence around you. As unlikely as it might be, your will to stay on the path of cultivation cannot be disturbed. William paused. Thats the reason for your anger? Nothing else about Sister Xiaoling? You make it sound trivial. Sister Xiaoling just gave me three thousand five hundred Spirit Stones to buy a martial skill from the auction, William said bluntly. If anything, she is actively helping me to be a better cultivator. That technically wasnt the truth, but it was close enough. Worth it when it stopped Elder Yu in her tracks. Fascinating, a smile formed on her lips. What martial skill is it? Heavenly Thunder Scripture. The smile grewrger. A martial skill to negate your weakness. Er, yes. Elder Yu tilted her head, staring at him for a long second. What does she want in return? Im assuming this must be why you came here. Well, it just so happens that she started a new merchant house. With the sect having close ties to Qingyun City, it would help greatly if the merchant house was given assistance to grow there, William didnt want to say more with Wang Xiaolings warning in mind, but the frown on Elder Yus face made him throw out the consideration. Im also a part owner. So Sister Xiaoling isnt the only one being helped! He thought there was no chance when the frown didnt disappear. It grew even more severe. He was frantically trying to decide what else to say before Elder Yu suddenly chuckled. This day wasnt so terrible after all. Elder Yu? Williams hopes rose. He didnt even have to mention Fatty Xu and his miraculous cooking. Though that had always been ast resort. Using him as a bargaining chip didnt feel right not that he wouldnt resort to it if needed. Ill listen to her proposal, Disciple Wei. The door opened immediately after she finished the sentence. Wang Xiaoling looked at Elder Yu warily before stepping into the office. B2 - Chapter 45 B2 - Chapter 45 It seems that you have something of interest for me. William stepped back when Elder Yu spoke, letting the two discuss what they needed without him right next to them. He also wanted to minimize the chance of another conflict starting because of him. Little Liang, youre involved too, Wang Xiaoling stopped him. Stay. So much for not being involved. Little Liang, was it? Elder Yu almost sneered. I heard you call Disciple Wei a brat. Unless I misheard? And so much for thinking she would tone down the strangely aggressive way of talking. William recalled that Elder Yu implied that the day had been terrible so far. Still, believing she couldntpartmentalize her emotions as an experienced cultivator was hard for him. More importantly, Wang Xiaoling had a look on her face that meant nothing good. It was usually followed by insults or the like, and that would be a death sentence here. Sister Xiaoling! Why dont you talk about your intentions in Qingyun City! And the help the merchant house can give to the sect! You went over this on the way here Youre right. I called him a brat. So what? I knew the kid since I almost ran him over with my wagon! Before he ever met anyone from your sect! Wang Xiaoling lost her temper, likely not having even heard William. He let out an audible groan and buried his face into his hands. You were doing so well, his voice was muffled. Why did you ruin everything now? So what? I dont want help from someone like her anyway! Wang Xiaoling continued to dig herself into a deeper hole. I''d rather let the merchant house die than stomach this any longer! Enough. Williams heart skipped a beat when a subtle weight pressed down on his body. His hands fell away from his face to see the room dimmer than before. Elder Yu was giving Wang Xiaoling a death re, and it was far too effective. Wang Xiaoling was trembling as she struggled to stay on her feet. Clearly, she was feeling far more pressure than he was at the moment. Likely Elder Yus intention. It felt like a significantly diluted version of what he experienced when Sophia made him fall unconscious with her sheer presence. The n was no longer a concern. He needed to save Wang Xiaolings life. He wouldnt stand by and let her be killed like Cao Rui was by Lan Yin. As terrible as it was to think about, he didnt have much attachment to Cao Rui. It was strangely easy to gloss over his death and put it in the far reaches of his mind. That would not be the case with Wang Xiaoling. Elder You are acting, Elder Yu interrupted William and looked curious as she walked to the trembling Wang Xiaoling. W-What are you talking about? This, Elder Yu motioned her hand at her, the pressure in the room increasing drastically. William could feel his throat constricting as breathing became a chore, and talking was practically impossible. Wang Xiaoling was experiencing far worse. She had copsed in a heap on the floor. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition. For the first time, he felt a hot anger pierce through his body, all directed at Elder Yu. He already knew it was likely that Wang Xiaolings life would end today. There was only one choice left now, and all it would do was dy her death. Escape was impossible. Not when they were inside the Jade Healing Sect. Not when they were on the Administration Peak, where there was no doubt multiple elders always had a presence. Especially not when Elder Yu, a nascent soul realm cultivator specializing inbat, was the opponent. No, escape would be the worst thing to attempt. Appealing to Elder Yus mercy was the only way, and that required him to have the ability to speak. Still an act, Elder Yumented. She was standing over Wang Xiaolings trembling body. How is this possible? [-200 Spiritual Energy] Qi burst into existence around his body, flickering like blue mes. Activating [Force Multiplier] let him move his body, but he could still feel a slight pressure surrounding him. Williams body blurred as he used every bit of his enhanced strength to move between Elder Yu and Wang Xiaoling, an already unwise move that became terrible at the unimpressed look he was receiving. Still, he tried to defend Wang Xiaoling. Sister Xiaoling is just stressed, Elder Yu. Theres no reason to hurt her. Exile her! Or fines! Or both! William tensed when Elder Yu poked at his forehead. Dodging wasnt an option since it was done before he could react. It didnt hurt him, but [Force Multiplier] immediately deactivated, leaving him helpless once again. Before he could even think about giving it another try, he felt his Qi slow to a crawl inside his spiritual pathways. It was a familiar feeling. One that he despised. Instead of the Baleful Star Medallion, Elder Yu caused it. Williams body copsed like a string was cut, but instead of hitting the floor, he stayed afloat. Do you know what I demanded of Prince Yuan? Elder Yu asked casually, eyes locked on Wang Xiaolings body with interest. William couldnt speak, so he said nothing. The question was rhetorical. I took Mei Lingxi away from him, but I originally asked for his life. A reasonable request after he disrespected me by not showing me respect. William shuddered when Elder Yu looked at him. What do you think Ill do to a mortal that doesnt put me in her eyes? A mortal that courts death by insulting me in my sect? This was the end of Wang Xiaoling. If she had just gone to the auction like she had nned, nothing of this would have If you care about Disciple Wei whatsoever, you will stop your act right now. He is already resigned to your death. Unless your so-called rtionship with him is worth less than nothing. William thought he was seeing Elder Yus sadistic side for the first time, but when Wang Xiaoling stopped trembling and sighed, his mind went nk. She stood up, the frown of her lips growingrger when she looked at his floating body. So there was some truth in your affection, at the very least, Elder Yu tilted her head. I never thought I would see one of your kind in my lifetime. You should be dead at this age. Well Im alive, Wang Xiaoling motioned at her own body, as you can see. Hmm, Elder Yu looked her up and down as if she had never seen anything like her. You truly are courting death bying here. Williams heart picked up speed, making Elder Yu raise a brow. Calm yourself, Disciple Wei. She will not be harmed. That gave visible relief to both William and Wang Xiaoling. How do you survive Elder Yu cut herself off. That can be discussedter. You wanted my help. Very well, you have it. He was so stunned by the about-face that he barely registered that his Qi was no longer slowed, nor did the pressure around his body as he was let back on his feet. Really? Williams body might not have realized it was free, but his mouth certainly did. Indeed, Elder Yu replied. If you think of her as a close rtive, then it is only right that I do my best to help. He doubted that was the reason but wouldnt dig for the truth. They got what was needed. What do you want in return? Wang Xiaoling asked with suspicion. William found it foolish. It was like asking a predator why it was letting them go. You will know after I speak to the Sect Master, Elder Yu paused, heading to her desk and picking out an inconspicuous jade token. She handed it to Wang Xiaoling. Keep this on your person at all times. You will never be discovered as long as you do. William saw something unexpected as Wang Xiaoling pocketed the jade token. [Name: Wang Xiaoling | Level: 10] That had previously shown her level as three. The level now at ten reminded him of Prince Yuan, who he suspected to have possession of something that confuses the system. Step out once more, Elder Yu ordered. I must speak to Disciple Wei in private. Wang Xiaoling looked at William quizzically, and with a little suspicion? He wasnt sure why, but there was no other option here. He nodded. It was enough for her to exit the office. B2 - Chapter 46 B2 - Chapter 46 There was nothing said for a few seconds after Wang Xiaoling left. The sudden reversal of expectations, while preferred, still rattled William, so he appreciated the time to gather himself. What did you expect to achieve by using Force Multiplier? Elder Yu didnt look offended, just genuinely curious. I needed to be able to speak, and that was the only way possible, William replied. I didnt know you had no intention of harming her, Elder Yu. I apologize for assuming you would. Hm, Elder Yu crossed her arms. Im not sure if I shouldmend your bravery or not. What would you have done if there was another cultivator in my ce with a simr cultivation realm? He opened his mouth, intending to say that he wouldnt be so rash but that might not be true. There was no way to know for sure without that actual situation happening. So it wasnt bravery, but stupidity, Elder Yu frowned. No, William shook his head before pausing. Well, notpletely. I would have tried to help Sister Xiaoling, but instead of immediately putting myself in harm''s way, I would offer something in exchange. Not the best n, but better, Elder Yu seemed mollified. I would still prefer that you retreat from such a situation, but that isnt always realistic. He watched her go to her desk and pick up two jade tokens simr to the one she had given to Wang Xiaoling. Youll be holding on to these, Elder Yu returned, offering the tokens to him. Merchant Wang will need them for her continued life. [Equip Detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Cost | 1 Spiritual Energy per day] [Equip has use limit | 100 days] William nced over the system messages, quickly understanding why he was given these after seeing the time limit. It was to provide him with more control over Wang Xiaoling. If he was really paranoid, it was also to let him know that Elder Yu had more of these to give if necessary, and it would depend on her grace. It just so happens that William was really paranoid. He didnt think that she meant him any harm, but he also wasnt naive enough to assume that extended to Wang Xiaoling. What are these, Elder Yu? And why would Sister Xiaolings life be in danger? Those are concealment tokens. Expensive to make and even harder to buy without knowing the right people. As for Merchant Wang, do you know what a living furnace is? Williams expression froze in shock. He shouldnt know anything about them since he never bothered to find any details while at the library. Mainly because he had no intention of doing anything so savage. However, they weremonly seen in cultivation novels. Tragic figures that were exploited from childhood, groomed to high cultivation before it was all ripped away to benefit someone else. He put that on the same level of savagery as the trash who used souls to cultivate. Ah, so you know, Elder Yu said with a raised brow. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It was something that I learned a little about in the Shard, William lied, using the secret realm as a convenient excuse again. Then you know the Empress ouwed the use of living furnaces long ago. So why would her life be in Because the benefit is just too great, Elder Yu interrupted. Even the Empire will not enforce thatw. Not when some in the imperial family use it to great effect. William clenched his fists in worry. He had assumed there was something special about Wang Xiaoling, but not like this. It wasnt something that ever passed his thoughts when he wondered what it could be. She had been toofortable around cultivators, and her presence at the heart of a powerful sect meant she was either careless or stupid. If he had to guess, her greed for money made her both. How will this help her? William asked, lifting the token in his grip. Merchant Wangs acting was excellent, but I could sense that she was not affected by my Qi pressure. The concealment token will obscure a cultivators ability to sense her. Why wasnt she affected? He frowned. Is that something rted to her being a living furnace? So you dont know much about them. Good, I was a little concerned, Elder Yu chuckled before going to the shelf. There are different levels of living furnaces. Their quality, if you will. She sounded disgusted, which William was d to recognize. He felt dirty just talking about this. Most living furnaces can get to the Nascent Soul Realm with their inherent talent, Elder Yu pulled a manual from the shelf before returning. Some are cursed to do more than that. This will exin what you need to know. William took the offered manual before storing it in his ring, doing the same for the tokens. He wondered why it was so thick. Were there so many variations? If there were, how many living furnaces were used to fill such a manual. So, which one is Sister Xiaoling? She is the kind that wouldnt live to see the next minute if a cultivator discovers her, even if the cultivator is usually kind. There are a few reasons a cultivator could be resistant to external Qi, but Merchant Wang is a mortal. With her, there is only one exnation. Not only is she a living furnace, she is also a perfect living pill furnace. She is one of the few ways to create an Ascension Pill. Ascension as in the immortal realm? He blinked at her stupidly when she nodded. Is she safe in the sect? Truthfully? Not until I gave her the token. But its unbelievably hard to detect someone like her, and I only did so because of chance. Thank you, Elder Yu, William bowed deeply, thinking of Wang Xiaolings outburst as even stupider than before. All she had to do was keep herself calm and this would have never happened. The only good thing that came out of this were the tokens. Even if the tokens were a form of control over Wang Xiaoling, it was eptable. She would likely have a fate worse than death without them. He wasnt sure how Wang Xiaoling had survived until now, but he was confident it had something to do with her undeniably high luck, plus the likelihood of not being around powerful cultivators. That would no longer be the case with her starting the Rising Merchant House. If she entered the wealthiest sect in the Tianxia Empire to do business at such an early stage, it was likely it would be amon urrence to be around high-level cultivators in the near future. Even Wang Xiaolings high luck, destiny, or whatever was helping her, it would have been inevitable for her to be discovered. It was a simple fix, Elder Yu waved him off. Aside from your friend being the equivalent of a peak treasure to cultivators, what are you nning on doing with the merchant house? You mentioned you own part of it. William had been thinking about that but hadnt reallye to a decision. He was ill-suited for management, and with Wang Xiaolings skill at it, he didnt think it would be wise to do so anyway. Still, with the need to help establish the merchant house in Qingyun City, he would need to be involved somehow, even if it was indirectly. Sister Lingxi! William blurted out. She was a manager at the treasure pavilion. Its not the same, but surely her experience will help with the merchant house. Thats an option, one I approve of. I was a little concerned you would waste time on this, Elder Yu smiled. Speaking of Attendant Mei, where is she? Ah, shes exploring themon grounds while Im at the auction. William kept Lan Yang out of his answer. He wasnt sure if it was an issue for Mei Lingxi to be away from him. I see, Elder Yu raised her hand and extended her pointing finger. Lets see what she had to say about this. Williams eyes bulged in surprise when she swiped down, the air ripping along her finger to create a portal with Mei Lingxi staring at them from the other side. B2 - Chapter 47 B2 - Chapter 47 Young Master!? Elder Yu!? Mei Lingxi said in shock. Beauty Mei, who are youan elder! An unknown cultivatormented from out of view. Williams lip twitched in amusement at hearing the male voice. It was nice to feel something else after being in a constant state of concern. Even if it was at the expense of whoever the poor man was. Attendant Mei, your presence is required. Step through the portal. Yes, Elder Yu, Mei Lingxi quickly gathered some manuals and papers on the desk behind her before doing as ordered. The portal closed behind her. Greetings, Elder Yu, Mei Lingxi smiled sweetly. And to you too, Young Master. You left me to wander around themon grounds for a few days. Can I assume you were at the auction? Ah, right, William flushed with embarrassment. He had forgotten she wasnt aware. Senior Lan took me there without warning. I see. I had so much fun the past fewdays, and it would be a shame if you didnt experience the same, Mei Lingxis tone was so sarcastic even a fool could recognize it. This can be discussed when not in my presence. Attendant Mei, you were called to take on a task. Disciple Wei now owns part of a merchant house that the sect will soon support from a distance. To avoid distracting him with such matters, you will be the ones to make decisions on his behalf. Mei Lingxis sour expression immediately brightened. Truly? Indeed, Elder Yu pointed at the door, which was getting a lot of use. The majority owner is past that door. Discuss with her about the best way you can help. Remember that this is still secondary to your duties to Disciple Wei. Of course! Mei Lingxi chirped and looked eager to leave, but she addressed William first.Young Master, these are notes I took during a lecture about formations. I also had help from Doormaer, a kind disciple who gave me manuals that a beginner should focus on learning first. William took the handwritten notes and manuals she had in her hands with a surprised expression. Thank you, Sister Lingxi. Youre wee! We can talkter! Mei Lingxi rushed to the door, opening it to see Wang Xiaoling and Xiu Jing on the other side. Greetings! Which one of you owns the merch The door closed, cutting off Mei Lingxis sentence. She had gotten morefortable, Elder Yumented. Sister Lingxi was always eager with her new role, but that has increased since Zheng Tao revealed himself as a traitor. William stored what Mei Lingxi gave him in his ring. He had a starting point with learning formations, but everything must be double-checked. He doubted that it would be necessary, but there was no way he would risk learning the wrong information again, not after his experience with Zheng Tao. Good. Attendant Mei will be an asset to you if she is invested, Elder Yu chuckled. With all the misceneous issues out of the way, tell me, have you made good use of the Qi refining room at the auction house? This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. William was a little taken aback, but it didnt take more than a moment to understand Elder Yus focus. She likely didnt care much about Wang Xiaoling being a living furnace or about the merchant house. Not whenpared to his progress in cultivation. He hadnt been blind to how much attention he received from the sect. It''s too bad he would have to disappoint her about what he had done in the Qi refining room. I mastered martial arts at the novice level, William revealed, quickly adding his reasoning when Elder Yus expression changed. I attempted to cultivate, but my progress was too slow for the short time I had with the refining room. It was slow for you, Elder Yu repeated with some disbelief. I suppose I can see why you would choose to learn martial arts. Your Force Multiplier would be helped slightly if you are proficient. However, I ask you to stop going further until you learn Heavenly Thunder Scripture. William nodded, though reluctant. Senior Lan warned me that gaining a higher mastery will be exponentially more difficult. Indeed. It is only worth your time if you have no other skill to perfect, Elder Yu confirmed what Lan Yang said. Make sure to have Disciple Yang help you with Heavenly Thunder Scripture. I want you to master the Human-Tier before you venture out of the sect. Even better if you start to learn the Earth-Tier. Fixing your weakness is mandatory. Yes, Elder Yu, William agreed. He intended to do that anyway. He didn''t n to be helpless if closebat wasn''t an option. Do you have any other questions? If you do, this is the time to ask. Ill leave the sect soon for an undetermined amount of time. He stared in surprise. He did have some but felt they were best saved for ater time when he knew more about Elder Yus motivations. Then again, what had transpired in the office told William more than he could have ever hoped. He already had trust in Elder Yu when she kept his secrets after returning from the Shard; now, that trust was heightened. She didnt blink an eye at keeping Wang Xiaolings situation a secret. Elder Yu might not have been able to use this Ascension Pill for herself, but there was no doubt a iling Dao Seeker would have rewarded her with riches that boggled the mind if Wang Xiaoling was handed over. William didnt fool himself by thinking Elder Yu was doing all of this out of the goodness of her heart. Still, whatever her goal was, it seemed that it was near impossible to move her from it. I need help choosing a Heaven-Tier martial skill. Choose? Elder Yu frowned. Who is offering you a choice between Heaven-Tier skills? When I said I gained a Heaven-tier Martial Skill from the Shard, it wasnt a lie, but there is more to it. I have a choice between five martial skills, and I get to choose the one I prefer. Elder Yu stared at him silently. Long enough that he felt the need to break the silence. Elder Yu? She shook her head slightly. Thats hard to process, Disciple Wei. Heaven-tier martial skills are best chosen when you know what you specialize in. That involves understanding Dao, which is still far out of your reach. In fact, it could even be fatal before the Core Formation Realm. William already assumed most of that, and as for thest sentence, he had personally experienced it. There was a reason he refused to think of regaining ess to Perception Dao. Daoist Chen had outright told him that his life wouldnt be saved a second time, and he didnt want to take a gamble on it. The most frightening part of previously gaining ess to Perception Dao was that he had no idea why it had happened. It was buried in the deep recesses of his mind, but there was a constant fear that the same thing would happen again. If a regr observation of the food market was enough to trigger it, anything could cause its reactivation. Is there a way to prevent understanding Dao? Elder Yu stared at him again. She was doing that frequently. Prevent? Do you think it is so easy to understand? Most cultivators dont touch a Dao until they reach the Nascent Soul realm. It should be good to know he was an outlier here, but unfortunately, it happened to be fatal to be too good. Still, is there a way to prevent it? William pressed. Elder Yu narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Your reluctance will be enough to prevent you from ever understanding Dao. It requires eptance, not wariness. Remove such an unnecessary fear, Disciple Wei. You are only going to hold yourself back in the future. He forced himself to nod solemnly and not show his relief. Yes, Elder Yu. Good. Tell me of the Heaven-Tier skills you can choose from. Maybe we can rule out some that are tantly ill-suited for you. William doubted it would be so easy since Sophia had told him all the martial skills would suit him. Still, Elder Yu was right. She could help him prioritize the skills. B2 - Chapter 48 B2 - Chapter 48 [Name: Divine Dragon w] [Description: A swipe of the hand that summons a dragon w made of Qi, which can grab and crush enemies from afar. The w can also bebined with the users Dao, creating unique variations that increase the effectiveness of the skill. Overuse of the skill will cause the user to take on draconic traits.] [Name: Celestial Lotus Palm] [Description: A palm strike that creates arge lotus flower made of qi, which can envelop and trap targets inside. The lotus flower can also release a fragrance that can calm the mind and heal the body or a poison that can corrode the soul. Using either fragrance or poison will cause the user to experience the reverse of the targets inside the lotus flower.] [Name: Divine Phoenix Feather] [Description: A skill that allows the user to transform into a phoenix, gaining its attributes at a variable cost. The phoenix can also heal any wound and regenerate any lost limb, making the user virtually immortal while the skill is active. The overuse of the skill will attract the attention of the Immortal Phoenix, who will seek to im your soul for its descendants.] [Name: Heaven Shattering Fist] [Description: A punch that unleashes a shockwave of pure Qi, capable of shattering mountains and cracking the sky. The shockwave can travel for hundreds of miles, destroying anything in its path.] [Name: Nine Suns Palm] [Description: A palm strike that emits up to nine beams of golden light, each representing one of the nine suns in the ancient legend. The beams can pierce through any defense and burn anything they touch, including the very soul of the targets. A heavy price is exacted after each use of this skill, crippling the user to a state equal to the weakest of their cultivation realm until healed.] He nced over the information before realizing there might be an issue. The idea of choosing a Heaven-tier martial skill. Elder Yu didnt say anything about the oddness of having a choice without someone to present him with what he picked. In his case, the system would be giving him the pick, but its not like that wasmon in this world. Either Elder Yu was still rattled about him having the option to have his pick between multiple Heaven-tier martial skills, or things like this happened more often than he thought. Whatever it was, William had no intention of bringing attention to it unless Elder Yu asked him directly. He would decide how to proceed then. Elder Yu, do you have something I could write on? She stepped to her desk and pulled out a piece of nk paper and a pen. This isnt necessary. You could just tell me the details. Its better this way, William picked up the pen and started to write down the details. Some of the descriptions of what can be done with the skills are unbelievable. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. So it seems, Elder Yu agreed, picking up the paper after he was finished. Her usually nk expression was anything but that. Who did you get these from, Disciple Wei? She was rereading the paper, finding it more interesting than looking at him, which was fair. William would feel the same. However, the question concerned him. From the Shard, Elder Yu. Yes, she finally looked at him, but who? I have heard of some of these, but most have been lost to time. William fidgeted, not wanting to reveal Sophia was directly involved. However, he also didnt know if getting away with a lie that was too specific was possible. After all, he knew very little about the Shardpared to Elder Yu. Lord Paddlington was another option, but revealing the turtle was risky since it could easily lead to its creator, Sophia. The Empress was involved. Or Elder Yu would figure out where it came from without him having to reveal anything. No need to say anything, Disciple Wei. The lucky few who came across the treasures the Empress left behind were usually restricted in speaking of it. William took the offered excuse as his truth. Thank you, Elder Yu. I wasnt sure how to exin. She had returned to reading over what he had written. The benefit of martial skills at the Heaven-tier is that there is nothing of a higher tier until the immortal realm. They are the peak martial skills a cultivator can learn in this world. He nodded, though Elder Yu wasnt looking at him. He hadnt been aware that a higher tier could be learned in the immortal realm, but that didnt matter much since everyone in that realm was forced to ascend. Nothing to worry about until much, muchter. In a sense, they could be considered an equalizer, Elder Yu continued. A talented cultivator can start to learn a Heaven-tier martial skill in the Core Formation realm, and there have been instances where such cultivators fully mastered a Heaven-tier martial skill to kill someone at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm. Williams heart skipped a beat. He wanted to have that type of security. There is one issue here that cant be fixed, Disciple Wei. Finding the corresponding lower-tier skills for most of these will be nearly impossible. You will have to take on the task of creating a Human-tier and Earth-tier skill that is perfectlypatible, which is a near impossibility. He had forgotten to include that part. Er, that wont be an issue. Whichever skill I pick, I will get all the three tiers. Elder Yu nced at him for a moment before she chuckled. Of course you will. Very well, in that case, the choices here are fairly straightforward. There is one there that I can rule out immediately. Divine Phoenix Feather. Why is that? William frowned. It was actually one of his favorites. The idea of transforming into a phoenix and bing immortal for the skill''s duration sounded like the ultimate safety card. Anything that attracts the attention of a divine beast is to be avoided. What I dislike the most is how vague the requirements are to draw its attention. What if overuse in this context means using it a few times? He grimaced before reluctantly agreeing. That makes sense. Next, I would suggest that you discard Celestial Lotus Palm. This reeks of the Karma Dao. You will be toeing a fine line to prevent the heavens from punishing you; that is not a metaphor. An imbnce will attract Heavenly Punishment, which will erase your soul. William nodded rapidly, throwing that skill out of consideration without hesitation. That leaves three, Elder Yu hummed in thought. Nine Suns Palm is a well-known martial skill with historical records detailing its advantages and disadvantages. In short, it is a skill that usually ends in pyrrhic victory. However, this skill will also allow you to kill cultivators above you by a major realm. Are the other two skills too weak for that? All Heaven-tier martial skills have the potential to let you fight above your realm. The difference with Nine Suns Palm is that you do not need full mastery over it to do so. Elder Yu ruled out Divine Phoenix Feather and Celestial Lotus Palm, then spoke about Nine Suns Palm. He hoped it was the worst of the three that werent eliminated because the skill was overpowered in his perspective. It would be a dream to have two martial skills which were better. B2 - Chapter 49 B2 - Chapter 49 What about Divine Dragon w? William brought attention to the one he was most interested in out of the two left. The penalty for that is vague, just like Divine Phoenix Feather. That it is, Elder Yu nodded, and in some ways, its barely better than attracting a divine beast. Draconic traits might mean mannerisms or their physical form, which would turn you into something other than human. Before I say anything else, did you write down every detail you know of the skill? Its all there, William promised. Then even with that penalty, Divine Dragon w is a martial skill you must seriously consider. I have only heard of a few that would incorporate Dao into the martial skill, and all of them have been used by peak existences that have long since ascended. Empress Sophia was one of them. Shouldnt that automatically make this the martial skill to choose? William asked unsurely. There was a lot of praise associated with it that the others couldntpare with. It should, Elder Yu agreed. Lets take myself as an example. I have some understanding of Space Dao. Although the skills attack description seems mediocre, incorporating Space Dao could make it monstrous. Think of the possibility of manipting the space around the w to make it unpredictable. With enough understanding of Space Dao, you could also store the w in a pocket dimension to use as an ambush. Maybe even pulling your enemy into the void. William felt she could go on for a while with the possibilities, but a question was sticking out in his mind. Er, shouldnt I be able to do that with any martial skill? Why would I be stopped from using a Dao to enhance the others? You would think so, but no, Elder Yu shook her head. It would depend on how the skill was created. Something like the Divine Dragon w is unheard of. Your description implies that every Dao is applicable. If this wasnt from Empress Sophia, I would question its existence. He nodded slowly, mind going in another direction altogether. If the only thing special about [Divine Dragon w] was itspatibility with Dao, his interest in it was significantly lowered. As awesome as creating a dragon w made out of Qi would be, he thought he already had something even better. [Force Multiplier] could have real potential if he could take it all the way to Heaven-tier while also incorporating whatever Dao he eventually specialized in. The issue was he had no idea of how to do it and the difficulty involved. Elder Yu, William started thoughtfully, would it be possible for me to make Force Multiplier aparable martial skill to Divine Dragon w? She made to reply before stopping herself, frowning as she studied him. I would usually advise against it, but its not out of the question. Remember, even though you created that martial skill, making it an Earth-tier skill is exponentially harder. Again, when trying to make it a Heaven-tier. This is without considering the issue of incorporating the use of Dao. So not impossible, William replied with hope. No, its not, Elder Yu fell silent, pursing her lips in thought for a few seconds before sighing. I can see why you wish to go this route. However, this is not something I feelfortable advising you on since I have no experience with it. I understand, Elder Yu, William nodded. Even with the minimal information, he was already leaning toward rejecting [Divine Dragon w]. The penalty was simply not worth it if there was an alternative he could create himself. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. As if reading his thoughts, she added another warning. One more thing to consider. While the penalty of the Divine Dragon w mightno, is harsh, there is no guarantee that yours will be less severe if you manage to seed in creating it. It will depend on your skill. He winced, somehow having forgotten that [Force Multiplier] had its own undesirable overuse side effects. Right, Ill keep that in mind. Hm, moving on to thest martial skill, Heaven Shattering Fist. This one is the most recognizable, with numerous records detailing the effects of the skill. I would have ruled this out for you since you are not a body cultivator, but for reasons beyond me, you have somehow made yourself into a pseudo-body cultivator. It wasnt on purpose, but that does seem to be the case, William chuckled awkwardly. Where would you rank this, Elder Yu? It would depend. Do you intend to continue with your current path? Or are you going to pivot to traditional cultivation techniques? Er, shouldnt you guide me with that? Do you feel unsatisfied? Or have a sense that you are in danger of experiencing disaster with your current path? No, William denied firmly. He felt that everything had been going well for him so far. Then I will not tell you what your path should be. Nor should you listen to anyone else who tries to do so. Even if well-intentioned, they will not know what is best for you, nor do I. It will just be a guess. Think of me as an option ofst resort. Yes, Elder Yu, William nodded. With that being the case, he quite enjoyed using his fists to solve his issues. Where would you rank Heaven Shattering Fist if I continued my current path? It would be interchangeable with Divine Dragon w, Elder Yu looked pained to admit that. Heaven Shattering Fist has little to no downsides butes at the cost of having a simple effect. The description you wrote down isnt wrong, technically, but its not as impressive as it sounds. Especially against other cultivators. William thought over it silently as Elder Yu walked to her shelf and searched the manuals. Wouldnt this be replicated by Force Multiplier if I can create a Heaven-tier version? It would, Elder Yu agreed as she pulled out two manuals of a smaller size. Again, this assumes that you will be able to seed. Here. William once again found himself epting manuals. Just like the others, nothing told him what it was about. What are these for? Records of Nine Suns Palm and Heaven Shattering Fist. Witness ounts of the times they were used and the confirmed details of the skills. I gave you my opinions, but you must decide which martial skill suits you best. He stored the manuals in his ring before bowing deeply. Thank you again. Hm, it is what I should do, Elder Yu smiled. Im happy you werefortable asking me, Disciple Wei. I know it could not have been easy. William returned the smile. You have been nothing but helpful to me, Elder Yu. As I said, it is what I should do, Elder Yu repeated, though she was clearly happier than before. Shall we see if Attendant Mei has figured out her new position? Im sure you must be eager to return to the auction and im your winnings. He blinked in surprise as he followed her to the door. It brought up something thatpletely passed his mind. Elder Yu, would it be possible to use the Qi refining room at the auction house after the auction ends? I was wondering if this woulde up, sheughed lightly. Unfortunately, no, its not possible. The way they are built requires all the formations at the auction house to be active, which is far too expensive for the sect to bear for one disciple. Oh, Williams shoulders slumped. I hoped otherwise. The rooms at the auction house are excellent but not the best the sect has to offer, Elder Yu said in constion. For a fee, you can rent a Qi Refining room on one of the peaks. Of course, this requires a good rtionship with a peak member. So I would get ess to one on the Sentinel Peak? Perhaps, Elder Yu smirked. But that will be up to you, and so will the costs, unlike in the auction house. Im sure you wouldnt want other disciples to view you as privileged. William privately thought it was already toote for that. Any more questions? He thought about it seriously before shaking his head. Then lets get you back to the auction house. Elder Yu opened the door leading to the base of the mountain. B2 - Chapter 50 B2 - Chapter 50 William followed Elder Yu out to see Wang Xiaoling and Mei Lingxi getting along like old friends. Xiu Jing didnt seem nearly enthused as she stood to the side with a bored look on her face. the city council. The sect will be able to get us a favorable meeting. Attendant Mei, please refrain from making promises that you might not be able to keep, Elder Yu reprimanded dryly. Elder Yu! Mei Lingxi had been so engrossed in her conversation that she hadnt realized a new audience was listening. The sect cant help? It doesnt matter if the sect can or cannot. Confirm with me before you make Merchant Wang any assurances. Of course, Mei Lingxi acquiesced. However, arranging a meeting with the Qingyun Citys council is necessary for most of our ns to be effective. Preferably with the support of a near majority of the sitting members. Any sect dealings with outside organizations must go through the sect master or the elder council. Minor matters such as this can be done under my name, so avoid any connection with the sect to be safe. As you say, Elder Yu! Mei Lingxi agreed happily, turning to a far less exuberant Wang Xiaoling. Sister Wang, looks like we can get started immediately. So it seems, Wang Xiaoling nodded with a slight smile. William assumed the conversation with Elder Yu was still weighing on her mind. Wang Xiaolings expression had be reserved the moment she saw them walk out. He decided to save her. Sister Xiaoling, I was going to head back to the auction. Why dont you and Sister Lingxie with me? We might catch the end of it. Mei Lingxi perked up. That sounds like an excellent You must pass on that, Attendant Mei, Elder Yu interrupted. Ill need the details of your n of action. Ah, Mei Lingxi, to her credit, didnt get flustered. Ill join you soon, Young Master. Sister Wang, may our cooperation be fruitful! William waved at them before they entered Elder Yus office and noticed that Wang Xiaoling was visibly more rxed. Follow me, Xiu Jing didnt seem to be in the mood to make small talk as she led them back to the mountain''s edge. Thank you, Senior Xiu, William offered as a farewell when they reached. Hm. He blinked at Xiu Jings retreating back. That was rude. Sister Xiaoling, did we somehow offend her? Hm? Wang Xiaoling stared at him, clueless. What was that? Nothing, William let it go. He wanted to speak with her about her being a living furnace, but that wasnt wise with them walking through themon grounds. That was for the best since Wang Xiaoling clearly wasnt in the mood to talk in the first ce. He would give her some time before bringing it back up. It wasnt like she would be far from the sect he didnt actually know that for sure. Will you be staying for a while? William asked, expanding when Wang Xiaoling looked at him curiously. You were talking to Sister Lingxi and seemed to havee to an agreement. Wang Xiaoling finally seemed to regain the spark she had while speaking to Mei Lingxi. Maybe for a month or two until its time to move into Qingyun City. System alerts popped up immediately, but he was experienced enough by now to know he couldnt just stare at them in the middle of a conversation. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition. Thats great, Sister Xiaoling! William smiled. Youll be safer here anyway. Hm. She didnt look enthused at the idea. The uninterested reply also told him that she preferred not to speak. William took that the sign to read his alerts. [Side Quest Completed | Fatty Xu makes delicious food with miraculous effects. Keep him nearby] [You now have ess to Fatty Xus cooking] [+3000 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] He hadpletely forgotten about that side quest, and he was surprised that such a small amount of experience points could push him to the next level. Come to think of it, he couldnt remember thest time he had looked at his stats. William supposed the safety of staying in the sect yed arge part. Still, he was curious about it now. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 117 Experience: 248/14625 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 1080/1080 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 216 Strength: 110 Stamina: 110 Agility: 120 Luck: 150 Points: 232 Most of what he saw didnt surprise him. He had been vaguely aware of where his stats were at, even if the exact numbers were unknown to him. However, the thing that shocked him wasnt something he generally paid attention to. After all, it had never changed since he came to this world. His age. At some point during the time William ignored his stats, he turned fourteen. He mentally queried the system about the exact time, but as was typical, he was ignored. Something wrong? He nced at Wang Xiaoling, seeing that she was asking the question with no real interest. He never thought that he would miss being called brat or whatever other slightly insulting thing she deemed fit, depending on mood. William had to remind himself she was likely going through an upheaval. Time would let her recover. Its nothing, he waved off her show of concern. With how easily Wang Xiaoling epted it without grilling him like she usually would, he could confirm she didnt really care. He pressed his lips together and turned into a smaller street leading out of the residential area. He would need to find a ce where she wouldnt be disturbed while she was out of it. The hotel wouldnt do. Maybe the dwelling he would be assigned in themon grounds. William shoved that out of mind, resolving to deal with it when it came up. There was one more thing he had ignored in addition to his stats. The quests that he had active. Otherwise, he wouldnt have been surprised bypleting one of them unintentionally. Side Quests (6): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Mission: Investigating Strange urrences 3. Kill Zheng Tao and the cell he belongs to 4. Visit the Jade Cauldron Peak 5. Be a martial arts expert 6. Help Rising Merchant House gain a foothold in Qingyun City Of all the quests, the first two could be put on the lowest priority. The first was a quest that wouldnt bepleted for years, so nothing to pay attention to. As for the second, he still wasnt sure ifpleting it was worth the effort. The reward was only a hundred points, an equivalent of the same in Qi stones. If William ever did the mission, it wouldnt be for the reward since that amount was far too little. His eyes had been opened during the auction to what real wealth was and he had been given numerous Spirit Stones by Xu Feng. He didnt think much of measly Qi Stones anymore. As for the other four quests, two were more long-term. Bing a martial arts expert looked like it would take him a while to aplish, and killing Zheng Tao, as good as it would feel, might take even longer. William didnt forget that a Core Formation realm cultivator personally retrieved him. To be safe, it would be better to assume there were multiple cultivators at that level around Zheng Tao. He might feel a burning hatred toward the boy, but that didnt mean he was also suicidal in that hatred. That left the side quests for Rising Merchant House and the Jade Cauldron Peak. The former was already in progress with Elder Yu''s help, and he intended to visit thetter as soon as the auction ended. William skimmed the rest of the system screens to see if he missed anything else. There wasnt. However, one thing did bother him a little. Main Quest: N/A It wasnt like he could force something to be a main quest, but being without one for so long made him feel like a rudderless ship with no clear direction. William knew that wasnt true, of course, but with the system ying such a significant role in this life, it still made him feel anxious. The problem was that he couldnt fix it with a snap of his fingers. Perhaps a visit to the mission hall would help. Something to do after visiting Jade Cauldron Peak. They turned into another mostly vacant street to see a familiar building in the distance. Were almost there, Sister Xiaoling. Hm. Wang Xiaoling sounded like she couldn''t care less. Note: If you are reading this on a website that is not Royal Road, Scribblehub, Spacebattles, or on my Patreon, you are reading a pirated version and that website does not have the permission of the author to host the story. Please instead read the story on the sites mentioned above. B2 - Chapter 51 B2 - Chapter 51 William frowned as he entered his private room. It didnt feel right to split from Wang Xiaoling. However, she pushed him away, insisting she be alone with collecting the payment for the items she had put in the auction. He hoped this was another one of her peculiar money-grubbing habits, not wanting him to see how many Spirit Stones she would receive. Unfortunately, he suspected that wasnt the case, not with how honest she was when her business was the topic. No, William was starting to think that Wang Xiaoling was trying to put distance between them. He wasnt sure if it was over him finding out she was a living furnace or if she thought he was now suspect. She clearly disliked Elder Yu, and having that private talk couldnt have helped his image in her eyes. Whatever it was, he needed to avoid any misunderstanding before it was toote. Was there a problem, Junior Wei? Williams frown disappeared when he saw Lan Yang staring at him with a raised brow. No, everythings fine. Is it? Lan Yang walked closer. Then why do you look like someone stole your martial skill? The one that you paid far too much for. William blinked in surprise at the jade token dangling between Lan Yangs fingers. Then he realized what the older cultivator said. What do you mean by stolen? The frown returned with a vengeance, now with a re. The look on your face! Lan Yang burst outughing. Here. His eyes widened in shock when the jade token was thrown at him. He instinctively caught it, getting system alerts that he hadnt seen in what felt like ages. [Martial Skill detected] [Multiple tiers avable. essing Human-Tier martial skill] [Heavenly Thunder Infusion] [Calctingpatibility] [Disying information] Heavenly Thunder Infusion - (0% Compatibility) umte and infuse your body with Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi to prepare for the next tier of the martial skill. Additional effects include passive increases in the Strength, Stamina, and Agility attributes. The passive effect will vary based on the amount of Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi infused in your body. William only gave the system alerts a short nce, but it wasnt short enough to stop his face from showing too many emotions at what he read. Not only was the name different from [Heavenly Thunder Scripture], but it also seemed to be a martial skill that focused on his physical attributes. It was as if the world was telling him to give up and be a body cultivator. Goodprehension skills, Junior Wei! Lan Yang praised, seeing the realization of his face. I didnt expect you to understand the details of the martial skill so quickly. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. He chuckled awkwardly but epted the praise as if that was what he did. He was used to it anyway. Thank you, Senior Yang, but did you know about this? The name of the Human-Tier skill isnt the same. I knew about it once they delivered the token. It might be bad etiquette to take a peek, but it is necessary to guide you through the basics He paused. You do want me to do that, right? William wasnt bothered by Lan Yangs assumption. Yes, I do. But really, why is the name different? The immediate thought that his mind wanted to go to was a scam, but this was sold in the auction, known for its supposed fairness. Even if that wasnt the case, Wang Xiaoling was the person who put it in the auction in the first ce. Its notmon, but there are times that every tier on a martial skill could have its own name. Heavenly Thunder Scripture must be the overarching name of it. I see, William felt some amusement. So Human-Tier is basically a movement skill. That was my first thought, too, Lan Yangughed. Seems like we both had a good auction. He had forgotten about the bracelets. Congrattions, Senior Yang! So you won it easily, then? No trouble from the Wei n member? I did! Lan Yang patted the ring on his finger. And no, I didnt have much trouble at all. It also ended up selling for a slightly lower price than I expected. Dont you love it when everything works as it should? Before William could extend their self-congrattion talk, the door to the Qi refining room opened. Oh, Senior Lan, Brother Wei, Xu Feng greeted, looking slightly unhappy. The room shut off and asked me to leave. Hm, Lan Yang nodded. The auction is over. I assumed so, Xu Feng sighed, giving a longing look at the refining room before shutting the door. I should leave immediately. My seniors at the sect will expect me to return in a week. That doesnt leave you with much time to waste, Lan Yangmented. They really gave you such a timeframe? Yes, Senior Yan. I see. Youre right. Its best to start now. We wont hold you. William felt a little ignored when Xu Feng bowed to Lan Yang, but that didntst long. He wasnt going to be treated as invisible after all. Brother Wei, I invite you to visit my Heavenly Sword Sect, Xu Feng said solemnly. Its the only way I can repay your generosity in picking me as your guest. I would love to visit, Brother Xu, William replied, primarily out of politeness. It was a shame he couldnt get to know Xu Feng better, but he wasnt about to travel to a remote sect to do so. As for repaying me, what do you call that? You owe me nothing. He pointed at the Spirit Stones still piled up on the seat where Xu Feng originally left them. That is just material things, Xu Feng backed away slowly. That has nothing to do with what I truly owe you. William tilted his head in confusion, wondering why there was a need to exit the room in such a rush. I hope to see you soon, Brother Wei! Xu Feng got in thest sentence before he escaped the room. He had no idea what that was about, but one thing was confirmed by Xu Fengs exit. The Spirit Stones could be stored in his spatial ring. You didnt see me, Junior Wei? What? William looked at Lan Yang, rmed at the amused expression he could see. Did I get tricked into something? I wouldnt say tricked. After all, you did agree to it, Lan Yang smiled. So, when are you giving sword boy a visit? A visit? He repeated. What do you mean? That was just an empty promise. Not to a sword cultivator, it isnt, Lan Yangs smile grew wider. To them, a promise is an oath. If you break it, you can forget having a cordial rtionship with the Heavenly Sword Sect, let alone sword boy. William blinked stupidly, realizing what he might have locked himself into. If it was just Xu Feng, it might have been eptable to stomach a soured rtionship, but he didnt want to be on the wrong side of any sect, even if it was a minor one. Youre in luck, Junior Wei, Lan Yang chuckled. I will be going to the border near the Heavenly Sword Sect. If Elder Yu says youre ready to leave the sect, Ill take you with me. He pressed his lips together before nodding reluctantly. It would have been better to explore on his own to find a sorely missing main quest, but maybe it could be a boon to visit Xu Feng instead of a waste of time. William didnt have many hopes for that. Ill look forward to it. B2 - Chapter 52 B2 - Chapter 52 Very convincing, Lan Yangughed, clearly too giddy to care about his displeasure. Alright, lets leave and finish the tour of themon grounds. I dyed it long enough. Im sure Elder Yu is cross with me already. She did mention that, William took pleasure in dimming Lan Yangs smile. A few times, actually. Right, Lan Yang cleared his throat. You walked in with a long face. Did something go wrong with your meeting with Elder Yu? Plenty of things went wrong. Or right, if it was viewed from another point of view. Still, he wasnt going to exin most of those details. It actually went well. Elder Yu was happy to help, William simplified it to the extreme. Interesting, that must be a first, Lan Yang said with doubt. Elder Yu is never happy about anything in fact, Ive never seen her have emotions for anything. Im sure she would be happy to know your thoughts, Senior Yang. Have you never heard of brotherhood? You dont go running to the elders and tell them everything, Lan Yang narrowed his eyes. Who said I would say anything? Elder Yu seems to know these things naturally, Williammented as he transferred the Spirit Stones left on the seat to his spatial ring. He counted how many Xu Feng had left for him. Eighty-two Spirit Stones. Far more than he had assumed. He approximated Xu Feng''s time in the Qi refining room and quickly understood why. Around thirty of the Spirit Stones were for the fees the auction house charged for the Qi refining room. Youre right about that, Lan Yang looked around as if Elder Yu was in the walls. Lets go. Ill take you to the library. Youll likely spend most of your time there at the start. I do want to visit the library, but you told me we could visit the Jade Cauldron Peak first, William replied as he followed Lan Yang out of the room. Thats right, I did say that, Lan Yang said slowly. Why did you want to go there? If you need any elixirs, we can get them from the market. Not thatWell, maybe that too, but I have corpses of spirit beasts that needed to be rendered into something useful. Ah, that makes more sense, Lan Yang nodded, stopping at the short line that William hadnt noticed. A staffer was scanning the cultivators'' passes leaving the Red Floor. Whats this? William asked, drawing some eyes at the question. He didnt pay any mind to them after seeing they werent from the sect. There must be something wrong with the scanning jade in the lobby, Lan Yang replied. They are finicky things. William''s lips twitched in amusement. He didnt expect bugs to exist in cultivator-made items just like they did in electronics. Unlike lines in the mortal world, there was no such thing as stuck in line when cultivators were involved, not in a traditional sense. It didnt take longer than a minute for them to reach the front. Your pass, honored guest, the staffer said with a smile. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. William pulled out his Inner Court pass and wordlessly handed it over. The staffer was simr to the others he had seen deal with guests. Young and still with a bit of hope for advancement. He wondered again at what point the sect considered that hope low enough to transfer the staffers out to something like the Garden. Ah, I see you have a waiver for some of the fees here, the staffermented. Your remaining bncees to thirty-two Spirit Stones and forty Qi Stones. How would you like to pay? The staffer might have presented that as an option, but with the way his pass was being returned and the nce at his spatial ring, it was known there werent enough sect points to cover the cost. With Spirit Stones, William replied. Wonderful, the staffer smiled. Please touch your storage item to the tablet and allow the automatic withdrawal. William stared at the offered tablet in surprise. It seemed like it had many uses. Interesting. He pressed his ring against the nk tablet, which pulsed a dull white. He immediately felt a faint pulling sensation on his ring. It was weak enough that he could break it without effort, but after he confirmed the amount being retrieved from the ring, he allowed it. The staffer pulled the tablet away with a slight bow. Thirty-three Spirit Stones have been paid, and sixty points have been added to your sect ount as change. Thank you for your patronage! William quickly stepped to the side, allowing the cultivator behind them to move up before following Lan Yang into the main chamber. The Jade Cauldron peak is best reached if we follow the edge of themon grounds, Lan Yangmented as they walked to the exit. You wont see much, but it saves us the hassle of navigating the grounds. The end of the auction will upy the teleportation formations for the next few hours. Teleportation? William asked in surprise. Is it really that far away? No. Its a benefit for members of the Sentinel Peak, Lan Yang smirked with pride. We have direct ess to any of the peaks. Within reason, of course. It saves a lot of headaches by letting me skip the entry procedures. That does sound useful, William was thinking about Xiu Jing at the Administration Peak and how she could be avoided. That would have helped Sister Xiaoling He stopped, wondering how he had forgotten about her. Junior Wei? William saw Lan Yang staring at him with furrowed brows. I need to get Sister Xiaoling. Where do the sellers go to collect payment? A look of frustration passed by Lan Yangs face. Follow me. They turned around, returned to the lobby, weaved through the crowd, and entered a hallway just beyond the reception. A guard let them pass after ncing at Lan Yang. William stopped abruptly in unison with Lan Yang when the hallway opened into arge room that might be the most concentrated area of power he had seen in this world. Of course, that was without considering the happenings in the Shard. Nascent Soul realm cultivators lined the wall likemon guards, only several feet from each other. The room wasrge, but not enough to amodate twenty or so powerful cultivators to have enough space as they probably wished. But they werent the focus. It was the trio in the middle. Two was which were deep in a conversation while the other looked bored out of his mind. Thetter was the one who brought attention to their arrival. Oh, look who wandered in, Wei Ming grinned. Looks like youre in luck, Brother Yun. You get to meet your sisters savior before we leave. Junior Wei? Little Liang? Wang Xiaoling and Rong Yun looked at each other for a moment before chuckling in unison. Of course, Little Liang knows you, Wang Xiaoling chuckled maturely. Hes surprising me more and more. And I should have known Junior Wei was connected to you, Rong Yun agreed with a smile. He has already shown his character by saving my sister. Now I see hes resourceful enough to know such a fantastic merchant. William could barely watch. He didnt know if Rong Yun was faking this, but he knew Wang Xiaoling was. She couldn''t be this... he wasnt sure how to describe it, but it didnt feel right. Though, it did feel good to be called Little Liang. Maybe she wasnt angry at him and had just needed some time to think alone. Alright, we all get it. Wei Liang is the best. Very good. You two can keep patting each other on the back. Ill be talking to Yang. William wasnt the only one who couldnt watch silently, even if they both had different reasons. Honestly, he preferred the painful conversation over being in the presence of Wei Ming. It''s too bad he wouldnt get his wish. B2 - Chapter 53 B2 - Chapter 53 So, Yang, Wei Ming smiled, which somehow looked mocking. You didnt thank me for letting you have those bracelets. I didnt fight for that egg you wanted, Lan Yang shrugged. Were even. That egg turned out to be trash, Wei Ming sneered at the mention of it. I wish you had so I could have dumped it off to you. And dont think I forgot how you made one of my retainers pay more than he should have for that Soul Tempering Pill. We never had any agreement for anything other than the headlining items, Lan Yang pointed out. Besides, I wanted to gift that pill to an elder. Did you? I doubt William tuned out Wei Mings voice and looked to escape the constant snipes. The best way to do that was toplete the goal he came here for. He approached Wang Xiaoling. It didnt escape him that she somehow knew an imperial prince from the main branch of the ruling family. However, he had to assume that they were aquatinted recently. If she had known the prince for longer, there would likely be no need to use the Jade Healing Sect to get a foothold in Qingyun City. Sister Xiaoling, William interrupted, we were about to leave. Will this take long? Come to think of it, why was she alone with the prince in the first ce? There should be a staffer close byOh. He hadnt noticed the old man in green sect robes mixed in with the many guards lining the wall. At the very least, the old man also seemed to be in the Nascent Soul realm. It was still strange to see so many cultivators at that level. It made the nascent soul realm seem insignificant, which it obviously wasnt. Still, that was barely of anyfort. Elder Yu might have given Wang Xiaoling a concealment token to hide what she was, but who knew how effective that was with so many high-level cultivators around. Whats the hurry? Rong Jun asked with a smile. The auctions over, and Merchant Wang and I are having a good discussion. Also, Im insulted that you seem to be in a rush to get away, Junior Wei. Im sure he didnt mean anything by it, Wang Xiaoling interjected before William had a chance to answer. Little Liang has tunnel vision, and he sometimes forgets himself. Ah, I was joking, Rong Yunughed. But I really would like to speak more with you, Merchant Wang. Partnering with your merchant house will be mutually beneficial. William was ecstatic that Wang Xiaoling seemed to defend him. Being addressed as Little Liang could be just for show, but surely she wouldnt try to ward off potential trouble if she had doubts about him. Im not in a habit to decline such deals, but I have to ask, why my Rising Merchant House? We are new, and surely someone like you will be able to find better, Wang Xiaoling questioned. Better, as in more established? I have no doubt about that, but as I mentioned, you caught my attention with the number of rare items you brought to the auction. That ability is the key to establishing yourself in the capital. You need backing, of course, but that can only take you so far. William raised a brow at that. Rong Jun spoke as if there were far more than the two items he knew of. So maybe it was her need to hide how much money she was collecting that made her insist on being alone. Good. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. That makes sense, Wang Xiaoling replied. Will you be in the sect for longer? I would like to have a few days to discuss this with my partners before making a decision. I am leaving for the capital today. Rong Jun frowned. It would have been ideal to get an answer as quickly as possible, but I can appreciate a well-considered response. And let me sweeten the offer since you are close to Junior Wei. Ill allow you to have full control over management decisions in the capital. William didnt think that was much of a sweetening. Still, with the way Wang Xiaolings eyes shed with greed, this was something significant. That is generous, she replied carefully. I still need a few days, but I dont see my partners pushing back on this. How can I get in contact with you? Rong Jun pulled out a jade token and handed it to her. Just break that, and Ill know you are willing to go forward. If you dont, then I will assume the opposite. If you need to revise any details, have Junior Wei send a message through the sect. Wang Xiaoling nced at William as she nodded. Very well. Thank you, my prince. No thanks necessary, Rong Jun waved her off. This will also be beneficial to me. She smiled before addressing William. Little Liang, hold this for me. Itll be safer with you. He blinked in surprise as he instinctively took the offered jade token and put it in his spatial ring. It waspletely unnecessary to have him hold something like this or so he thought until he saw Rong Jun. The smile on the princes face as he watched their interaction said more than words ever could. Smart. Wang Xiaoling was using their rtionship to its full potential. Well, if it gets concessions in the merchant house he partly owed, he was more than happy to y along. Just let me know when you want it back, Sister Xiaoling, William said seriously. Itll be safe with me until then. Thank you, Little Liang, Wang Xiaoling smiled sweetly. Good! Its a good thing we met before I had to leave, Junior Wei, Rong Jun smiled widely. Brother Ming! Hand it off now. Ill head out first. William stared in confusion at Rong Juns retreating back as he abruptly left the room, around half of the Nascent Soul realm guards leaving with the prince. He shared a looked with Wang Xiaoling to see that she was as puzzled as he was. Ehh, I swear his ns are so convoluted, Wei Ming grumbled as he motioned for a guard toe closer. Consider this a token from someone that may or may not be your distant rtive. What? William narrowed his eyes when he saw the guard approach with a chest in his hands. You know, a greeting gift, Wei Ming rolled his eyes. Something about wishing youAlright, I dont care enough to pretend. Brother Jun saw you look and told me to give it to you. My part is done. Lets go! Though this was much less rushed, Wei Ming and his guards copied Rong Juns exit. Wei Mings stride almost looked annoyed somehow. The lone representative of the auction house waited until the outsiders were gone before giving them a brisk nod and doing the same. William was left frowning at the chest the guard had ced on the floor. I never saw something like that before, Lan Yang chuckled. An ambush, but one for giving a gift. The prince must have wanted to leave no chance for you to refuse. Wait a minute, you refused a gift? Wang Xiaoling asked incredulously. Why? And she was back to normal. Good. He was getting shivers with the sugary voice she was speaking in. Hes an imperial prince. From the main branch. William said that as if it exined everything, and it really did. So? Brat, you have imperial princes giving you gifts, and they have to resort to pulling away before you can refuse? How rich do you think you are? Lets not fault Junior Wei for doing the correct thing. Gifts between cultivators have far too many implications. Mortals like you are exempt from this price, so you wouldnt know. William winced at the not-so-hidden insult and spoke up before Wang Xiaoling started an argument. I have a feeling I know whats in here. Obviously, Lan Yang said dryly. Im not sure if I should envy you, Junior. The final bid on it was over ten thousand Spirit Stones. What?! Wang Xiaoling eximed. That pretty boy gave you the egg?! Oi, brat, give it to me. I can sell it for you and get a fortune. Honestly, that wasnt a bad idea. Owning the egg would be a gamble, and getting that many Spirit Stones would let him buy other necessities that would be of sure help. Unfortunately, it wasn''t an option, even if he wished to do that. Do you think its wise to sell off a gift an Imperial Prince gave me? William asked rhetorically. The silence he got in return told him she knew it wasnt. He knelt on the floor and utched the chest to make sure the egg they were talking about was in there. There were no surprises. The egg was sitting securely in the middle of a plush interior. B2 - Chapter 54 B2 - Chapter 54 Even knowing that the egg was in there doesnt stop my amazement at actually seeing it, Lan Yangmented as he stared. Ten thousand Spirit Stones, Wang Xiaoling daydreamed. William was aware of what they were saying, but almost all of his focus was on the egg itself. There was no surprise at seeing the egg. However, surprise was an understatement at the status it had. [Species: ? | Level: 1] Senior Yang, was something done to the egg after it was won? William asked without taking his eyes away. This was the first time there was a question mark in the area for the name or species with the level showing. The auction house doesnt touch the sold items, Lan Yang disproved one of his theories. Is there something wrong? He shifted to let him have a better look at the egg. However, nothing looked physically different from when they saw it on the stage before the auction started. Looks fine to me, Lan Yang shrugged. You know, I think I see the issue, Wang Xiaoling moved closer with narrowed eyes. I think its damaged. William and Lan Yang both gave her a short nce. It was an easy decision to dismiss her words. Let me guess, you think I should sell it because of that, William said dryly as he closed the chest and locked it. I thought about it, but Im sure the prince would be fine with you getting rid of a broken gift, Wang Xiaoling advised. Back me up, Yang. He picked up the chest and smirked at the incredulous look on Lan Yangs face. He had to admit this was a bit far, even for Wang Xiaoling. There was a decent chance this was her way of getting back at him for whatever imagined slight she assumed he had done. That was fine. He would be happy if small prods at his patience were her way of payback. No, Sister Xiaoling. I wont sell the egg, William replied before addressing Lan Yang. Lets make a detour to my dwelling before heading to the Jade Cauldron Peak. I can leave the egg there instead of carrying it everywhere, and Sister Xiaoling can stay behind if she wishes to. Of course, he could store the egg in the upgraded spatial stone hanging around his neck, but that would immediately reveal its existence to Lan Yang. After what Elder Yu said about the rarity of such a stone, the fewer people that know about it, the better for his continued life. Hm, thats fine, Lan Yang nodded. I guess well have to go through themon grounds after all and deal with the rush. What the big deal about that, Yang? Wang Xiaoling asked as they exited the room. Youre a cultivator. Crowds are minor annoyances at worst with your speed. So? Just because it is mildly annoying doesnt mean I must ept it. Merchant Wang, you need to open your mind. Being mortal has limitations, but that shouldnt stop you from trying. William held back his smile as he followed them a few steps behind. Looked like he was wrong about assuming Lan Yang couldnt be bothered with any mortal. All that was necessary was to annoy him enough and live despite that fact. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Yet, he hadnt forgotten that just like his sister Lan Yin, Lan Yang would readily kill a mortal if given the slightest of reasons. Wang Xiaoling was protected only due to her rtionship with him. It didnt take long for them to reach the residential area, even with the increased foot traffic due to the end of the auction. Most gave way when they saw Lan Yang increasingly irritated expression, though that was more the responsibility of Wang Xiaoling. Is it the same entry system as in the Outer Court? William asked as he stared at one of the more utilitarian buildings in the area. It was still a step above anything in the Outer Court, but there was much to be desiredpared to the others around it. Yes, Lan Yang confirmed. William nodded, holding his purple jade pass over the nk te beside the door. It pulsed a dull green. The door will now lead to your dwelling. Do you want me toe in with you? Lan Yang didnt seem too interested in doing so. Dwellings without any upgrades are slightly better than those in the Outer Court because of the quality of the Qi refining room. Youll find nothing else new in there. He nced at Wang Xiaoling and realized this was an opportunity to get her to air out whatever concerns she might have. Sounds like you have something to do, Senior Yang, Williammented. I can do this alone, but how do I give Sister Xiaoling ess? And what do you mean by upgrades? I assume shes staying due to whatever happened during the talk with Elder Yu? Lan Yang asked rhetorically. If shes staying there, a pass will be assigned to her. I will ask them to include ess to your dwelling. As for the upgrades, use the catalog and browse your options. Right, the catalog. He kept forgetting about that. In his defense, he spent most of his time out of the sect, and even when he was, he was penniless until, well, now. Sounds good, William nodded before opening the door and motioned to Wang Xiaoling, who had been patiently waiting. After you, Sister Xiaoling. She nced at him and entered. He had a feeling she knew what wasing. Would an hour be enough to finish whatever youre being secretive about? William asked, not forgetting that Lan Yang hadnt answered one question. Nothing secretive. It simply isnt any of your business. He wanted toment that was just a longer way of saying secretive, but let it go. The time from Lan Yangs death threats to now was still a little too close to push his luck. Thats fair, William shrugged. Ill see you in an hour, Senior Yang. Hm, well go to Jade Cauldron Peak then, Lan Yang smiled, walking away in good spirits. If he had to guess, whatever the older cultivator was going to do had to deal with the bracelets. Thats your mentor, right? William turned in surprise to see a boy who looked a few years older staring at him. It looked like he was leaving the building next to his. The most eye-catching thing about him was his bald head. Williams eyes immediately went to the sleeves. The circles werent important. The two red stars were. The disciple was a budding alchemist, though he actually didnt know the specifics of what those stars meant. All he knew for sure was that a practical test had to be passed with near perfection. Yes, he is. Im Wei Liang. William smiled, resisting the temptation to see the boys basic status. He wanted to get into the habit of learning names normally when there was no danger. Im guessing were going to be neighbors? Looks like it. They stared. So, whats your name? William spoke when it seemed there would be nothing else from him. Kae. They stared. Alright, William nodded carefully, unsure why Kae spoke to him in the first ce if he was this uninterested. Uh, Im going to head inside. Okay. Ill be training. They stared. William was getting tired of it, to be honest. And of the useless conversation. This is what he got when he tried not to use the system. [Name: Kae | Level: 133] He hadnt thought Kae was the boys entire name, but it was fitting. A strange name for a strange kid. William resolved to put this encounter out of his mind and was about to enter his dwelling. Do you want toe train with me? He stopped to look at Kae again with confusion. ... Maybeter, Im a little busy right now. Ill remind you tomorrow, Kae replied before leaving the stilted conversation abruptly. What was that? William asked himself as he shook his head. Xu Feng was still the only normal one around his age. Or maybe he just attracted the crazies. B2 - Chapter 55 B2 - Chapter 55 You made a friend, Wang Xiaolingmented as he entered the dwelling. I wouldnt say that. A neighbor Ill wave at from a distance is a better description. He closed the door before taking the seat across Wang Xiaoling, still holding the egg close to him. But thats not what you want to talk about. She pressed her lips together before sighing. So, now you Before that, Elder Yu likely arranged for me to stay here. It should be safe, but theres no reason to say that out loud. In fact, it should never be mentioned. Anywhere. I wasnt going to, but Im happy to know youre taking it this seriously, Wang Xiaoling said grimly. I wouldnt do anything less, William paused. Did you know about this before? How did you avoid them for so long? Is this what your precious elder asked you to find out? Sheughed harshly. She really wanted you to take control, didnt she? Let me guess, she also gave you more concealment tokens to do exactly that. Wang Xiaoling was right about the control and the tokens. He withdrew the two concealment tokens Elder Yu had given him from his ring and tossed them to her. Thats all Elder Yu gave me, William said after Wang Xiaoling caught them. Each willst a hundred days, so you have nearly a years supply in your hands. I have no control over Elder Yus intentions, but they are not the same as mine. She stared at the tokens momentarily before sliding them up her sleeve. He tilted his head before pulling out the token Rong Jun had given her to get in contact with her. You can have this back, too, William said as he tossed it to her. I assume you have a hidden storage pouch there Storage pouch? Wang Xiaoling scoffed. You think I would risk the concealment tokens in something so unstable? That answers my question, Williammented with narrowed eyes. It also confirmed that she knew far more than was reasonable, even for the most experienced mortal who always dealt with cultivators. A silly thought entered his mind, one that didnt leave. Is it a spatial stone? Hm, she nodded, leaning back in the plush seat. Got it recently for a good price. It was tricky to have to hide that I was a mortal when I was making the offer. Still, cultivators are usually smug shits that refused to believe a mortal would try to fool them. He ignored that she had likely insulted him in that sentence by indirectly calling him a smug shit. There was something far more confusing he was focused on. How can you even use a spatial stone? You need control over Qi, and you shouldnt have spiritual pathways at the moment, let alone Qi. I think thats enough of trying to find out more of my secrets, dont you think? Wang Xiaoling said dryly. Alright, thats fair, William agreed. It leaves us with the same problem. You dont trust me, and I can do little to change that. I wouldnt say I dont trust you. Its more like I cant trust you, she stressed before pausing. Unless you happen to give me something equally as significant to hold over your head. That would be fair, right? Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. William shifted uneasily as he thought over that option. Revealing the existence of the system was out of the question. Nobody would know about it while he drew breath. There was another option. He stared at the chest he was holding and thought about it. Was it worth the risk of letting her know? I guess you dont have anything close, Wang Xiaoling said after his silence. Thats what I assumed, brat. Look, I dont think youre nning anything bad against me, but this isnt something a simple talk can fix. Ill need time to see your actions instead of mere words. That had to be the most sensible thing William had heard her say. So, in the meantime, my life is in your hands, she ended with a strained smile, likely wanting to pass that off as a joke but failing miserably. He made a snap decision, but he was not entirely sure whether it was a wise choice. He doubted Wang Xiaoling would ever use it against him, but nothing would ever be a sure thing. Still, he felt that she was owed this. If I do that, will you answer some of my questions? At her raised brow, William expanded. Elder Yu wont hear anything about it. Itll stay with me, I promise. And whatever youre going to tell me is worth that? Wang Xiaoling asked with doubt. After he nodded, she shrugged. Ill be the judge of that. William sighed in eptance. He would have gone through with it no matter what her answer was. If this was the best he would get, then so be it. How much do you know about spatial stones? Likely more than you, Wang Xiaoling replied with a smirk. He nodded, not doubting her for a second. He pulled on the chain the upgraded spatial stone was attached to, bringing it out from under his shirt. Then you should know about this. William stored the chest in the stone under the wide eyes of Wang Xiaoling. She jumped off the chair in shock and looked like she was about to berate him for his stupidity before he brought it back out. He opened the chest and showed her the egg. What theHow? Wang Xiaoling gaped at the unharmed egg. Thats only possible if Yes, William cut her off. So you know what it is. Its nearly as bad as yours if it bes known. She copsed back on the chair and stared at him with intense eyes. Youre an idiot for showing me this. I know, William epted. Youve also proven me wrong. You earned my trust back without time being necessary. I know, he repeated with a smile. And now I have questions. Wang Xiaoling nodded after a moment. Ill give you two. Ask. William shut his mouth before he wasted it. There were plenty of things he wanted to know about her. Where did shee from? How could she build Rising Merchant House to such heights in only a few short months? Who and what was Fatty Xu? Why was she insane enough to wander into a sect full of cultivators that would want to kill her if discovered? If only two would be answered, those would have to stay unknown. How are you stronger than me? William asked eagerly. Whenever I thought it would be the end, I found that you could still throw me around like a child. Well, you are a child, Wang Xiaoling teased before cating him when she received a re. Just because Im not a traditional cultivator doesnt mean Im helpless. My parents gave me my way of gaining strength before I was exiled from my n. You should give up hope of overpowering me any time soon. That just created more questions, but it was technically an answer, so he epted it. This could also be how she was able to use Qi without being a cultivator. You survived until now, William stated. When she grimaced but stayed silent, he added, How? The answer isnt pleasant, Wang Xiaoling frowned. By making sure anything within several hundred square miles of my birth no longer lived. Then some timely used formations to keep me undetected. What? William blinked as he shook his head, unsure if he heard that right. You have your answer, she shrugged before getting up. Now, Im going to do mortal things. Like sleep. Its sorely needed after today. He stared after her in shock, wondering what her background was. It was likely either her parents or her n hadmitted a massacre of disgusting proportions. An area the size of a city in his old world had been reaped of life to preserve hers. Then she was exiled. William wasnt sure how that made any sense. Nor could he figure out which n could do something like that without harsh repercussions unless it was the imperial n itself. However, that didnt seem likely since Rong Jun didnt recognize her. It could also be possible Wang Xiaoling came from outside the Tianxia Empire. He frowned before reluctantly setting the matter aside, even though it was hard to do so. He wouldn''t know more without her telling him the details. B2 - Chapter 56 B2 - Chapter 56 There was still nearly an hour till Lan Yang was set to return, and there wasnt much to do here. Without Wang Xiaoling drawing all his attention, William finally bothered to take in the details of the dwelling. Lan Yang was right when he said there wasnt much to see. The living room had upgraded seatingpared to the dwelling in the Outer Court, with some empty shelves for storage. There were two doors leading to other rooms. One was to the bedroom that Wang Xiaoling decided to use, and the other he assumed was the Qi refining room. Lan Yang did say that it was slightly better than the one in the Outer Courts dwelling, but with Elder Yu likely having a hand in assigning the dwelling to him, he still had hope for more. William stood from his seat to see if a surprise was in store, still holding onto the chest tightly. The signs werent good when he peered inside. Cultivating wasnt something he was too concerned about unless it was at the level of the Qi refining room at the auction house. And looking at the interior, it likely wasnt. Still, he walked in to make sure. He closed the door behind him and sighed in disappointment when a voice didnt speak to ask which mode he preferred. That pretty much ruled out the martial arts training option. He looked at the chest and wondered if it could cause an issue. The egg was strange, so it wouldnt surprise him if it did. Besides, there was no reason to still hold onto it. He should have stored it away after showing Wang Xiaoling the upgraded stone. William shook his head and sent it into the spatial stone. Unfortunately, nothing changed. Well, I tried, he said out loud. It was a reach anyway to expect something like that just given to him, and it wasnt a big issue. He was rtively rich after gaining the Spirit Stones from Xu Feng,pared to the new disciples of the Inner Court. Since there were upgrades to be had, and he had the money to spend, he might as well spend the hour browsing the catalog while waiting for Lan Yang. William returned to the living room and threw himself onto one of the plush armchairs before reaching into the spatial stone with his Qi to withdraw the catalog. It was a miracle he still possessed it after everything he had gone through since thest time he bothered to open it. He flinched when his connection to the spatial stone snapped. It had be almost instinctual to store and remove whatever he wanted from his spatial stone and spatial ring. Having it fail was a shock. He frowned before sending a farrger amount of Qi at the spatial stone than would be usually necessary. This wasnt to withdraw the catalog. It was to use that Qi to sense what was happening inside the stone. William closed his eyes to make blocking out the external world easier as all his attention was shifted to what he could sense with his Qi. Chaotic. That was the inside of the spatial stone. What could only be described as a dust storm had somehow erupted, and he could barely sense anything with the space not thatrge. No wonder the initial connection had been broken. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. He immediately suspected the egg had something to do with it. That was the only thing added to the spatial stone in weeks. William tried to remove the egg to stop whatever was happening, but that was aplete failure. A strong pulse rippled through the space. It nearly shattered his Qi and took it out of his control. With a severe frown, he asserted his will by pouring more Qi into the stone. There was no time for finesse. He had to power through until he regained control. The storm weakened significantly as it fought against the rising pressure and resistance of his Qi. It didnt stop, but he could finally see the egg through whatever these particles were. The chest the egg was inside was nowhere to be seen. If William had to guess, it had been disintegrated by that storm. The bigger issue was the egg itself. It seemed to be breathing. It was hard to sense, but he could tell that the shell expanded and contracted ever so slightly. He was so focused on the egg that he didnt notice what it was doing to his loot from the Shard until it absorbed something under his watch. Williams heart skipped a beat as he shifted his attention to the three treasures he gained from helping Princess Jin get the golden heart. To his relief, they looked untouched. It meant the beast corpses were the eggs target. The corpse of the Pyralisk had almost been consumed, only the head remaining. Even that didntst long as it disintegrated rapidly into fine particles. The origin of the dust storm had been found. The other beast corpse he had, the Jingmu Shadow, was in far better shape, though that wasnt saying much. When alive, the beast had been disgusting to look at, resembling a brownish sludge that rolled in filth. Now, it looked just as repulsive, but it almost had missing bits of body littered on the entire corpse. It was as if the egg tried to force itself to nibble on the Jingmu Shadow before it gave up. The Pyralisk was a write-off, but there was still a chance to save the other beast''s corpse. Williams Qi pierced through the weakening dust storm and enveloped the egg, intending to yank it out of the spatial stone if necessary. Not only did he wish to save the Jingmu Shadows corpse, but he didnt want to leave the chance for the egg to get some bright ideas and make an attempt on the three spirit-severing treasures. He pulled harshly, wanting to immediately get the egg out of the stone. It didnt work. The egg actually fought back and seeded. William could, and would, eventually use his previous force skill but with multiple times the power, but he noticed something strange. The eggs breathing almost disappeared. It grew his curiosity. As loathe as he was to admit it, there was no use in going to the Jade Cauldron Peak any longer. The beast corpses had to be written off, especially the Pyralisk. Since that was the case, and the egg had already started to feast on it, what would happen if he let it finish? William was gifted this egg, and he had to try and get it hatched eventually. So it made more and more sense to let it do whatever it wanted, and hopefully, it would hatch something useful. He didnt need to wait long. The head of the Pyralisk disintegrated secondster, joining the dust cloud that filled the space. Not much longer after, the dust started to disappear foo, and a small swirl of air funneled everything right at the egg. William looked around at the empty space as the breathing of the egg became more noticeable. He relied on himself to act if it hinted at a desire for the three spirit-severing treasures. Thankful, it knew its ce and proceeded to reluctantly consume the Jingmu Shadows corpse. A few minutester, the corpse was gone, and a harsh frown was on his face as he closely watched the rapid breathing of the egg. There was no doubt it had increased in rate, but nothing else Williams eyes widened when the basic status of the egg changed. The number representing the level ticked up rapidly, flickering for a few seconds before it finally settled on what seemed to be the final number. [Species: ? | Level: 38] He now possessed an egg with a level equivalent to the third stage of Qi Gathering. That was ridiculous. B2 - Chapter 57 B2 - Chapter 57 William stared at the egg to see if it would do anything else. It didnt. He carefully wrapped his Qi around the egg and tried to remove it from the spatial stone again. This time, there was no resistance. He ced it on the small table at the center of the room before staring at it. William could see a slight change in the tint of the eggs shell. The faintest blue that he doubted a mortal would ever be able to discover with their eyesight. It was also a little bigger. Not much, maybe a few centimeters, but still, it was bigger. And all the egg needed for these truly massive changes was a tiny increase of thirty-seven levels. Fantastic. He needed to find out what would hatch out of this thing, and why it consumed beast corpses. Perhaps even more important than that, how many more corpses would it need. It had to be noted that the Pyralisk and Jingmu Shadow were not run-of-the-mill spirit beasts. They originated from the Shard, so they were expected to have unique qualities, though what, he had no clue. The chance of preservation after he killed them had been too low for it not to. Williams eyes flickered to the closed bedroom door. With Wang Xiaoling knowing far too much about things she had no business knowing, the option of asking her about the egg wasnt as dumb as it seemed. Of course, Lan Yang was another, but it was either her or Elder Yu he feltfortable asking. He didnt trust anyone else, especially if this egg turned out to be something special which he assumed was from what just happened. Sister Xiaoling, William called loudly. I need your help. He could hear frustrated grumblingbined with the rustling of sheets before the door opened, revealing Wang Xiaoling ring at him furiously. Ive been trying to sleep for the past hour, and just when I was about to, you called me, her re somehow grew stronger. This better be worth it, brat. Its been an hour? William frowned, ignoring herints. It felt like it had been a few minutes at maximum. Wang Xiaoling narrowed her eyes. What did you need help with? That, he pointed at the egg. It ate some of the spirit beast corpses I had in my spatial stone. It what?! Wang Xiaolings eyes widened as she took a step closer. What do you mean by ate? How were the corpses consumed? Er, I assume they were absorbed, William said unsurely. They turned into dust before it disappeared into the egg. Amazing, she shook her head. Most beast eggs are hatched by feeding them Qi. Very few require anything else. This is the first time Ive heard of one needing anything like spirit beast corpses. Oh, William was disappointed. So, you dont know what kind of egg this is? This sect isnt filled with idiots, Wang Xiaoling said begrudgingly. If the auction inspectors couldnt figure out what this egg is, how would I know? Oh, William repeated. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. If it makes you feel any better, the chance of it being a high-tier spirit beast should be decent, she cated. Even if it ends up being a mid-tier spirit beast, it will likely have an ability that would make it worthwhile to raise. That part of owning an egg had somehow passed his mind. He would have to raise a baby spirit beast when it hatches. To say he wasnt looking forward to that was an understatement. William had owned a pet before on Earth. A dog. A small, yappy, annoying dog. The memories were admittedly vague since it had been in his childhood, but the one clear thing was that he loved that dog. Enough where he promised himself when he was a teen to never to have a pet again due to the depression he felt when it passed away. That feeling came back with a vengeance. Whats wrong? N-Nothing, William shook his head, unsure why he had been affected so strongly. Yes, he dreaded getting attached to a pet due to its short life, but a dog was notparable to a spirit beast. Not even close. Thetter could live as long as he would if its cultivation was high enough. Perhaps the responsibility that would be thrust on him troubled him. He imagined having to care for what was essentially a baby for months was what worried him or was that an urateparison? Now that he thought of it, he didnt know how long spirit beasts were as helpless as babies, if they were at all. Sister Xiaoling, do newly hatched spirit beasts just, uh, know how to take care of itself? Some dont, Wang Xiaoling smirked, knowing what he was worried about. But you dont have to worry about that. Mid-tier and high-tier beasts have ancestral knowledge from birth. The stronger they grow, the more knowledge they have ess to. All you have to do is feed it whatever it needs to do that. Oh, William let out a relieved smile. She was much more open about how much she knew about the cultivation world. Thats great! Yes, I assumed it would be, Wang Xiaoling shook her head. Have you tried to feed Qi to the egg? Ah, no, I didnt, William thought about how his Qi had been attracted to the egg inside the spatial stone. Let me give it a try. He ced a hand on the egg before directing his Qi toward it. [-200 Spiritual Energy] Williams eyes widened in shock at the powerful draw on his Qi. He didnt waste time in pulling away. Still, it wasnt fast enough. [-200 Spiritual Energy] It nearly took away half of my reserves, he announced warily. And in less than a second. Did it? Wang Xiaoling questioned curiously. That could be good news for you. I dont see any physical change, which some mid-tier beast eggs show for a few seconds after absorbing Qi. Im guessing thats why it sold for such a high price. Youre greatly underestimating the lengths cultivators go to acquire high-tier beasts, she said dryly. Theyre impossible to have as pets if you dont personally hatch them. One day, youll tell me how you know all this, Sister Xiaoling. Maybe, Wang Xiaoling shrugged. But that day wont be today or any day soon. Lan Yang is waiting outside. They flinched at the unexpected voice, turning in unison to stare at the door. Fancy, Wang Xiaolingmented. Looks like the sect treats their disciples well if this dwelling is the worst they have to offer. William shrugged, idly wondering about daily life for disciples of lesser sects. He was bing far too used to the wealth of the Jade Healing Sect. Well, thats the sign for me to head back to sleep. I have no desire to see Yang, Wang Xiaoling made her way back to the bedroom before pausing. And this should be obvious, but you know to keep whatever we discuss between us, right? Obviously, William nodded. Still, like I said, Elder Yu probably had a hand in giving me this dwelling. You should assume she already knows everything we spoke of. I hope she does. The bedroom door closed behind her. He scratched his chin in confusion, going back to their conversation to see if there was anything that Wang Xiaoling would have wanted Elder Yu to know. Nothing stood out besides the vague allusions to her ruthless parents and powerful n. Perhaps that was it, though he couldnt see the point of having a powerful cultivator know their n had exiled them, no matter how powerful it could be. Lan Yang is waiting outside. William shook his head and pulled the spirit beast egg into his spatial stone, observing it to ensure it didnt try anything stupid with his Spirit Severing level treasures. It didnt. He opened the door to see Lan Yang waiting with a pleased expression. Looked like the man was sessful in whatever he set out to do. Junior Wei, Lan Yang greeted with a smile. Ready to go to the Jade Cauldron Peak? B2 - Chapter 58 B2 - Chapter 58 After the egg had used Williams spirit beast corpses as a snack, he didnt see much point in going to the peak. Yes, it would be nice to find an alchemist who could have rendered the corpses into something useful, but there was nothing to render now. He didnt even consider Ren Bos request. The quest rted to that had a negligible penalty in his view. [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Ren Bo] It wasnt like William wanted to have Ren Bo dislike him. He simply didnt bring himself to care. He would ept that penalty if there was something else that he felt was a priority. Besides, it wasnt like he couldnt go to the Jade Cauldron Peak afterward. I changed my mind, Senior Yang. Id rather go to the library first. Lan Yang tilted his head slightly before shrugging. Im guessing you want to find out more about that egg of yours? Thats part of it, William nodded. Hm, Lan Yang looked past him into the apartment. Your friend not going to join us? She headed to sleep after her tiring day. Its just us. Mortals, Lan Yang rolled his eyes as if sleeping was unimaginable. Anyway, thats for the better. She would just slow us down. William did an eye roll of his own and followed him out, shutting the door behind him. By the way, a voice announced that you were waiting outside. How did it know you were there for me? That, Lan Yang pointed to the nk te next to the door, Its not just for entry. Visitors can hold their pass to it and say the resident''s name to be announced. He raised an eyebrow. Im guessing these are formations again? Correct. Wang Xiaoling was right. This was fancy. A little too fancy. He was looking forward to visiting Xu Feng at his sect to see what a normal sect is like. *** William felt a sense of excitement at seeing the library looming over him. He was well aware of his hypocrisy by having that feeling. He had rejected the idea of being an alchemist because he didnt want to study, something he had never been a fan of ever. Now, he intends to do that exact thing. Yes, William was going to gather all the information he could about spirit eggs, but along with that, he was going to finally make a proper attempt to learn formations. Unlike alchemy, which he admittedly didnt give much of a chance other than the few times he browsed through books with Li Xinyue, the field of formations and arrays had some strange attraction over him. Or not so strange. The teleportation formations around the Empire, the illusion array that trapped him in the Shard, the multitude of variations he had seen formations being used for inside the sect. All of that was almost assured to draw his interest. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Brother Yang! A disciple broke off from a group near the entrance. Youre back! William decided to try to avoid using the system to get the disciples name. She seemed far more normal than Kae, so carrying a conversation shouldnt be torturous. Su Rou? Lan Yang greeted with surprise. What are you doing here? You were to be stationed in Dazhou Kingdom for ten years. It was way too boring, Su Rou scrunched her nose. They kept telling me to make pills for them. Su Rou Lan Yang pinched the bridge of his nose. That was why you were sent there. It was meant to be yourst test before entering the Golden Pill Peak. Well, Peak Master Li will have to find some other thing for me to do, Su Rou pouted. She knows I dont like boring things. William reevaluated Su Rou. This had to be the brattiest cultivator he had seen so far, including Princess Jin. Given how things usually are, he leaned toward Su Rouing from some powerful n that catered to her every need or the Jade Healing Sect doing so due to talent. After all, they were doing so for him. This is the fourth time youve done Lan Yang cut himself off. You know what, Ill speak with youter. I have to show my junior around the sect, and I''ve already dyed enough. So thats who this is, Su Rou finally looked at William. I didnt mean to ignore you. I didnt want to make you feel ufortable. Its fine, Senior, he mentally questioned how that made any sense. I dont mind waiting until youre done withActually, I could explore the library on my own if thats better? That was directed at Lan Yang, and it was immediately denied. I dont think so. Su Rou, Ill meet you here when Junior Wei isfortable with the librarysyout. Su Rou pouted in dissatisfaction but stepped back, apparently agreeing with Lan Yang. William smiled at her politely as they passed, but that was a mistake. Oh, Brother Yang, how about I help? Su Rou was suddenly far closer than before, crowding William in the middle. With what? Alchemy? Junior Wei doesnt specialize in that, Lan Yang waved his hand at Williams bare sleeve, the red star missing. Im sure I could convince him otherwise, but even if not, you know Im nearly as skilled in the healing arts! He had noticed Su Rous sleeve had four red stars and three gold stars, the former representing alchemy and thetter healing. It was the reason he assumed the sect could be the one pampering her. It couldnt be forgotten that Ren Bo was seen as a prodigy, and he was basically out of control before he had achievements. Still, William couldnt deny his interest in the healing arts. Not that he wanted to specialize in it, but more for saving his own skin. Whatever the system did to his body, it had made him incapable of healing naturally. He refused to be reduced to the point of having to gorge down Vitality Restoration Pills to survive like he had in the Shard. Junior Wei doesnt specialize in that either, Lan Yang said dryly. Anything else? Er, actually, Senior Yang, William spoke up, I dont think He shut himself up when he recognized the warning in Lan Yangs eyes. Alright then, he wasnt supposed to engage with Su Rou. Unfortunately, it was toote. Great! Su Rou announced, moving even closer. Enough for William to get out of the way and stand on the other side of Lan Yang. It seemed that was her goal all along. I cant wait to catch up, Brother Yang! Fine, Lan Yang sighed. A lightbulb flickered on weakly in Williams mind. She was romantically interested in Lan Yang. Her insistence suddenly made sense and also became highly annoying in his eyes. Not for how frustrated Su Rou seemed to make Lan Yang, though that was also a thing. More importantly, she wasing between Lan Yang and whoever was the intended recipient of the bracelets the man spent a fortune on. William was personally invested in seeing that seed. In a way, he had provided the Spirit Stones to buy it. Ignoring that it wouldnt have been necessary if he hadnt stolen it in the first ce. Mere technicalities. He forcefully inserted himself between them and smiled brightly. This is great! Ill have two of my seniors showing me around! Senior Su, I would actually be interested in learning the basics of the healing arts. It might save my life. Hm, looks like I was wrong about Junior Weis interest, Lan Yangmented, smiling. Su Rou, it seems like I should thank you for your help. B2 - Chapter 59 B2 - Chapter 59 Im happy to contribute, Brother Yang! In Su Rous defense, she didnt seem annoyed by actually having to help William. Excuse me for a moment, Brother Yang, Junior Wei, Su Rou said before returning to her group to say some quick farewells. Senior Su is talented in multiple things, Williammented, mindful that she could hear everything. She is, Lan Yang agreed. Be sure to use the chance well. She will undoubtedly rise high once she is admitted into the Golden Pill Peak. He took that as code to keep her upied so she couldnt bother him. That was very doable. It seemed like the trip to the library would be fruitful before he had even entered the building. Lets go! Su Rou cheered as she walked back to them. Junior Wei, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I will do my best to help if it''s in my capabilities! I think thats my job, Su Rou, Lan Yangmented as he led them inside. So? Brother Yang, you never wanted to be a mentor before. Its not fair you were picked when I applied so many times. I think part of that has to do with you stationed in Dazhou Kingdom, Lan Yang said with a pointed look. It didnt escape anyone why you were so eager to be a mentor not that it stopped you from leaving your post. Eh, Su Rou shrugged shamelessly. If the sect wont let me use an official excuse, Ill do it anyway. What can they do? Punish me? William saw Lan Yang roll his eyes when Su Rou snorted inughter at the thought of being punished. Ah, Junior Wei, that doesnt mean I just wanted to be a mentor to free myself from Dazhou Kingdom. It was a happy side effect, Su Rou defended when she realized he could have taken it the wrong way. You wont believe how backwards that ce is. Its as if they purposely avoid making their lives easier. No wonder they are so weak. The cultivators there spend far too much time on useless Thats enough, Su Rou, Lan Yang interrupted her rant. Dont spread nder of an allied kingdom. William wanted to ask where this kingdom was, but with the sudden silence and Su Rous awkward expression, he figured it might be better to look at a map and find the answer himself. Lan Yang stopped them at the edge, where the entrance hallway opened into the massive first floor. Silence is encouraged past this area, and if the overseers feel you are too disruptive, they can, and will, eject you from the library. If need be, they will ban you from further visits until the Punishment Hall is satisfied that you are apologetic enough. When we speak, keep it to a whisper. The formations will be able to iste the sound. Understood? Uh, yes, William nodded, wondering why there would be a system in ce that was so easy to abuse by these overseers. The answer was simple. This was a cultivation world where strength was everything, no matter how pretty the paint was on top. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. And it wasnt lost to him that, yet again, formations were used. Good, follow me. Su Rou smiled at William and motioned with her head to go first. He stepped into the library and immediately heard unnatural silence. Yes, he could hear it. As he looked around, he noticed a disciple reading a manual. The pages didnt make any noise as he turned them. A girl wearing shoes with heels passed them, but her footsteps were muted on the tiles. These were all things that William could quickly get ustomed to. His uneasiness mainly came from the loss of a sound that he had unknowingly filtered out of his daily life, though it had always been in the background. His beating heart. He pressed his hand to the center of his chest, frown decreasing slightly when he felt the steady beating under his palm. I had the same expression, Junior Wei, Su Rou whispered next to him. Youll appreciate the total silence soon. William was skeptical. It was necessary to silence the heart, too? It drove some disciples mad in the early days, she shrugged as they followed Lan Yang to something that looked like an information desk. It might have been some issue with the formations back then, but nobody cares enough to change what works well. William tilted his head in thought, isting the constant beat of his heart and imagining that being the only thing he could hear. It wouldnt be pleasant, but just like outside the library, he was sure it would eventually be easy to tune it out as white noise. He supposed it was a hypothetical situation. There are multiple stations like this scattered on every floor, Lan Yang said quietly when they reached the circr station. It looked like a high-standing desk with four manuals spread apart evenly. The books act as catalogs of everything viewable for you, and Im sure you know how they are activated. The Inner Court pass, William replied. Without it, most of the sect would be inessible to him, and it made sense that it also applied here. Correct, Lan Yang backed away slightly. Why dont you try it? Er, sure, he pulled out his pass andid it down on the nk state next to a book. He was getting used to seeing them everywhere. The nk te started glowing a dull white. William flipped the book open to see a list. It was like a phonebook. He wasnt sure. Those were basically nonexistent on Earth, but he had heard about them, which seemed simr. At least the list was alphabetical, so it was fairly easy for him to flip to egg. He wasnt ready for the pages and pages of lists that were apparently books about eggs. One even seemed to be something about cooking them. Thankfully, William soon found what he was looking for. The problem now was that there was nothing else on the page. Tap what you want to find with your finger, Lan Yang gave him the next step. He did so, and the tables surface immediately darkened to reveal a floorn. A red dashed line appeared next. This was basically an interactive map for the library. Wang Xiaoling was proved right again by calling the sect fancy. J-7, William said out loud, reading the destinationbel on the map. It was a section of the library. Thats to the end over there, Su Roumented, pointing behind him. Before you rush off, Junior Wei, would you like some beginner lessons in healing? Its unlikely you will be able to understand it, but as you said, it might be a matter of life and death. His eyes widened briefly before nodding quickly, not wanting the offer to go away. Great! Su Rao cheered in a hissed whisper. Brother Yang, lets rent a room and prepare him. Sounds good to me, Lan Yang agreed readily before addressing William. Anything else you want to know? He had plenty of questions, but those could wait until after. No, I''m fine. Then well take our leave. Try to stay around J-7. Ill get you in an hour or so after setup isplete, Lan Yan smiled. Sounds perfect, Senior Yang, William smiled. It grew wider into a grin as he nced at the dashed line againtime to learn more about the egg that eats corpses. B2 - Chapter 60 B2 - Chapter 60 He had greatly underestimated the distance between the information station and section J-7. It was the maps fault, really. It made the flooryout seem rtively small, but the actual size was mind-boggling. Most things in the cultivation world were, but this was different. William hadnt circled the library''s exterior to get an exact measurement of howrge the building was, but the view he had gotten was enough to get a vague idea of the size. The interior beat even hisrgest estimate. It was literally impossible for it to be sorge. His destination was Section J-7. The sections were designated by letters, and each letter was followed by a number from zero to nine. That meant there were two hundred and sixty sections in the library. That by itself wasnt shocking. However, it was hard to fathom when factoring in the size of each section. William nodded at a disciple passing him, a rare urrence, as he finally passed Section I-9. It was the size of a small city block, and there were two hundred and sixty of them. So yes, something was done to the interior of the building to fit all of this in here. Without that being the case, the library would likely upy most of themon grounds. He thought the library in the Outer Court was enormous. It was nothingpared to this monstrosity. William passed by Section J-6, where he surprisingly saw another disciple. With how massive the library was, some sections were more popr than others, and those were where disciples usually congregated. He expected to be alone with all of Section J entirely focused on eggs. That was obviously proven wrong by the girl browsing through the section catalog. She must have seen him in the corner of her eye since she lifted her head to nce at him before returning to her browsing. She was clearly not interested in interacting. That was fine with him. William stepped into Section J-7. Well, the first row of books in the section. Fifty rowster, he reached the center, where the catalog was ced on a podium. As was typical, a nk te was beside the empty-paged catalog. He ced his pass on the te, causing it to glow a dull white. Text appeared on the previously empty page. He scanned it and flipped to the next page, seeing more of the same. An endless list of titles in a seemingly random order. Finding anything he needed in the chaos would take far too long to be reasonable. William nced to his left, wondering if he should ask the girl. She had just walked out of one of the rows with a thick book in her hands. He decided to take that course of action after trying something. The Qi refining room in the auction house reacted to voicemands. The same could be true here. Show me five books that tell me how to care for a mid-tier or high-tier spirit beast egg, William said quietly. His excitement rose when the mass of text disappeared, leaving only five lines on the page he was looking at. How to Hatch a Mid-Tier Spirit Beast Egg in 10 Easy Steps A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Mid-Tier Spirit Beast from Egg to Adult Secrets of the High-Tier Spirit Beast Eggs How I identally Hatched a High-Tier Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator The Art of Cooking Spirit Beast Eggs: A Delicious and Nutritious Way to Boost Your Cultivation William blinked, making sure that he was reading it right. He was. It suddenly made sense why this library was so massive. Of how there could be rows and rows of books just on the topic of eggs. There was some actual nonsense held by the library. How to Hatch a Mid-Tier Spirit Beast Egg in 10 Easy Steps sounded like a scam to him. The following two titles held some potential, and thest two had to be jokes. How I identally Hatched a High-Tier Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator had to be a fictional book. identally hatching a spirit beast egg wasnt out of the realm, but calling oneself the strongest cultivator had to be some sort of taboo. Thest title wasnt worth looking at or maybe it was. William had no intention of making an omelet from his precious egg, but there was nothing to say there wouldnt be an opportunity to do so in the future. Before William decided about the books he wanted, he narrowed the search to hopefully give him better options. Show me only informational or instructional books. Remove all fiction and biographies. Thatmand was a little redundant but better to be thorough. Secrets of the High-Tier Spirit Beast Eggs The Art of Cooking Spirit Beast Eggs: A Delicious and Nutritious Way to Boost Your Cultivation How I identally Hatched a High-Tier Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator The Comprehensive Handbook of Spirit Beast Egg Hatching: Everything You Need to Know from Selection to Incubation Spirit Beast Egg Hatching Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Approach with Illustrations and Examples Only two of those were new results. Of the older ones, only Secrets of the High-Tier Spirit Beast Eggs wasnt a shock when it reappeared.He supposed that cooking spirit beast eggs might be a valid option. More surprisingly, How I identally Hatched a High-Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator was still an option the catalog showed him. He only asked to remove biographies since he didnt want someone else''s bias in his reading. This was probably considered an autobiography. Still, he was shocked it wasnt fiction. William didnt take long to decide which books he wanted to take from the shelves. Where are these books located? Two numbers separated by a dash appeared next to each title. The number on the left was far smaller than the one on the right. He memorized them and nced at the row closest to him, seeing a number at the top. A look at the books on the rows shelves revealed that each book had a corresponding numberbeled below on the shelf. William was not a fan of studying back on Earth, which meant minimal time spent in any library. Still, he had to admit he was impressed. This level of organization for this city-sized library was amazing. He noticed the girl in the other section wander back into the rows, likely to get another book. Very studious. William decided to follow her example. There was time to marvel at how the library functionedter. He only had around an hour until Lan Yang and Su Rou would return. He walked into the first of the rows with one of the books he wanted, or rather, he tried to. He froze in fear when a heavy pressure fell on him. It warned him that moving closer was a terrible idea, and it was proven when the pressure fell off when he stepped back. William saw movement in the corner of his eye. He turned to see the girl smirking at him from her seat. When she saw him looking, she held up her pass and shook it. Of course. He smiled at her sheepishly before picking up his pass from the podium. There were no issues entering the section after that. This should be something Lan Yang should have known to tell him. Then again, it was more than obvious now that he was expected to figure out most things on his own. Either that or Lan Yang was just a terrible mentor. Even if that was true, William excused it. The man was the reason he owned the [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. Lan Yang could be the most uninterested mentor, and he would be okay with it. His eyes lit up when he located the first book. Four more to go. B2 - Interlude: Princess Jin III B2 - Interlude: Princess Jin III Princess Jin knew she was going to die. Her body couldnt hold on any longer, not with the endless torture she had to endure. There had been far too many times when she was close to breaking, revealing the exact details of what happened in the Shard. Anything to have a reprieve from the endless pain, even if it was only temporary. It was only the memory of Empress Sophia that stopped her. A sh of lightning blinded thend, leaving the afterimage of an icy blue bolt connecting the dark, stormy sky to Princess Jins mangled body. She clenched her jaw tightly to avoid screaming. Her vocal cords were already shredded, and there was no need to make it worse. Jiner, your brother has returned, a voice boomed from afar. Princess Jin whimpered in fear when the sky thundered as if warning against anyone interfering. There had been a few times in the past month when help was essential. Without it, her body would have failed, and the heavenly punishment would have seeded in destroying her soul. The anger the heavens showed after a helping hand was devastating. The bolts that ripped through her body eroded her will to endure, her sanity slipping with every punishing strike until it took her to the very edge before pulling back. It was as if the heavens were sadistic, doing just enough to torture her while also making sure she wasntpletely broken. Princess Jin regretted ever having the opportunity to take the Golden Heart. She hated Wei Liang for letting her have it instead of being selfish and taking it for himself. She despised her grandfather for telling her to go with them, causing her to get dragged into the Shard. She loathed the heavens for what she had been through over the past month. The sky rumbled menacingly as if it knew what she was thinking. Princess Jin shivered and crushed all of her thoughts before emptying her mind. She knew that she was incapable of thinking about anything but hate at the moment. Jiner! Princess Jin red at the old man in the distance, preferring him to shut his mouth before the heavens gave her a harsher punishment. She didnt know where she was taken to go through this heavenly punishment, but there was nothing but t ins as far as the eye could see. Of course, this was without considering the scorched, gouged, and hellish ground that surrounded her. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Over ten miles on all sides of pure destruction, with her as the lonely figure in the center. Your brother has returned! He has news from the Jade Healing Sect! Princess Jin let out a choked gasp when the air stilled, the pressure rising to a level that felt like it would crush her bones into dust. She ignored her grandfather and looked up, trembling at the coiling yellow lightning traveling through the clouds, converging to a single spot. Right above her. This was the end. In multiple ways. She had gone through the nine waves of heavenly punishment, the most powerful a cultivator could experience. It terrified her when the waves never seemed to stop, but she could hear the onlookers chattering excitedly in the distance. It would be a boon to the imperial family if they gained a cultivator that survived nine waves of heavenly tribtion, let alone nine waves of heavenly punishment. In a tribtion, the heavens gave the cultivator a chance to survive while also purifying the body, readying it for possible ascension in the future. That was not so in a heavenly punishment. While all the benefits still applied, the heavens only had one goal by the end. Erase all traces of the cultivators existence for offending it so. Bloody tears dripped down Princess Jins face as she stared at her end. She instinctively knew there was no chance for her to survive this. The only reason she hadsted so far was the help of the Jade Healing Sects Grand Elder. He had disappeared after the eighth wave, too injured to be of any more help. Sister Jin! I have a gift for you! Princess Jin looked away from the increasingly vicious lightning coils to see an unfamiliar man standing beside her grandfather. She had one brother, and that was the wastrel Prince Yuan. This man was not him. Catch! She eyed the small box thrown toward her, extremely aware that the shes of light above her increased in intensity by a magnitude. This must be thest help she would get before the world above copsed on her. Take the pill, Sister Jin! Princess Jin knew she had no time to question anything. Even if this pill was useless or harmful, it would make no difference in the end result. She reached a shaking hand out, unfazed at her blood-soaked arm, and picked the box off the ground. She opened it and barely saw the pill before swallowing it and looking up, expecting the worst. Some yellow coils of lightning were on the edges of the dark sky, still making their way to the center. She hoped that meant she had a few seconds to process the pill she had taken. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Taking the pill triggered the anger of the heavens. The sh of lightning blinded Princess Jin, immediately followed by a level of pain she never knew existed. She could feel the immeasurable anger the heavens had toward her. To challenge its authority, to dare to use something originating from one that had already defied its will, to seek a way out of the rules it set on the world. Princess Jin opened her mouth in a silent scream as the heavenly lightning burned her flesh and pulverized her bones. It tried to erase her soul, but something protected it. Weak, but just enough to stop it from seeding. She writhed in pain when the lightning redirected all of its focus on her mind. If it couldnt destroy her soul, it decided that tearing apart her mind would be a close substitute. Princess Jin tried to keep ahold of her identity, her memories. She didnt know if she was sessful since her body finally shut down. She weed thefortable dark. B2 - Chapter 61 B2 - Chapter 61 This had mostly been a disappointment. Not the library itself, William was sure that was still amazing as long as he gave it more time. However, the picks the section catalog provided were utter trash. No, that wasnt fair. A couple of the books werentpletely useless, but they didnt fit his current wants. The introduction of The Comprehensive Handbook of Spirit Beast Egg Hatching should have clued him into what he could expect. Picking the right spirit beast egg for your cultivation level is crucial. Avoid eggs that are too high or too low in tier. They may harm or hinder your progress. You should also consider thepatibility of the spirit beasts element and temperament with your own. An excellent way to test this is to hold the egg and feel its aura in your hand. If you sense warmth, harmony, and attraction, it means the egg is suitable for you. If you sense coldness, discord, or repulsion, the egg is ipatible with you. That was all well and good, but William didnt have an option to pick and choose the best spirit egg. Nor could he say that he felt much of anything when he held the egg. None of that warmth, harmony, or coldness. The rest of the book was much of the same, speaking more about the ideal temperatures of egg hatching and environment control than anything that applied to him. While the book never mentioned it, he suspected it was for more low-tier eggs than anything else. Unfortunately, Spirit Beast Egg Hatching Made Simple had the same issue. Secrets of the High-Tier Spirit Beast Eggs was even worse. The other two books still had helpful information he could file away for use sometime in the future. However, the book that specifically mentioned high-tier eggs was entirely useless. It was informational only in the technical sense. Every so-called fact in that book was preceded by the word rumored, or supposedly, and the most annoying one, suspected. What was he supposed to do with an entire book of guesswork? William shook his head in frustration and closed the book. It wasnt the end of the world, but more of an annoyance. He wasted half an hour skimming through the massive books due to theprehension gained from being a cultivator. It left him with less time until Lan Yang said he would arrive. He wanted to search for more books through the section catalog, but with the first rmendations it had shown being busts so far, he imagined that might take more than the time he had left. At the very least, he coulde back here whenever he wished. William sighed and picked up the autobiography. He didnt have much hope for it, but it would be better than reading about the best ways to cook spirit beast eggs. Turns out How I identally Hatched a High-Tier Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator was fascinating. He was taken back to the time he gobbled up cultivation novels, except this time, it was a true, first-hand ount of a ridiculously powerful cultivator. Lin Lin, the founder of the Sunrise Kingdom. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition. The book read more like aedy rather than a story of a serious cultivator who fought against the heavens to be a king. The number of lucky chances Lin Lin stumbled into was stupidlyrge. The man found his spirit beast egg as a child by it literally dropping from the sky and onto his head. He discovered the only way to hatch it when he tripped into a lightning pool, only living due to his egg devouring the lightning Qi. Even the way he became a king seemed farfetched. Lin Lin had identally touched the bare skin of the previous dynastys only princess, which somehow meant they must marry to protect her virtue. Lin Lin was king after a few wars that wiped out all the eligible heirs. If this tale was urate, which William suspected it was, Lin Lin had the luck of a main character. Everything went his way, and this book detailed his every experience. Nothing that could ever be replicated, but the information Lin Lin had learned from it could still be used to great effect. The man was a fantastic journaler, and all that was needed now was to confirm it wasnt all a bunch of bullshit. You found a good one, I assume? Williams attention was ripped away from the book, looking up to see Lan Yang staring at him with interest. Its interesting. Lan Yang looked at the books he had set aside before checking the one he was reading. I dont think Ive seen any of these before. Most are for low-tier spirit beast eggs, William admitted before pointing at the book opened in front of him. This is more of a story, but it had some really useful things you can learn. I do question if its urate, though. A story? Lan Yang frowned before reaching for the book. Let me have a look. He flipped through the first half for a minute, eyebrows raising with every second that passed. Is there a problem? William asked unsurely. I didnt know the library had something like this, Lan Yang smirked. The Venerable Lin and the symbol of the Sunrise Kingdom having a background such as this is unexpected. So its real? There have been rumors that this was the case, but its not something for people like us to know, Lan Yang shrugged, losing interest in the book and cing it back down. Take what you read in books from the general sections with a little doubt. The only ones you can fully trust are librarian-approved reference books. William stared at him nkly. That would have been nice to know before he was left to explore on his own. Still, he remembered what Su Rou mentioned. Lan Yang never wanted to be a mentor, so warning him likely never came up as a thought in the mans mind. That was fine. From now on, William had to be direct with his questions and try to think of the possible issues that might pop up before he did anything. Easier said than done. Could I ask a librarian if they could confirm this journal is factual? William asked. No, Lan Yang replied bluntly. They only care for the library. Think of them as Elders, just with a different title. You cannot simply speak to one casually. He nodded thoughtfully. It would be necessary to try and speak to Elder Yu before she left the sect. If that wasnt possible, he would have to painstakingly confirm everything the journal provided by looking through the reference books. Is there a separate section for these reference books? Lan Yang shook his head. You have to specify thats what you want to the section catalog. They are rarely used by disciples. Reference books are great, but they are slow to be revised with more up-to-date information by the librarians. I see, William nodded slowly. Well, lets go. Su Rou is waiting for us. And after that, I want to get started on the basics of the Heavenly Thunder Scripture. His eyes lit up as he rushed to stand. Can I take books with me? For a week, Lan Yang replied. You will be charged for the cost of the book if itste, so be sure to return it in time. Anything you dont want, leave on the table. The librarian assistants will take care of it. William happily stored the journal and glorified cookbook in his ring before following Lan Yang out of Section J. His eyes instinctively sought out the girl who apanied him in this deserted part of the library, and he was disappointed to see that she was gone. He frowned slightly before looking away from her spot. B2 - Chapter 62 B2 - Chapter 62 The training room Lan Yang had led him to wasrge, though far more basic than what the auction house had to offer. It looked more fit for group training rather than solo sessions. William had his eyes closed, concentrating as Su Rou guided his Qi through his body. It was something he was familiar with. [Force Multiplier] did much of the same but with an opposing objective. The goal for the martial skill was to spread the Qi throughout his body as evenly as possible to help withstand the strain it woulde under when the skill was activated. Su Rou was helping to guide his Qi to concentrate on as small of an area as possible. He frowned when she stopped. Prepare yourself, she warned. He opened his eyes, tensing when he felt the sharp snap of the bone in his forearm. She had broken it effortlessly. [-100 HP] Now repeat what I showed you, but gather it at the break. William did as she asked. It was a simple thing for him to direct his Qi at this point, but concentrating it in a tiny area was a little moreplicated. Still, nothing impossible. The Qi shined brightly at the break, giving off that ethereal look he was familiar with, but this time in a spot no bigger than an inch. The wisps of Qi rising from his skin seemed thicker than usual due to the concentrated state. Well done! Su Rou smiled. Im impressed. This is usually the hardest part for most. Now, close your eyes again. You will need to feel the change in your Qi. William nodded as he closed his eyes. It may seem impressive to her, but he had been doing a variation of this since he became a cultivator. The basic martial skills, simple palm thrusts, kicks, and stomps, had simr Qi movement, though far more forgiving, hence the weaker effect. [Force Multiplier] was the same, but the requirements for activation needed a near-perfect spread of Qi; thus, the effect was ridiculously powerful. It made learning what Su Rou demonstrated far more straightforward than it should have been. Concentrate, Su Rou ordered before she pushed her Qi forward. William frowned. The Elders Chen had done something simr during his checkup after returning from the Shard. While that felt ufortable, it was nothing like this. The feeling of Su Rous Qi was alien. Usually, Qi felt like it lightened him, a cool balm deep inside his body that made him feel powerful. This was almost the opposite. It was alien. As if sharp des were in his spiritual pathways, radiating danger while not actually causing any harm. Keep focusing, Su Rous voice seemed far away. Memorize what your Qi does. William clenched his teeth, wanting to pull away when he felt the invading Qi change from feeling like simple des to lethally sharp swords. He had a suspicion that it could cause severe damage to his body if Su Rou wished to do so. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Thankfully, he didnt have to worry any longer. Her Qi merged with his. It should have been ovee, but it infected his Qi. He hissed loudly, barely holding back the scream that formed in his throat. Focus! Su Roumanded. The pain means its working! That was easy to say. William had his body battered, been near death multiple times, and his legs quite literally ripped off. But this was somehow the worst pain he had felt. He wasnt sure if his pain tolerance had reduced drastically with the period of peace he was experiencing, but it was bad. William mustered any dregs of will in existence before forcing his mind to ignore the pain and focus on his slowly infected Qi. It started gradually gaining the sharp properties that Su Rous Qi possessed. However, unlike hers, he could understand his own. The methodical infection slowly revealed the microscopic changes needed to make his Qi have odd de-like properties. Ah! He flinched in surprise when the infection spread in less than a blink of his eyes. The broken forearm snapped back in ce just as quickly as when it broke, leaving no traces of it ever being harmed. William opened his eyes in confusion. [+100 HP] [-200 Spiritual Energy] He recognized the apparent ratio it had taken to heal his injury. Two-to-one, which, if it was fact, meant the maximum he could heal was five hundred and forty HP if his Spiritual Energy was full. But he was getting ahead of himself. He would need to try this multiple times before confirming that the two-to-one ratio was true. There was something that deserved his attention more at the moment. Su Rao. Senior Su? Are you alright? She was sweating heavily, unbroken lines dripping down her face, hair matted to her skin, and chest heaving as she sucked in air. I-Im fine, Su Rao waved him off weakly. The process is hard on a cultivator at my level. Im afraid I wont be able to be of more help for a while. William bowed deeply. Thank you, Senior Su. Youve done more than enough. I need to replicate the process myself, right? Yes, Su Rao nodded, taking a breath before saying, Start small. A scratch or something minor before moving up to more difficult injuries like broken bones. [Side Quest: Learn the basics of self-healing] [Information: Su Rao has shown you how to convert your Qi into Healing Qi. Be aplished enough to heal a broken bone on your own.] [Reward: 10000 XP] [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Su Rao] [ept: Y/N] This was a no-doubter. He quickly epted. [Side Quest epted | Learn the basics of self-healing] Im guessing you need rest? Lan Yang spoke from the edge of the room where he had been observing. Unfortunately, Brother Yang, Su Rou frowned. Junior Weis Qi capacity is surprisinglyrge for his cultivation. Hm, indeed he does, Lan Yang agreed, though William had no idea how he knew. Take care. Ill visit you after, Su Rao. She gave them a tired smile before murmuring a farewell and exiting the room. The moment the door shut behind her, William spoke. You know, I thought you hinted that she was bad somehow. Senior Su is actually quite kind. You think so? Lan Yang walked toward him. I supposed shes good with juniors like you. A bit too needy, in my opinion. Theres a reason I let her teach you first. William frowned heavily. You knew she would get that tired? Obviously, Lan Yang shrugged his outer robes off. You learn something useful, I get to put less effort into teaching you since Su Rao took care of it, and she gets to rest. We all win. He had thought this before, but it was never as evident. Lan Yang was a bit of an asshole. Thoughts of Lan Yangs dickishness disappeared when the training room was filled with the sound of power. William stared at the man with wide eyes. Blue lightning crackled and hissed around his body like a storm, his typically dark eyes glowing a bright blue as he stared at him was a cocky smirk. I might not know the first thing about Thunder Qi, but I have to say that Im quite proficient in Lightning Qi, Lan Yang clenched his hand, a surge of lightning concentrating into apressed ball above his fist. Lets take what Su Rou showed you and use it to teach you something far more useful. B2 - Chapter 63 B2 - Chapter 63 William stepped back when Lan Yang moved closer, not wanting to be near that ball of lightning now floating a foot in front of the older cultivator. So, Junior Wei, Lan Yang spoke loudly to be clear over the crackle of the lightning. You have a few options here. He took another small step back, his wariness increasing drastically. He hadnt forgotten that Lan Yang promised to inflict great harm on him just a short time ago. There are a few ways of learning how to ess Lightning Qi, Lan Yang bounced the floating lightning ball somehow. One is to use this ball like this. Meditate on it for a few months, and you can probably get it. That sounded good to William. He had plenty of time to spend. Another is this, the lightning ball disappeared, but his body lit up. Fibers of small electric currents started glowing through his skin. The natural electricity that is contained in our bodies. This is the slowest and easiest method to ess Lightning Qi. Id say it will take one to two years. Oh, William thought it was a miracle he wasnt gaping in shock at the disy Lan Yang was putting on. This might be a little too long, Senior Yang. Hm, Lan Yang nodded, the glowing fibers disappearing. There is another, far quicker option, with the same benefits as studying the natural electricity in your body. Is there? He asked suspiciously. There is. Williams eyes widened when the lightning buzzing around Lan Yangs body grew more violent, frequently sparking nearly a foot away from his body. Thest, best, and quickest option is direct, repeated contact, Lan Yang smiled wickedly. So, which do you prefer? His instinct was to pick direct contact, but it was easy to guess the negative for this method. Plus, did he really want to put himself under the mercy of a probably still quietly furious Lan Yang? No, he did not. That ball of lightning looked good, Senior Yang, William said earnestly. I think it would do me good to take some time to learn this. I see, Lan Yang tilted his head for a moment. Thats a shame. I think otherwise. What? Well, as your concerned mentor, I am forced to override your decision, Lan Yang walked closer. I dont feel that the ball is for you. Its best to be the best, dont you agree? [Side Quest: ess Lightning Qi] [Information: Lan Yang has chosen the way you will learn how to ess Lightning Qi. Be able to convert 1% of your Qi into Lightning Qi.] [Reward: 10000 XP] [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Lan Yang] [ept: Y/N] He quickly epted. There was a far more pressing issue to think of. [Side Quest epted |ess Lightning Qi] William was getting some major murder vibes at the moment. He didnt like it. And, Junior Wei? He stopped several feet away. This is better for you, but I will not lie and say I wont enjoy it. Think of this as deserved retribution for spending my Spirit Stones without permission. [-200 Spiritual Energy] He didnt mean to activate [Force Multiplier]. Not that he wasining. He spread the Qi evenly inside his body in preparation when Lan Yang started to speak suspiciously. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. If William was going to take punishment, it wouldnt be without a fight. It also helped that arge part of him wanted to find out how well he would match up against a peak foundation establishment realm cultivator. The Seedling, the monster he fought in the Shard, was in the foundation establishment realm, but it certainly wasnt at the peak. He would finally get to test the limits of his power with [Force Multiplier] activated. Even if it wasnt nned. Oh? Whats this? Lan Yangs voice was distorted, the lightning crackling around his body likely being the cause. You want to spar? Even better. It wont be as easy as you think, Senior Yang, William retorted. He missed this. The peace and quiet was nice. Fighting against someone who clearly overmatched him was better. The Shard really ruined his mentality. He shuddered at the thought of wanting to be fighting for his life instead of worrying about making a merchant house sessful. So you say, Lan Yangs smile grew sharp. Prepare yourself. William heard the sonic boom just as Lan Yang upied his entire field of view. Far too close. His martial arts training clicked into ce. He recognized that Lan Yang was fast even with [Force Multiplier] activated. Enough to the point where he had barely been able to keep track of the man. He could do very few things against someone this much faster, but there were still some options. The best hope was that Lan Yang was worse than a novice in martial arts. It would leave William with some ability to predict his moves. Right fist. He grunted in pain as he blocked it with his palm, a deafening sound exploding at the point of contact. [-10 HP] The Lightning Qi devoured his Qi, easily overpowering it until William attempted a counter. A jab at Lan Yangs face. He didnt connect. It was never meant to. Still, the goal was aplished. His palm was no longer in contact with Lan Yangs fist. Well, thats embarrassing, Lan Yang stared at William, who was shaking his hand to get some feeling back. I didnt expect you to actually be able to block that. He narrowed his eyes. Does that mean you wanted to knock me out? You would have hit my head. Dont be stupid, Junior Wei, Lan Yang chuckled. Whats the point of having you unconscious? You must be awake to observe how my Qi interacts with yours. How considerate, William narrowed his eyes even further. He was hyperaware of any movement from Lan Yang. Lets continue. Weight shifted to the back leg. Body leaning forward minutely. Fingers staring to curl into a fist. William registered all he could before Lan Yangs body blurred at his sheer speed. He had already vacated his spot to avoid an instant defeat. Lan Yang made it sound like he had plenty more to give, and standing still would be the easiest way to be punished heavily. His eyes widened, arm quickly rising up to shield the right side of his face. Impressive! Lan Yangughed as his fist smashed into Wims forearm, leaving a deep imprint on the skin. Looks like I should move faster! He grunted when he couldnt block the next strike, a knee cracking his ribs with ease. [-100 HP] William jumped back, trying to put as much space as possible between him and Lan Yang. The man sure liked to use closebat for someone who sneered at martial arts. It was like his thoughts were heard. Apologies, Junior Wei, Lan Yang said unconvincingly. I forgot to use Lightning Qi with that one. Its not usual for me to fight like a mortal. Shame that its necessary to teach you. Again, William winced, finding that speaking was a chore, you are very considerate, Senior Yang. Hm, indeed, Lan Yang smiled gently. Well, enough ying around. He gasped in abination of pain and shock when Lan Yang was suddenly before him, fist buried in his stomach and Lightning Qi torturously invading his body. [-200 HP] There was no warning or signs that William could have gathered. It seemed that Lan Yang truly was limiting himself. There we are, Lan Yang nodded, the lightning crackling around his body slowly disappearing. As Su Rou said, focus on your Qi. Throw it against the Lightning Qi I injected and observe. William was on his knees, fighting the urge to retaliate. But he knew all that would do is necessitate a repeat of the beatdown. Not that he could put up any sort of fight at the moment. He could barely move with the Lightning Qi rampaging through his body. Not that I mind, but the longer you wait, the longer you feel this pain. Smother the Lightning Qi, Junior Wei. He finally sat crosslegged with a struggle and did as Lan Yang suggested. As a bonus, I also left you with the perfect variation of injuries, Lan Yang continued with amusement. Just as Su Rou suggested. Perfect for you to practice with the Healing Qi afterward. I understand, William opened his eyes, his voice filled with tension. Thank you. I would appreciate it if you could leave me to it. Of course, of course, Lan Yang smiled and made to leave. Ah, right. Weve been talking a bit too long. The Lightning Qi might not be enough. [-50 HP] William doubled over in pain when a bolt left Lan Yangs finger and sank into his body. Oh, Lan Yang said in fake surprise. Seems like it wasnt necessary to fight like a mortal. He was too busy trying to crush the rampaging Qi inside his body to bother with his mentor. Still, he could faintly hear his final words. By giving back the Spirit Stones, you redeemed yourself, Junior Wei. You narrowly escaped a grave punishment. But this settles our score. B2 - Chapter 64 B2 - Chapter 64 William was tempted to open his eyes to keep track of the man who still held a grudge against him. Or did, until now. It was beyond petty of Lan Yang, in Williams opinion, at least at first thought. A bit of introspection made him realize that, no, it really wasnt. What he had done to Lan Yang was the equivalent of taking thergest loan someone had got in their life, like a mortgage on Earth, and you decided to bring it to the casino and plop it on a single spin of roulette. Just because there was no harm in the end didnt mean they still wouldnt be furious beyond belief. Yes, after that sort of perspective, William considered the pain he had gotten as punishment a p on the wrist. Especially since all of this would still help him understand how to ess Lightning Qi. He just hoped that Lan Yang meant it when he said the score was settled. Only time would tell. William forced himself to put that aside. He had already wasted a few seconds fretting about Lan Yangs mood. Thankfully, the Lightning Qi wasnt as quick to deteriorate as the Healing Qi, so no harm was done yet. He did as Lan Yang suggested and tried to smother the Lightning Qi. That meant he tried to surround the rampaging foreign Qi with his own, like putting out a fire with a nket. Unlike the Healing Qi, he couldnt understand what the Lightning Qi felt like. It was too energetic, too blinding to his senses to hope to figure out anything about it. That immediately changed the moment his Qi came into contact. The usual ethereal Qi mutated briefly into a liquid-like matter filled with electricity before it was snuffed out due to the overwhelming mass of Qi he possessedpared to Lan Yangs Lightning Qi. That was good for his overall health to erase the rampaging Qis presence easily, but it made it difficult to get a good idea when the reaction was over so quickly. Fortunately, this happened only at the point of contact. There was plenty more Lightning Qi he still had to snuff out. William spent the next few hours doing two things. He ensured that his Qi didnt overwhelm the Lightning Qi too quickly while also trying to keep it from rampaging around his spiritual pathways. It was a bncing act that greatly helped with his control over Qi. An unintended benefit he would dly ept. He observed thest bit of Lightning Qi get smothered, finally leaving his spiritual pathway free of any foreign Qi. The closest thing he couldpare what he had seen was to sma. The thing that lightning is made of. Yes, William knew that sma was gas, but Lightning Qi seemed like an ultrapressed, liquid-like form of it with an immense amount of electrical energy contained within. Whatever it was, he felt like he understood the changes needed to his Qi. William quickly realized it wasnt as simple as he assumed. He was able to get the state of his Qipressed enough that he could mimic the liquid-like form, but nothing worked when he tried to infuse it with electrical energy. He even tried to form them at the same time after many, many failures to do them separately. That failed even more. He couldnt mimic the liquid-like state in addition to being unable to infuse the electrical energy. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. William opened his eyes with a frown. Trying the same thing over and over without any progress was going to drive him insane. It was best to ask Lan Yang what he was missing. He felt that he was right at the edge of sess but also infinitely far away at the same time. Senior Yang William cut himself off when he looked around. He was the only one in the training room. In addition to asking for advice, he wanted another dose of Lightning Qi to see if he missed something. He recognized that it would mean willingly taking more punishment. He didnt care. He was too invested. William made to push himself off the floor. That was a mistake. It instantly made him aware of his body. All the bruises and broken ribs Lan Yang had gifted him. It wasnt that bad, all things considered, especially since he had much worse, but concentrating all of his attention within himself had made him forget that he was injured at all. He reversed course and sat back down. Lightning Qi wasnt the only thing he needed to learn. Healing Qi was an option, too. William followed Su Rous suggestion and tried it with the most minor of injuries. A bruise on his palm from blocking Lan Yangs fist. It wasnt even a cut, so it should be simple to heal. He was sorely mistaken. Like some sort of bad joke, he was sessful with the first step but failed repeatedly at the second. Concentrating his Qi into his palm was as easy as breathing. Converting his Qi seemed near impossible again. Unlike with Lighting Qi, even hours of repeated failure wasnt enough for William to think about giving up. In his mind, getting ess to Healing Qi was far more critical whenpared to Lightning Qi. This would be the key to unlocking self-healing without relying on external things like pills or salves. If he was proficient enough, there would never need to worry about umting impurity like he did in the Shard. Of course, this assumed that he had Spiritual Energy to spare to use Healing Qi on his injuries. William didnt know how much time had passed without any hint of sess, but he would be surprised if he had somehow spent over a day just sitting in the same spot, failing repeatedly. It was already a miracle for him to keep this up without giving up in rage, and it boiled over after the umpteenth time of his Qi being utterly inert. When dealing with Qi, he had the habit of stamping out his emotions. For good reason. It was much harder to control when he felt anything significant, whether it be rage, happiness, or anything else intense. It had be such a habit that it never crossed his mind to do it any other way, even with all the failures. With rage fueling Williams actions and him doing nothing to stamp it down, he went through the motions again. Concentrating his Qi into his palm. Attempting the conversion into Healing Qi. Then, the obvious failure would ur. Except thest part didnt happen. It was small. Tiny. Barely noticeable, even for William, but a minuscule amount of Qi, barely above one percent of the total, gained the de-like properties he was working so hard to get. The bruise on his palm instantly disappeared. William lost the range he was feeling at the surprise. He opened his eyes in shock and studied his palm to confirm it really was a sess. It was. [+10 HP] [-20 Spiritual Energy] William noted the ratio again. He would still need a few more instances of it happening before he took it as fact, but it was certainly trending in that direction. He lightly touched his stomach, feeling the burn spread across his skin where Lan Yang shot him with a small lightning bolt. He closed his eyes and directed his Qi there. It would be the next healing target. This time, it didnt take nearly as long. Wim knew he couldnt have done it sooner, but he tried to see if using any emotion other than rage would have worked. It didnt. Ironically, the most benevolent Qi required theplete opposite to ess. Not only that but therger the injury, the more rage he had to feel. He was barely able to get to the level needed. It was only when he remembered what he felt when he thought Elder Yu was going to kill Wang Xiaoling did he seed. Around ten percent of his Qi was converted into Healing Qi. William opened his eyes with a smile. [+50 HP] [-100 Spiritual Energy] That ratio showed up again. He had two more injuries. A cracked rib and internal damage in the stomach area. If that ratio stayed true when those healed, it would be safe to consider it a fact. Plus, healing a broken bone would also get him apleted quest. William closed his eyes again, this time focusing on his broken rib. Hours passed without any sess. No matter what memory he brought to the forefront of his mind or even when he fabricated situations, it wasnt enough to convert enough of his Qi to heal the broken rib. William frowned when a thought came up in his mind. How did Su Rou deal with this? B2 - Chapter 65 B2 - Chapter 65 Advanced Qi refining room Upgrade your dwellings refining room to include a martial arts training mode. Instruction tablets are sold separately. Cost - 100,000 points That was one hundred Spirit Stones. More than what William had to spend at the moment. He closed the catalog and stored it before closing his eyes, trying to forget hisck of money. It made the cost of the spirit boat he was stunned by months ago seem like it was basically free. Still, he nned on buying the upgrade when he had enough funds, whenever that might be. This was one of the few breaks William decided to take in the past week. His daily routine usually involved locking himself up in his dwellings Qi refining room and attempting to convert his Qi into either Lightning or Healing Qi. Unfortunately, to no sess. If William hadnt gained an obsession over fulfilling his desire to convert his Qi, he might have lost his mind at making no progress whatsoever. The session in the libraryst week had been the only time there had been any progress. Lan Yang had been of no help, iming that it was up to William to find a way to ess Lightning Qi. Apparently, there was nothing further that could be done. He doubted it since he knew that grudge could still be in effect. Nheless, he epted it. As for Su Rou, she was still out ofmission, so William hadnt been able to ask how she dealt with the range needed to ess Healing Qi. He didnt think it would be this strenuous to help him and felt a small amount of guilt. Whenever she could move about normally, he intended to pay her back for the help. Maybe by treating her to Fatty Xus cooking. Kae is waiting outside. William blinked rapidly, pulling himself out of the daydream and checked if he was drooling. Oh! A visitor! Mei Lingxi said excitedly as she burst into his dwelling, going for the door before he could himself. I can get that! William called out as he stood up. Nonsense, Young Master. This is my job! Elder Yu had thought it would be convenient to provide her a dwelling directly connected to his. In a way, it was, but he bet that Elder Yu didnt foresee Wang Xiaoling and Mei Lingxi getting along like lifelong friends and deciding to room together. At least it gave Wang Xiaoling a reason not topletely hate her time in the sect. His mild annoyance was due to the fact that he hadnt gotten another taste of Fatty Xus cooking ever since the first time at the stall. Something about therge man setting up his own stall before entertaining guests. William would have been okay with that if Wang Xiaoling hadnt kept exining in great detail about what she had eaten that day. She was not considered a guest. He knew he was being petty. Its not like it was her duty to feed him. He also knew she was being equally petty. Likely getting her frustrations out by denying him the food he clearly desires. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it It would pass in time. He expected to stay in the sect for a while, so he wasnt too worried. Hello, Im here for Wei Liang. William had forgotten about Kae with his recent obsession. He knew what the boy was here for. Training. He wasnt in the mood to train with Kae, a two-star alchemist. He still didnt know what that meant, which was a bit of an embarrassment after being in the Inner Court for over a week. How do you know my young master? Mei Lingxi questioned. Why is it your business? Kae asked, irritation clear in his voice. That was enough. William knew Mei Lingxi was generally easygoing, but she wouldnt tolerate tant disrespect like this. I have this, Sister Lingxi, William said as he nudged her out of the way. What did you need, Kae? Did you forget that we were to train together? Kae frowned. Im taking a break from a week-long training session, William added regret to his voice. Maybe in another week? You need a break after only a week of training? Kaes frown grew more severe. You need more dedication, Wei Liang. That made his eye twitch in irritation. Who was this kid to tell him he waszy? They didnt know each other. Yes, Ill be sure to get myself some dedication after my break, William made to close the door. Ill see you around. So you go back on your word? Kae almost looked disgusted. I thought better of someone who entered the Inner Court so early. He shrugged, not caring too much about what Kae thought. He knew enough unique people. If he made the effort to be social, he would prefer them to be his version of normal. Kae was not that. Young Master, why dont you go? Youve been acting like an old man with all the time you spend in the refining room. It might be good for you to get out of the dwelling. William nced at Mei Lingxi to find that she wasnt joking. And think about getting us something on the way back, Mei Lingxi continued with a bright smile. Im sure Xiaoling and I will appreciate it. Like gifts? William asked unsurely, wondering if this was a vague way to let him know how to fix Wang Xiaolings annoyance toward him. I cant be that direct, Young Master, Mei Lingxi tutted. Unless youre ordering me to tell you? He thought about it, but using his position of authority for something so mundane would never be something he would do. Mei Lingxi obviously knew that with the smirk on her face. That is no longer necessary, Kae interjected. Take your rest, Wei Liang. William rolled his eyes, once again wondering what was up with him. Kae sounded personally offended that he didnt want to train. Still, with Mei Lingxis urging and the fact that the books he borrowed from the library needed to be returned or rented today, he might as well go with Kae. No, youre right, Kae. It felt good to call someone by name without any honorifics. Maybe it could make Kae tolerable just for that. I should be training. Have fun, Young Master! William gave her azy wave before he stepped out and closed the door behind him. So, where are we going? The library? With the past week spent fruitlessly trying to convert his Qi, he had neglected all the manuals in his spatial ring. While Kae would keep himself busy making a pill or whatever, he could read up on some of those. How can you train in the library? Kae asked with a serious face. There should be plenty of books for you to find, no? If I wanted to learn, I would go to a lecture instead of ying around in the library. You spend more time fact-checking than learning there. Were going to the Mission Hall. William almost missed Kae walking off from his shock. It wasnt that they were going to the Mission Hall. It was more about himself. And, well, Lan Yang. Of everything he had seen during the tour of themon grounds, he had forgotten entirely about the Mission Hall. That was poor for a member of a sect where it was the primary way to earn currency. It was even worse when the mentor meant to guide him had forgotten about it. Lan Yang really was a terrible guide. William picked up his pace to catch up to Kae, who was speed-walking like he waste to a meeting. He held back a wince as his still broken rib and internal injury in his stomach area made their presence known. He didnt bother to get them healed since he nned to do so himself with Healing Qi when he could. That obviously didnt go as intended. Whats the n? William asked before warning, I need to stay within the sect. He had no intention of leaving before he had some semnce of mastery over the Human-Tier version of [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. Thest time he went on an innocuous mission, he was pulled into the Shard. No, thank you. He didnt want to try his luck again with that. Understood, Kae nodded as they quickly covered ground. B2 - Chapter 66 B2 - Chapter 66 Speed walking for cultivators meant it took literally less than a minute to reach the Mission Hall. There was no dawdling to take in the sights or slowdowns due to foot traffic. Just a direct path to their intended destination, which happened to be right next to the Teleportation Hall. Unlike in the Outer Court, the Mission Hall here was an actual building instead of an open-air courtyard. The door was unguarded, something strange for William to see, but so were the entrances to most other buildings they passed. Even the Teleportation Hall nearby was no longer guarded by elite cultivators. A quick nce at the guards with the systems basic status showed they were all peak Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators. The end of the auction must have erased the need for such Elders to act like guards. We should keep the mission to a two-day duration at maximum, Kaemented as they entered. I want to retry the ranking list this week. Ranking list? William asked as he looked around the Mission Halls interior. It was extremely simr to the Outer Courts Mission Hallyout. One different thing was the number of disciples that were here. It couldnt be called packed, but there were at least a few disciples in view anywhere he looked. Another thing that stood out was that there was one Sentinel per group. You dont know what the ranking list is? Kae stopped abruptly to stare at him. At this point, William had already concluded that thebination of him and Lan Yang was the worst possible. Im new here, Kae. That doesnt exin this ignorance, Kae replied tly. True, William shrugged. It wasnt a concern to me. I had a goal thats more important than some ranking list. This goal is the reason you were training, Kae stated. Have you not thought that sect would have supplementary rewards to your training? As a bare-sleeve, you have few challengers. It would be an embarrassment if you did not ce high. Whats a bare-sleeve? William ignored the rest of Kaes points. He knew there was nothing he could say to defend from that. The Outer Court had these lists, though he never participated since the rewards werent worth his time. You, Kae pointed at his sleeves. Sentinels. Ones that have no stars. He raised an eyebrow. It seemed like there was some dislike towards Sentinels if they had a nickname like that. Fine, I ept my shortsightedness. Lets get to picking the mission. William had to admit that he had followed Kae here primarily out of curiosity. He wanted to know why the boy insisted on him joining his training when they didnt even know each other. A guess was a need to have a Sentinel, and William was the only one Kae could get to agree. Another was his age. He wasnt blind to the fact that he got looks at how young he was and knew it was a special thing to be in the Inner Court. The only issue with thetter guess was Kaes brashness. The boy clearly didnt care to curry favor. I agree, Kae turned back to the wall of tablets. Which level of difficulty should we pick? Like in the Outer Court, the wall was separated into four sections. Unlike the Outer Court, there was no restriction on what a disciple could pick. What do you usually pick? William asked for a reference. This tale has been uwfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Expert. He stared. Are they alchemy-focused? Hm, Kae tilted his head slightly in thought. Somewhat. Though I would ssify them to be morebat orientated. Now William was interested. He would have been happy to read his formation manuals like he originally nned, but if an alchemist like Kae couldpletebat focus missions on the regr, then that upgrade to the Qi refining room was much closer than he thought. Of course, it didnt escape him that something was off with Kae. Still, a look at the missions wouldnt be binding. Then lets browse the expert section, William said as he walked toward the section. He eyed the lone group of disciples pick their tablet before passing them. He noticed the Sentinel was giving him a strange look, perhaps because he was new. He moved aside to give Kae space as he picked a tablet off the wall. Mission: Clear 2 beast waves at Level 3 Location: Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss Description: Clear 2 beast waves and collect at least 80% of the total ingredients. Destruction is expected but must be minimized to pass this mission. Reward: 15000 points Penalty: Variable (Point deduction will be calcted by excess loss of ingredients) ept: Y/N William nced at the tablet and confirmed that it had the same information. The system hadnt got it wrong. The reward was fifteen thousand points. Fifteen Spirit Stones. A far cry whenpared to the only other mission he had chosen. However, there was one issue that made the mission a non-starter. This isnt in the sect, William stated. Yes, it is, Kae corrected immediately. The Abyss is the sects most valuable territory. Let me see the tablet. He handed it over with a frown. This seemed like another thing Lan Yang had somehow missed, unless the Abyss wasnt located in themon grounds. A tradeoff, Kae muttered. Difficult, but it might be easier than the others. William grew curious and picked another tablet to see what he meant. Mission: Clear 6 beast waves at Level 2 Location: Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss Description: Clear 6 beast waves and collect at least 90% of the total ingredients. Destruction is expected but must be minimized to pass this mission. Reward: 15000 points Penalty: Variable (Point deduction will be calcted by excess loss of ingredients) ept: Y/N It was located in the same ce. Simr goals but different requirements. He picked another tablet, suspicion starting to rise. Mission: Clear 3 beast waves at Level 3 Location: Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss Description: Clear 3 beast waves and collect at least 70% of the total ingredients. Destruction is expected but must be minimized to pass this mission. Reward: 15000 points Penalty: Variable (Point deduction will be calcted by excess loss of ingredients) ept: Y/N Are all these missions located in the Abyss? William asked as he returned the tablet to its ce. Hm, Kae nodded, looking at the tablet in his hands like it would reveal more information. The expert section has no menial tasks to choose from. There are the asional requests from the Empire, but they dontst long on the wall. He nced at the wall with close to a hundred requests with confusion. There really was something he was seriously missing. If there was such an enormous trove of avable points that an alchemist like Kae was eager to choose, why hadnt the other disciples been as eager? We should pick this, Kae interrupted his thoughts. Two waves with the percentage required is doable. William wouldnt agree to anything without knowing what he signed up for. Lets slow down, he held up a hand. Whats the Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss? He was also very aware that the sect could pick such a ridiculous name, but Elder Yu didnt let him keep his own creation. In his opinion, Fury of the Five Heavenly Dragons was far better to the ears than Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss. The name is telling, is it not? There are nine levels to the Abyss, where the sect sources the ingredients it needs. Not everything can be grown. Sometimes, it needs toe from spirit beasts. The first thing that came to Williams mind was a ughterhouse. Why hunt for the beasts when they could reliably have a supply in captivity. And all of this is located here? He asked incredulously. If by here, you mean under our feet? Then, yes. William looked down nkly, trying to imagine nine levels full of spirit beasts destined to be ughtered. Under themon grounds? Kae nodded. So, you agree then? Were taking this mission? He had a few thoughts at the forefront of his mind. If the Abyss was sect territory, he should be reasonably safe. Another was his spirit egg. The description of the abyss and the mission would make this a buffet for it. B2 - Chapter 67 B2 - Chapter 67 Tell me why you want me to go with you, William still had no intention of rushing into this. You cant know if Im suitable for this mission. Others will not work with me. They say Im too much of a fanatic, Kae sneered, an odd expression on his face. Thats just an excuse for the weak-willed. Theyre cultivators destined to be mediocre, unlike me. He assumed this was why Kae was irritated when he took a break from training. He might have met his first grind all day, everyday cultivator. One with arrogance about his work ethic instead of humility. Cool. So I was the only option, Williammented, remembering the disciple who had given him an odd look. This must be why. I wouldnt have picked a liability if you were just talented, Kae shook his head. I dont associate with ones that only rely on talent. There are plenty like that, and they all hit a ceiling before long. I have asked the elders about you and feel you may be worth my time. Thats why you waited for a week before contacting me. Yes. I was hasty in inviting you. Senior Lan Yang is a well-known disciple on a fast track to Elder. With him as your mentor, I made assumptions. Very happy to have them confirmed. Kae might be arrogant, but he was also straightforward to the extreme. There had been no hesitation when he revealed his reasons. William liked that. However, whatever information Kae had gathered was faulty. It was not his fault, but the sect''s elders seemed to have a high opinion of William. It couldnt be said that much training was done to reach his current cultivation. William mainly ate like a glutton and killed his way to where he was. However, now it seemed that he needed to actually cultivate and train to gain more strength instead of taking a magic pill. At what cultivation were the ones you partnered with in the past? William was moving closer to epting the mission. Almost all of them were at the middle stage Foundation Establishment Realm. A few were at thete stage. So I would be the first at the early stage if I ept. William didnt care too much about that. While he spectacrly lost in the spar against Lan Yang, the older cultivator was visibly surprised at the power [Force Multiplier] held. He had confidence he could easily match most of the cultivators in the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Maybe even thete stage for a brief time if need be. Yes, but I have confidence that you and I will be sessful. William nodded slowly, almost sure that he would agree at this point. This was an elerator for him in multiple areas. The spirit beast egg having a buffet was already a given, but it would basically be the same to him. Every beast he killed would add to his experience points. However, there were still a few key things he needed to find out. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. What cultivation are the spirit beasts in the beast waves? Whats the danger level for us in terms of injuries? Almost all the beasts are in the very early stage of our realm. However, the leaders of the waves vary wildly. They are generally around thete stage, but if we get unlucky, we could meet a peak stage Foundation Establishment Realm beast. Williams interest dropped dramatically, at least with this specific mission. He would be more than happy to pick something below level three. He wasnt being overcautious. He considered itmon sense to assume the leader would be in the peak stage. Always best to assume the worst and work from there. As for injuries, there hasnt been a fatality for a few years now. I think thest happened the year before I entered the Inner Court. That settled it. William had zero interest in taking the mission. Maybe if he had a handle on Lightning Qi, but even then, probably not. I refuse to go to level three, William ignored Kaes heavy frown. What is the cultivation of the beasts in level two? If this is about the possible peak stage beast, it will most likely never happen. Thest urrence was over two decades ago. Plus, the beasts are much higher quality at level three. All good points Kae brought up. It still did nothing to convince William to change his mind. No. Youll have to find someone else if you want to take that mission. I see, Kae sighed in frustration. The leaders at level two are a step below. At the higher end of the middle stage, with the rare ones at thete stage. As for the mob, they are reliably at the peak of Qi Gathering Realm. That sounds much more doable, William smiled. Even with six beast waves, the mob would have little effect on his Stamina. His experience in the Shard let him know that. That meant the beast wave leaders were the only thing that would require effort. Another option was to look in the section one lower than expert, medium or whatever it was called. But that would have been too easy. His spirit beast egg might satisfied with it, but he would gain far too few experience points. Plus, that might be too low for Kae to agree to. At least I get to go to the Abyss again, Kae muttered to himself as he reced the mission tablet with the one they decided on. Oh, wait! Williams words made Kae re at him, expecting another change of mind. I need to be healed before this. Ill make a quick trip to the clinic. Thats it? Kae asked with suspicion, rxing when he got a nod in reply. Then theres no need. The sect stations an Elder here to run a health check before the mission is assigned. Lets go. That was convenient, and sensible. The sect not wanting their prized disciples to have a preventable mishap was smart. William noticed he got looks again, this time from many other Sentinels instead of just one. They must have gathered attention at the excessively long time they spent arguing in the expert section. He also noticed that while they gave him looks of pity, it wasbined with a hefty dose of amusement. It was like partnering with Kae was some sort of hazing. Interesting. A very familiar Elder was manning the open office. Well, manning was a stretch. She was snoring quite loudly until they approached. Huh? Disciple Kae? You found a partner again! Indeed, Elder Zhou, Kae handed her the tablet. We will be taking this. Elder Zhou. The old woman who looked like walking-death. The one that smacked his shin with a cane and jabbed his jaw before helping to remove the impurities from his body. That Elder Zhou. Hm, level two, Elder Zhou mumbled. Six waves. Seems fine to me. Whos your partnerOh. Its you? William gave her a small wave with an uneasy smile. She unnerved him. Hmm, Elder Zhou looked him up and down like he was a fascinating specimen to study. He hadnt forgotten that she wanted to use him as ab rat. Good choice, Disciple Kae. This one might be as stupid as you. William blinked at the unearned insult. I was hoping he was. Kae nodded seriously. Well, I need verbal confirmation. You two both ept this mission? Elder Zhou asked. Yes, Kae agreed immediately before looking at him. It was then that William realized that he had to look at Kaes stats before jumping in. He avoided using the system with sect members, but this was now more than that. Kae was going to be a partner in a situation where death was the slimmest of possibilities. He used [Detailed Observe]. B2 - Chapter 68 B2 - Chapter 68 [-40 Spiritual Energy] Name: Kae Age: 16 Level: 133 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 1185/1185 Spirit: 237 Strength: 150 Stamina: 225 Agility: 218 Luck: 120 Average. Thats the word that came to Williams mind after some quick mental math of the attribute points Kae should have in total at his level. Nothing really stood out. At least, nothing that revealed why he had overwhelming confidence to seed at level three of the Abyss. Disciple Wei, do you ept? Elder Zhou prodded. Kae says that we could handle level three. Is that true? William asked instead of answering. Level three? Elder Zhou hummed in thought as she tapped her cane on the floor. Four beast waves would be the limit, but yes, I could see you both seeding. Disciple Kaes alchemy and your envious stubbornness will help greatly. He assumed she was referring to his overconsumption of Vitality Restoration Pills in the Shard. He would ssify that as desperation rather than stubbornness, but he supposed those could be interchangeable. William was more interested in Kaes alchemy. The boys stats were nothing to boast about, so it had to be something extraordinary. Whats so special about his alchemy? You could have asked me, Wei Liang, Kae interjected. I could have, but Elder Zhou wont exaggerate your capabilities. Its nothing personal. Thats true, Kae wasnt offended. William assumed he wouldnt be with his bluntness. Carry on, then. This will only reassure you. Disciple Kae is right, Elder Zhou chuckled. Unlike most other two-star alchemists in the sect, he isnt focused on pill formations or healing elixirs. He focuses on physical enhancements. That makes a surprising amount of sense, William admitted out loud, thinking about Kae''s overall air of gruffness. Stereotyping sometimes stayed true. What type of enhancements? Boy, do I look like I have time to answer inane questions? Elder Zhou frowned. She was snoring a short while ago, so yes, William did think so. But he said the opposite. No? Correct answer. So, do you ept the mission or not? Er, I have some unhealed injuries, William said hesitantly. Ill need them healed before the mission. I will fix you after you give me an answer, Elder Zhou said, visibly getting more agitated. Kae had taken a few steps away at some point. Still, he needed to add another condition. And I must return to my dwelling to get my spirit beast egg. I think this mission will help it get closer to its hatching point. It wasnt like he could just pull the egg out in public. That would reveal his upgraded spatial stone. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. If the next word out of your mouth isnt a yes or no, I will ban you from the Mission Hall for a year, Elder Zhou glowered. Kae was telling him to shut up with just his eyes. Thats precisely what he did, but he still couldnt make himself say yes to the mission. What was the point if the spirit beast egg couldnt benefit? You have around an hour before a spot opens up on level three, Elder Zhou narrowed her eyes at his silence. Do what you need in that time. I ept, William replied immediately. [Side Quest Added | Mission: Clear 6 beast waves at Level 2] Finally, Elder Zhou grumbled as she stood. Come closer. He remembered what happenedst time and was prepared this time around. The moment he stepped forward, Elder Zhou jabbed at his neck. Despite it being expected, he still choked from the force behind the jab. It was obvious it was done with purpose. A broken rib and internal bruising, Elder Zhoumented, ignoring the sounds William made. Minor injuries. Itll take me a few seconds to fix. That was literal. He tensed when foreign Qi rushed into his body. His spiritual pathways were drowned with immense Healing Qi, making him feel like a sharp sword was held to his neck. Before he could react, it was over. [+350 HP] William rubbed his neck as he stepped back, putting space between him and Elder Zhou. Thank you. Hm. Return here when youre ready to head down to the Abyss. If it takes you over an hour, you will fail the mission. Ill have Wei Liang back well before that, Elder Zhou, Kae promised. I dont doubt that, Elder Zhou waved them off, Go. Wait, I have one more question, William pushed on, ignoring Kaes wince and Elder Zhou''s warning look. Im started with the basics of Healing Qi. Senior Su Rou Oh! That girl has promise, Elder Zhou interrupted. But you? Youre not suitable for that discipline at all. I grasped it quick enough, he defended. I can heal small bruises, but I havent been able to convert enough Qi to heal anythingrger. How do you feel enough anger to make that possible? O-Out of all the things, Elder Zhou let out a cacklingugh, you need that to ess Healing Qi. William nced at Kae to see what was so funny, but he stood there nkly. Boy, youre a berserker through and through, Elder Zhousugh has lessened to a chuckle. The chance of you being able to heal anything outside of battle is near zero. This made your condition when you returned to the sect all the more sense. So Im guessing anger fueling the Healing Qi isnt normal then? William asked with resignation. Not at all. It is a known condition that basically disqualifies you from any serious advancement on the healing path. I see, he nodded, not too discouraged at the news. It wasnt like he nned to be an expert at it. All he wanted was to be proficient enough to keep himself alive. Ill just have to work harder at it. Sure, Elder Zhao looked like she would break intoughter again. I wish you luck. Now get out of here. Yes, Elder Zhou, Kae and William said in unison before leaving the Mission Hall. Healing, Kae broke the silence once they were halfway to Williams dwelling. I didnt expect that. The way I fight requires it, William shrugged. If it keeps me alive, then Ill learn it. You speak as if you expect to be in life-threatening fights all the time, Kae gave him an appraising look. Thats an excellent mindset. Most of the useless prissy morons here sit and cultivate in safety. As if any legendary cultivator has ever reached the peak with that attitude. William hummed in agreement. He would prefer to be one of those useless prissy morons. Still, his way of cultivating was best done by throwing himself in danger. Also, he liked that better than locking himself up to cultivate in solitude for months at a time, as much as he wished he didnt. They arrived at his dwelling shortly after. Ill be out in a minute, William said before entering to see something shocking. He closed the door as he held the stare of two pairs of eyes. So, this was why I was told to leave to get you both gifts. I never thought I would be betrayed by you, Sister Lingxi. The two women were having a feast of epic proportions. Mouthwatering food spread across the table, still fresh and steaming hot. Fatty Xu must have delivered it recently. I couldnt help myself, Young Master, Mei Lingxi showed little remorse as she took another bite of the dish before her. William eyed the familiar te of kebabs near the edge. He nned to take something on the way out but couldnt eat an unknown dish. This was not the time to gamble on its effects on his body. The rabbit kebab was a known dish that would help a little on the mission. You still cant have any, brat, Wang Xiaoling spoke when she saw his desire. I was being thoughtful when I got you out of here before Sister Mei tasted Fatty Xus dishes. You can only me yourself foring back early. So this gift that you apparently wanted. Would you have gotten over your anger if I had got one for you? No, Wang Xiaoling scoffed like it was unthinkable. Maybe I''ll set you free in a few more weeks. Right, William nodded. It seemed Wang Xiaolings petty anger at nothing in particr wouldst for some time. If she said the opposite, he might have made a different decision. Anyway, Ill be on a mission for a day or two. He pulled his spirit beast egg out of the upgraded spatial stone, not caring that Mei Lingxi would realize what he possessed. Her contract would ensure it would be kept secret. Ill see youter, Sister Xiaoling. Sister Lingxi, William said before swiping a few kebabs off the table and rushing out of the dwelling. He shut the door to Wang Xiaolings screech of anger. Lets go, Kae! William yelled as he sprinted to the Mission Hall. B2 - Chapter 69 B2 - Chapter 69 Whats the reason were running? Kae asked calmly as he matched Williams sprint. Just want to be sure to return in time, William replied with a mouthful of food. He was halfway through his first kebab. I see. I agree with this diligence, Kae nodded thoughtfully. [+10 Agility] [+5 Spirit] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1080 > 1105] Sure, sure, he dug into the second kebab. Im a huge fan of not losing money. Or sect points in this case. Agreed, Kae nodded, once again very thoughtfully. It would take him some time to get used to Kae taking everything literally. [+10 Agility] [+5 Spirit] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1105 > 1130] William finished the second kebab just as they reached the Mission Hall. It was well worth irritating Wang Xiaoling further by swiping them. Since she was determined to be petty, he might as well give her a real reason to feel that way. Besides, William knew that she had a soft spot for him. It wouldnt be much of an issue. If he exined exactly why he needed to eat Fatty Xus cooking, there was no doubt Wang Xiaoling would let go of her pettiness. He hadnt already done so because he could afford to be patient and let her work through her frustrations however she wanted. Eyes turned to them when they entered the Mission Hall, William leading the way with the lightly blue-tinted spirit beast egg in his hands. He approached a once-again snoring Elder Zhou with eagerness in his step. It was of no surprise that he was looking forward to this. Elder Zhou, William called when they were closer. Hm. WhaOh, its you two? Elder Zhou stared at the egg in his hands. Its only been a few minutes. I didnt want to miss the time, so we rushed back, William smiled, happy he had interrupted her nap. Small wins were key against cultivators he could do nothing against. Kae, nodding in agreement next to him, really sold it. Hold out your passes. They did as asked, and Elder Zhou tapped the mission tablet on them. There, now leave me to my sleep. Disciple Kae knows how to get there. Elder Zhou proceeded to ignore them and shifted in her plush chair to getfortable before closing her eyes. Follow me, Wei Liang, Kae led, heading to the exit. William followed closely behind. I apologize for not warning you about Kae, Little Brother, a disciple whispered as he passed. Think of it as a weing to the Inner Court. Ill treat you when you return. William nced at the disciple that spoke to him, catching a glimpse of anky frame with sharp features before the Mission Hall was left behind. That whisper wasnt quiet enough for Kae to be ignorant of it. Im assuming hes one of your previous partners? William asked directly. Yes. Hested for all of one wave in the third level. I had to take care of the next wave myself, but we still failed the mission by the smallest of margins. Truly useless, that one. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. You took care of a beast wave by yourself? He asked in shock. Did you get some sort of support from him? None, Kae frowned, remembering the event. It was a travesty. I had no choice but to use everything I had to survive, destroying too many spirit beasts. Instead of gaining ingredients, I lost sect points. William had to reevaluate how to go about things. Even though Elder Zhou said that Kae specialized in alchemy for physical transformations, but didnt think much of it. He assumed that instead of Kae being of supplemental help, the boy would be more or less useful inbat. Still, William expected that he could easily dictate the split of the spoils. Looked that that was not the case. If Kae could eliminate a beast wave by himself, failing the mission or not, discussing how to distribute the beast corpses beforehand would be necessary. Seniors, we are going to the Abyss. William blinked, noticing they were at the Teleportation Hall. He didnt think he saw multiple doors inside the hall. The only door led to the Outer Court. You two are together? After Kaes nod, the guard said, Hand me your passes. These passes were used for quite literally everything possible. As William handed the guard his pass, he idly wondered if there had ever been a robbery like a transfer of points. With everything focused and centralized around the pass, it was ripe for some sort of hack-like event. Level three, the guard said in a monotone voice, returning the passes to them after pressing them to a nk te behind him. Return in one piece. He narrowed his eyes in concern as he stored his pass in the ring. That was an odd way to send them off. Kae opened the door, and instead of revealing the interior of the Teleportation Hall, there was a staircase that headed straight now. Even though it was brightly lit, William couldnt see the end of it at the bottom. Just more stairs. Nheless, he followed Kae down, clutching the spirit beast egg to his body. The door shut behind him when he was barely one step in. Why stairs when there are teleportation doors everywhere, William asked, breaking the monotony of their footsteps being the only sound heard. I dont know, Kae shrugged. I think it has something to do with conflicting formations, but I doubt anyone but the Elders know the real reason. I see. William counted step number three hundred. He still couldnt see the bottom. I think we should discuss how were going to split the spirit beasts left to us. Whats to discuss? We both get half. He wouldnt have agreed to Kaes before he learned the boy was able to take care of a beast wave by himself. Even now, that hadnt changed too much. He decided to leave himself an opening. Thats fair, but lets change that a little. We both get half unless we agree that one did far more work than the other. Kae nced back with a frown. Thats too vague. What if we cant agree on what far more work is? That would be annoying. Not at all. If we disagree, it stays at the original split. I see, Kae nodded. Very well. William only made such a vaguely worded deal because of Kaes blunt honesty. He would agree that the split should be different if it genuinely was. Even if it wasnt, it wasnt a disaster. He would still get half. Speaking of half How many spirit beasts are in a beast wave? William counted step number five hundred. Still couldnt see the bottom. A hundred, including the leader. So we get to keep thirty beasts each. Doubtful, Kae denied instantly. That would mean we were perfect in preserving the spirit beast bodies. There are bound to be moments where some get destroyed beyond use. Let me have those destroyed bodies. William was thinking of the egg. It would likely be happy to consume those just as well as fully intact bodies. Kae nced back at him with a raised eyebrow. Why do you need the bodies? Usually, my partners would offer to sell them to me in return for elixirs. This, William raised the egg slightly. It consumes spirit beast corpses to hatch. I wish I could be like your previous partners and ask for elixirs, but it needs to be fed. Interesting, Kae gave a long look at the egg. I dont think Ive ever heard of a spirit beast egg needing to feed on corpses. Youre not the only one. He counted step number one thousand seven hundred. Finally, something was seen at the bottom. It looked like a door. Are we going to be the only ones at level three? There is a group that should have finished yesterday. There needs to be a day gap for the sect to constantly supply these beasts. Six hundred spirit beasts can be reced in a day? William asked with surprise. I dont know the details, but yes. There hasnt been a mishap since the Abyss was opened to the disciples well over a millennia ago. There were multiple levels of the Abyss, so it was safe to assume that well over a thousand were reced daily, and they were not weak spirit beasts. The sect must have a ce where these beasts must reproduce on mass. The reasoning for the existence of the Abyss was also suspect. Sure, a part of the reason must be the ingredients and the experience it would give disciples as they struggled to get them efficiently, but that couldnt be it. Could it? Ready? Kae asked with a hand on the door. Three thousand steps to reach the bottom of the stairwell. And the steps themselves werent small. Anything else I need to know before we enter? William asked, anticipation flowing into his body. Kae tilted his head in thought. No. With that, he opened the door. B2 - Chapter 70 B2 - Chapter 70 William followed Kae into the pitch-ck room? He wasnt sure what it was. He could see nothing, even with his enhanced eyesight. The strange part was that Kae was fully illuminated. His old fear of the void was creeping back to the front of his mind. The only thing that kept it away was the feel of a solid floor and Kaes presence. Is this where we have to fight the beast waves? Williams echoed like he was in a massive, empty chamber. No, this is the staging area, Kae kept a steady pace. Keep walking until you hear the voice. What voice Disciples Kae and Wei Liang. Shifting in three. William tensed, not sure what to expect. It would have been nice if he had been informed of the process. Two. He looked to Kae for reassurance and found it. Or it was the boys permanent resting bitch face in y. He chose to believe it wasnt. One. His Qi was ready. He doubted that the leader of a beast wave would be the first thing he would face, but if that was the case, [Force Multiplier] was just a thought away. The darkness rippled. That was the only way to describe what he saw. It faded into a vastndscape that looked the opposite of something called the Abyss. William imagined fighting against a beast wave on a sterile floor that showed the sect''s control over the Abyss. Or maybe it being true to the name ''Abyss'' and have it held in a dark environment. That wasnt the case. This is still under the sect? William asked as he looked around, noting the mountain range circling like a barrier. He would say it was simr to the Inner Court, but it wasnt even close. Yes. This is a fabricated area. Theres no formal name, but we call it Blood Bowl. It gets messy. William looked around, making a good guess as to why it gained that name. They were standing on the only raised surface in the otherwise mostly t ground. It was a small teau that let him overlook everything other than the mountains. He walked to the edge and saw a sharp cliff, though that was not much of a deterrent to anything trying to climb it. William had been able to jump well over the height of the teau when he was just a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator. That meant even the weakest spirit beast in the beast waves could do the same. Is there anything special about this teau? William turned to see that Kae had already pulled out a cauldron and was coaxing a fire to life. He knew that Kae was an alchemist, but it was still strange to see it in action. His personality kept tricking Williams mind into associating him with a bruiser. It acts as a supply point to simte the likely scenario in the real world. It opens every time two beast waves are eliminated. Opens? William frowned. Yes. The teau is blocked once the beast wave is released. Nothing can enter its space, beast or human. Kae dumped a multitude of ingredients haphazardly, or thats what it seemed like to an uneducated observer. With the way Kae nodded with satisfaction, it was obviously nned. William looked away and walked around the teau, trying to see why it existed. It sounded useful at first, but really, it was redundant at best. He noticed that Kae had a band around his wrist with a spatial stone attached, and he had his ring that could be used in public. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Why bother with a supply point when they could just carry everything needed at all times? Kae, what am I missing here? Why the teau when we have spatial items? Trust me when I say you will not want to take anything out in the middle of the beast wave. You be a beacon for the spirit beasts. They will attack you relentlessly and pretend I dont exist. And no, Im not sure why thats the case. Huh, William scratched his chin before nodding, I can see why that would be bad. At least I can leave my egg here without worries. Even though the mob in the beast wave was fairly weakpared to his current strength, getting ganged up would not end well. It wasnt that he was worried for his life, he really wasnt, but the only way to get out of the situation would be to attack with full force. William would live, but the mission would fail. Those spirit beasts would be mangled beyond recognition, leaving little chance that they could be used as quality ingredients. He ced his precious spirit beast egg near the teau''s center. It happened to be close to Kae, who he saw was looking at him with disbelief. What? Im not sure how I missed this, but you didnt know about the teau. Thats a given, William raised an eyebrow. I wouldnt have asked about it if I knew. Yes, exactly. So, what did you intend to do with the egg? Carry it around as you killed the spirit beasts? ThatOh, Kae stopped, realizing that was precisely the n. Er, yes? I could have done it, William assured. He knew it seemed ridiculous, but he had little concern for his safety since he was confident in easily overpowering anything if needed. This was mainly to feed the egg so beast corpses. I guess Ill see if you were overconfident for a good reason soon enough, Kae went back to closely watching the bubbling liquid in the cauldron. I hope you can back up your words, Wei Liang. It bodes well for level three. Ten minutes. William didnt flinch this time, used to the simr voice that he had now heard multiple times, starting from the Auction Halls Qi refining room. He ced the spirit beast egg gently on the hard rock and frowned. He should have taken the time to get a recement chest for it. No matter. It would be fine. What are you making? William asked as he walked closer to Kae. Experimental elixir. Boosts stamina in exchange for Qi and minor injuries. He stopped in his tracks, almost drooling at the bubbling liquid in the cauldron. S-Stamina Elixir? Yes. It wasnt my intention at the start. I noticed how much time I was wasting sleeping in the Qi Gathering Realm. There were elixirs I could buy to make that unnecessary, but they were far too expensive. So I tried to make my own. William still understood what Kae said, but his mind was stuck on Stamina Elixir. There were two things he wanted to find after his experience in the Shard. Something that would help him recover Spiritual Energy and something that would do the same for Stamina. I made some stupid mistakes in my initial process, Kae continued, but it worked for the better. Now I have this. It clicked in Williams mind. This is how you beat the beast wave by yourself. This, and another elixir that Im experimenting with, but that is only for my use. Its too dangerous for me to offer it to anyone else. Of course, you have full ess to the Stamina Elixir. Thank you, William truly meant that. It likely wouldnt be needed on this level, but it would be of help when they decide to take on level three of the Abyss. He stayed silent to let Kae work without interruption, eventually sitting crosslegged and making a count of the Vitality Restoration Pills he had in stock to pass the time. There were exactly twenty in his ring. When hepleted the mission, he wanted to have the same count. One minute. Kae was finished. He bottled all the elixir in the cauldron into small stoppers, ending with a ridiculous number. You think all of that is needed? William asked with a raised eyebrow. No, Kae stored the cauldron back into his spatial bracelet, but its better to be over-prepared. True, he nodded. Three. Lets go, Kae walked to the teau''s edge. William stood up and followed. "Two. They jumped off, falling nearly a hundred feet to the ground below beforending gingerly on their feet. One. William nced up when he heard a static-like sound and saw a barrier surrounding the top of the teau. That must be what blocked it off during the beast waves. Begin. An earsplitting crack rang through the emptyndscape. A distant mountain split down the middle, sting a thunderous boom that made his hair sway slightly even from that distance. He narrowed his eyes in concern when the mountain crumbled like it was hollowed out and could no longer hold up its own weight. A massive red eye peered out from behind the cloud of dust for a moment before it blinked out of existence. William heard a faint roar before hundreds of spirit beasts rushed out from the newly made gap. B2 - Chapter 71 B2 - Chapter 71 What the hell was that eye? He asked tensely as he stared at the approaching mob. I dont know. Kae didnt sound as calm as before. I felt something like that before, William clenched his fist. It is far, far beyond us. I know. And that is more than a hundred beasts, Kae, William continued tersely, pointing out all the issues he noticed as therge mob of spirit beasts rushed toward them. Yes. I have eyes, Kae pulled out a small vial, immediately breaking his own suggestion of avoiding the use of their spatial items during a beast wave. Theres something wrong. This is at least three beast waves worth of spirit beasts. Forget the mission. Our goal is to stay alive. William ignored Kae, who downed the vial before bringing out another to do the same. He was scouring the mob of spirit beasts approaching them to determine the danger level. Of course, that wasnt the only thing he was doing. While Kae was drinking his elixirs like an addict, he had one thing that would be of help. Something that he had owned for a long time but never really used properly. He pulled the Elemental Gauntlet from his ring and slipped it on his right hand. [Equip detected] [Calcting cost per use] [Activation cost | 600 Spiritual Energy] [Duration | 10 minutes] That was expensive. William always knew it would be since he had never qualified for activation before, but six hundred? [Force Multiplier] only cost two hundred, and it was beyond devastating. The extra cost could also be due to having no adverse effects, unlike his [Force Multiplier]. Whatever it was, he didnt intend to use the Elemental Gauntlet unless absolutely necessary. Unbelievable! What?! William would have been shocked at the yell in any other situation. Kae had never raised his voice before. The teaus shield is failing! Kae spat in frustration. I have to get the elixirs! Wait William cut himself off when Kae jumped, leaving him alone to watch the approaching mob. Fuck it. He followed Kae by jumping to the teau. The beasts were a few seconds away. He couldnt allow for his egg to be put into danger. William rushed to his egg the moment hended, picking it top and cradling it in the crook of his left arm. Wei Liang, catch! He instinctively raised his right hand to snag the vials thrown at him. I have no idea whats happening, but save those if we get separated, Kae ordered as he rushed to the edge. The growls and snarls were far too close. Theyre here. Remember, the goal is to stay alive. Dont try to preserve any corpses. Understood, William stored the vials in his ring and joined Kae to look down. They were surrounded by spirit beasts of all shapes and sizes. Far too many different species to try and see what type of beast they were. Thankfully, they had one thing inmon. They were grotesque, closer to the corrupted beast from the Shard than a normal spirit beast. It would make them easier to kill. And this was more than just three beast waves joined together. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition. Its six beast waves, William stated as he scoured the mob for any standouts. All he could see was cannon fodder but no beast wave leaders. Yes, Kae replied. There are too many changes, and the sect hasnt reacted. I fear we may be cut off from the usual monitoring. What Im concerned about is what happens after we kill these things. William noticed a significant increase in the growling, which gave him a scary thought. Are these things sentient? I would say no, but they have never waited to attack before. They are supposed to be mindless, murderous beasts. The growling turned into snarls as eyes locked onto Kae, reinforcing the assumption of their intelligence. William tightened his grip on the egg. He didnt think there could be worse news. It goes without saying that fighting a mindless beast was far more preferable. There would have been no ns or thoughts for their attacks. Just raw savagery that was predictably unpredictable. I dont think theres a point in waiting around, William dropped his voice to near inaudible levels. I feel were ying into whatever theyre nning if we do. Kae nodded without taking his eyes off the beasts. You are considered my junior. Ill take the lead. Join when you wish, but stay away from me. William was taken aback. However, he had no chance to react to Kaes sudden harshness. He watched in surprise and horror as Kae leaped from the teau''s edge, plunging right at the horde of beasts below. Either Kae wasnt afraid of death, or he wanted to die. The only reason William had the confidence toe out of this without much issue was [Force Multiplier]. Kae did not have that as reassurance. He soon found that he was wrong. Kaes body began to change mid-fall. His muscles bulged, his bones shifted, and his skin sprouted hair, almost to the point of being called fur. His face contorted into a snarl, with his teeth sharpened and eyes glowing a harsh red. Kae no longer looked human. He would be more fit among the beasts he was plummeting towards. William stared as Kae met the mob with a guttural snarl. Blood flew freely as the transformed cultivator mowed through the horde, sharp nails removing limbs wherever they sliced. He saw that the horde moved in one direction. To Kae. Looks like its you and me, egg, William muttered as he searched for the best ce to make his entrance. It had to be a reasonable distance from Kae so he wouldnt interrupt his rampage while drawing enough attention to take some of the pressure. There. A spot more dense with beasts than others. William reinforced his legs with Qi as he nced at Kae again. It was a bloodbath. Literally. Kae was surrounded by spirit beast corpses in various states of destruction, with more added every microsecond. That by itself almost assured that the mission was a failure. There was now little reason to hold back. William jumped. Intelligence or not, there wasnt enough time for the beasts to do much of anything. They were too packed together to avoid hisnding. He plunged like a falling meteor through the air, Qi zing a bright blue around his leg. His Qi surged before he crashed into the mass of fur, scales, ws, and fangs. He smashed into the horde with a war cry that he didnt know he possessed. William felt bones break and flesh tear. His foot acted like a sharp de and sliced through the beasts. The descent ended when he reached the ground, creating a massive crater that took the lives of the few spirit beasts that had somehow survived his onught. The dying squeals and pained roars of the spirit beasts did nothing to slow William. His only purpose right now was to lessen the attention on Kae, and he would do his damned best to make that happen. He made sure to have a secure hold on the egg andunched himself out of the crater, unleashing hell on the beasts unlucky enough to be close to him. The system alerts went wild as Williams right fist turned multiple beasts into mincemeat with every swing. The power difference between him and a peak Qi Gathering Realm beast couldnt be more apparent in the unfair, one-sided ughter. The problem was that there were hundreds of them to kill. With every beast William killed, two reced them. The novice martial arts he mastered werent needed at all, which was a relief, all things considered. It hinted at the spirit beastscking enough intelligence to change their attacks when their previous attempts were futile. GRAAAHHH! Williams fist bisected a rat-like beast as he snapped his head toward the scream. It was Kaes voice. He couldnt see over the mob. Fuck, William cursed as he beheaded a beast trying to w at him before jumping, soaring above the horde to get a better view. He thought Kae needed help. He was wrong. What William saw was devastation. Nothing in a faint vicinity near Kae lived. He figured he was progressing well with his side of the beast horde, but it was nothingpared to what Kae had aplished. Fuck! William cursed even louder when Kae wasnt satisfied with his massacre. The cultivator-turned-beast was rocketing directly to his area, his feet cracking the ground at the sheer force of his steps. He quickly decided to vacate the space and let Kae work out his energy. He wasnt keen on having to fight his possibly-crazed fellow disciple. William shot back to the ground like a thunderbolt, ignored the enraged roar of the beasts hended near, and cut a bloody path out of the mob. He left behind a trail of corpses when he escaped the horde, just in time for Berserker Kae to have his merry fun without him in the way. GAHAHAHA! COME HERE TRASH! William raised an eyebrow at Kaes manicughter and made the intelligent decision to put more space between them. It would be a better vantage to watch for the beast leaders anyway. B2 - Chapter 72 B2 - Chapter 72 He gave the gap in the mountain range frequent nces. The ce where the spirit beast mob came from, and more importantly, where the massive eye of the appeared briefly. Kae was still chasing after the few stragglers left alive from the previously massive beast mob, but all of that was basically a distraction. The only thing the mob could have aplished was to tire him slightly and to Kae, who was merrily rampaging, provide him with some fun. SO SQUISHY! Whatever elixir Kae had downed, it changed more than just his appearance obviously. The previously blunt, soft-spoken boy had turned into some crude, foul-mouthed battle maniac. Perhaps William and Kae were always meant to be friends. Two cultivators, despite their chosen discipline, have somehow be pseudo-body cultivators. HAHWAIT! THEYRE ALL DEAD! They were, indeed. William grimaced at the blood-stained ground, with puddles of blood congealed in the areas where an excessive amount of spirit beasts met their death. He stiffened when Berserker Kae stared right at him. Thoughts of having to fight the cultivator-beast hybrid took root. He used [Observe] instinctively. [-20 Spiritual Energy] Name: Kae Age: 16 Level: 133 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 9483/12000 Spiritual Energy: 87/100 Spirit: 237 (20) Strength: 150 (1000) Stamina: 225 (1000) Agility: 218 (500) William looked over the stats and realized just how dead he would be if this monster decided he was next. Kaes transformation made him a walking, angry, possibly psychotic, high-speed tank. [Force Multiplier], his trump card, would be of zero help. None of the attributes it would enhance would be able topare to Kaes monstrous stat increases. He would get crushed exactly like those beyond-dead spirit beasts. Running would be of no help either. Berserker Kae would still catch him easily. In fact, he was unbeatable for anyone in the Foundation Establishment Realm. YOU! ARE THERE MORE?! I SAW YOU KILLING SOME! GIVE THE REST TO ME! William couldnt figure out what the best option here was. Should he treat Berserker Kae like a predator? Where running was the mistake, and standingpletely still was the right move? He warily watched Kae stomp toward him, each step shaking the ground slightly as it left deep imprints of a foot. If Kae looked like a familiar animal, he could have tried to use the survival tips he learned on Earth. What was it about bears? y dead, and theyll leave you alone? Or was it y dead, and the bear will make sure youre dead? The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. William honestly didnt know, so perhaps it wouldnt help if Berserker Kae seemed familiar. In his defense, he had lived in a city where wild animals were thest thing he expected to see outside a zoo. SPEAK! WHY ARE YOU SILENT?! K-Kae, William cleared his throat, there are none left. You killed all of them. TSK! Berserker Kae made a disgusting, snarling, hacking sound before spitting out a glob of blood. THEN THIS IS NO LONGER NECESSARY. He watched with a stunned expression as Berserker Kaes fist mmed into Kaes own face, cracking his jaw and knocking loose far too many razor-sharp teeth. It was enough to knock him out. William winced when Berserker Kaes heavy body crashed onto the ground. It didnt take long for him to understand why the boy punched himself. If Kaes transformation into a beast could be called surprising, the reverse was unsettling at best. His overlyrge muscles squirmed as if thousands of words were under the skin as they slowly reduced in size. His bones cracked and shifted in jerky motions, returning his body to a typical human structure. However, the hair didnt retract into Kaes body. It shed inrge clumps until bare skin was left behind. Not that it looked normal. The negatives of whatever Kae used to transform into a beast were immediately apparent. His previously pale skin was bright red, entirely coated with blood. William knew this was not sttered spirit beast blood from the rampage Kae went on in berserker mode. This was all his own. Kae! William pulled a Vitality Restoration Pill from his ring and was prepared to shove it down his throat if needed. He didnt have the opportunity. Kaes eyes flickered open before he flinched away from Williams hand, avoiding the pill. N-No. Hate that, Kae coughed weakly as he tried to push himself up. William frowned as he helped him up. If you dont take it, I doubt youll live much longer. This isnt the first time I had to use my transformation elixir, Kae wheezed. He pulled out a few vials, different from the stamina elixir and the elixir that turned him into a berserker. Keep an eye out for me. Itll take me some time to recover. William nodded, but Kae had already downed the vials and closed his eyes. This had to be some sort of healing elixir. There was no other exnation for it if they were enough for Kae to reject his pill. He uneasily returned the pill to his ring and backed away, just in case that elixir was something else that turned Kae into a non-human. He looked around to confirm that the beast wave leaders hadnt shown themselves before moving behind Kae to face the opening in the mountains. It would allow him to keep watch of both at the same time. William nced at the alerts that had been shing far too often. [1 XP] x 129 An expected but still disappointing result. All of the spirit beasts he ughtered have been a major realm below him, so it was obvious that they would only give him one experience point per kill. William eyed the bloody field from the side of his eye. Even though they might have been useless to him personally, there was still a chance that it wasnt aplete waste. His egg might still benefit. He looked down at the blood-sttered egg, matching his own blood-caked visage. It was almost tragic at how nonchnt he now was at being in such a disgusting state. William stepped back steadily, refusing to take his eyes off the gap in the mountains or turn his back to it. He learned enough by now that Murphys Law most definitely applied to him. Plus, the simple nature of the beast mob was frightening. He expected something to go terribly wrong at any moment. The bloody slop he stepped into was a good sign. He backed up more until he was almost knee-deep in impossible-to-recognize shredded flesh and guts. These were vaguely enough pieces tobine into one whole spirit beast. You better eat up, egg, William muttered as he ced it next to him, seating it gently atop the slurry of spirit beast parts. It did nothing. He couldnt be more disappointed. If Kae had told him about his ability to turn a psychotic berserker, it would have been possible to let him know such an action wasnt necessary for such a weak beast wave, even if it was six of them. The same applied the other way around. William could have offered up the information himself. Of course, William knew why neither happened. Kae likely didnt want to scare off another potential partner, and he had paranoia making things harder than they needed to be. He nced at the egg, which was still being utterly unresponsive atop the slop. Clearly, minced spirit beast was not its preference. William was about to pick it up before a thought appeared. The egg didnt have anyone near it when it consumed the preserved spirit beasts in his spatial stone. Not seeing any harm in giving that a try, he walked back to Kae and waited. And kept waiting. William would have given up far earlier in impatience if not for his recent obsession with unlocking Healing and Lightning Qi. He heard the faintest sound of wind behind him. A smile grew on his lips as the wind picked up speed. B2 - Chapter 73 B2 - Chapter 73 William waited for a few minutes, keeping his vignce while straining his ears to try and form a picture of what was happening with the egg. It was honestly disgusting. The wind speeds he could hear pointed to a vortex forming, just like what he had sensed in the spatial stone. That was where the simrities stopped. The deconstructed spirit beasts made sounds that couldnt be unheard as they were picked up off the ground and squeezed together before they were disintegrated by the egg. At least, that was what his mind created from the sounds he heard. William kept track of every second, and when the ten-minute mark passed, he had to see for himself what was happening. Still not trusting the situation not to go to hell if he took his eyes off the gap for too long, he turned his head quickly to see what was happening behind him. That was a mistake. William quickly turned away as he tried to keep himself from gagging in disgust. It was worse than anything he could have imagined. The egg did indeed disintegrate everything right before it absorbed the minced spirit beasts, but the state the minced flesh was in was beyond vomit-inducing. The vortex of wind couldnt be seen. Not because it didnt exist but because it was entirely oveyed by a thick, swirly, hideous amalgamation. Minced flesh, bones, blood, stray limbs, anything left over from the Berserker Kaes carnage was there. Well over a hundred feet into the sky, fitting into the most horrific scenes imaginable. William wondered just what type of monster he was bringing into this world. If it wasnt for the fact that whatever spirit beast hatched from the egg would be incapable of harming him, he would have abandoned the thought of hatching it after seeing this hellish scene. It was one thing that was corroborated by Lin Lins autobiography and the entry-level hatching books. To make it almost fact, Wang Xiaoling and Mei Lingxi stated it as something obvious when he asked them in passing. A spirit beast egg was attached to the cultivator that fed it when it was still an egg. That loyalty wouldnt disappear unless truly appalling abuse was done toward the spirit beast. He shuddered when the sound of the fleshy funnels squelching grew louder. The egg had grown greedier and drawn more of the dead spirit beasts into the vortex. He caught a glimpse of the red stains on his robes and dry-heaved slightly. Fuck me, William gasped. He thought he had been over this after the Garden. The cannibal bunnies he ughtered had drawn a simr reaction out of him, but that was thest time he physically reacted with such revulsion. This was just too much. You could find a brothel in a mortal city for that, Wei Liang, Kae replied in a weak voice. Theres nothing here that can help you with that request. It took a long second for William to realize that Kae had told a joke. It took another for him to realize that normal Kae was back. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Kae! William greeted happily. Youre alive! In a sense, Kae grunted, pushing himself off the ground to stand. He looked much healthier, no longer bleeding from every pore. If theres another battle like that, I might as well be dead with how useful I would be. So far, theres nothing following those beast waves, Williammented, watching Kae narrow his eyes at the gap in the mountains. Im not sure if thats good or bad, Kae admitted as he turned. We should have been shifted back to the sect after the beast waves William understood why Kae cut himself off. It must have been the extreme exhaustion that allowed him to miss the hair-raising noises the vortex of flesh was making. Still, it was impossible to miss when directly facing it. What? Kae was lost for words. No need to be rmed, William was quick to reassure. Thats just my spirit beast egg feeding. Kae stumbled closer to get a better look. The look of disbelief didnt disappear. What monster is in that egg? I have the same question, William said wryly. This is impressively nauseating, Wei Liang. And yet, youre still staring at it. This is true, Kae reluctantly looked away. After the wave leaders were killed, did you hear the voice say anything? There were no wave leaders. I see, Kae nodded without a change in expression. I now understand your request to be fucked. William ignored the second joke he heard from Kae. What does this mean? Six beast waves at once. No wave leaders. No shift back to the sect once all the spirit beasts were killed, Kae stared at him. I have no idea, but its not good. And you know the worst part? What? I wasted my transformation on the weak Qi Gathering Realm beast mob. I only have two left before I have to create the elixir again. Start now, William said immediately. Who knows if theres a chanceter. That would be the smart thing to do if it didnt take well over a week to make enough for an extra transformation. Thats fine, William took a deep breath. Perfectly fine. Thest two need to be rationed carefully. I can take care of anything around the middle-stage Foundation Establishment Realm or lower. Anything higher, and we can decide based on the situation. Higher than middle-stage Foundation Establishment, Kae muttered before speaking in a much louder voice. Return us to the sect! Nothing happened. For any Elders observing, the formations are malfunctioning! We need to be retrieved! Still nothing. Kae turned to him and shrugged. I guess we just wait here? Its safe enough, and Im not keen on meeting any beasts higher than the middle stage. It might mean nothing stops us from running into even stronger beasts. William nodded since he didnt have any better ideas. Surely someone will have noticed that we havent returned, right? Theres that, Kae agreed, but they should already know something went wrong. My worry is why they havent taken us away by now. That eye, William was reluctant to even mention it, but they were both skirting around the topic. It had to be discussed. You said you never saw it before. Maybe thats the issue. Then were dead, Kae said bluntly. Im sure you agree with me on that. He nodded silently. It reminded him of the serpent in the Shard. On a positive note, your beast egg looks to be finished with the feeding. William turned to it and saw Kae was correct. The vortex had be far less disturbing, with most of the flesh disintegrated and the strong winds finally peeking through. The vortex was also getting smaller as it disappeared into the egg. Keep watch on the gap while I take a look, William said to Kae before walking to the egg. The ground was much cleaner than before, but a thin film of blood still tinted the grass red. If he was forced to make an approximation of how much of the dead beasts the egg absorbed, he would say it was a little over half. He was stunned that it still didnt show any sign of hatching. If it hadnt been for firsthand witnessing the eggs gluttony, William wouldnt have believed how much it had absorbed. Thankfully, the egg still had some significant changes, even if there werent as many as he had expected. One was the basic status it now possessed. [Species: ? | Level: 99] B2 - Chapter 74 B2 - Chapter 74 The increase in level was impressive in a vacuum, but when throwing that together with the nauseating amount of spirit beast flesh that had been consumed, it was a little underwhelming. Especially since almost all the spirit beasts had been at level ny-nine themselves. It could be that diminishing returns areing into y, or the fact that the spirit beasts the egg consumed were in slurry form instead of whole. William couldnt be sure which was true, but one thing was sure. The egg would no longer consume Qi Gathering Realm spirit beasts. There were plenty still strewn about if it was needed. And the egg consumed just enough to get to level ny-nine and no more. There couldnt be a clearer indicator of higher realm beasts needed. He picked up the spotless egg and studied the physical changes closely. This was no longer a nd, white egg with the faintest of blue tints. There was no longer any white color at all. The shell was a deep blue, almost to the point of looking ck at certain angles. There were small, red-colored metallic kes that shimmered as he turned it in his hand, but those were all forgotten with the other feature it now had. Inscribed flowers. Dead, ckened flowered that littered the eggs surface. The beautiful color of the shell was misleading. The dead flowers were more fitting to what the egg consumed. Kae, William called as he walked back. Does this look familiar to you? He held out the decorated egg like a showpiece, forcibly putting it in Kaes view. Colorful, Kae stated after giving it a nce. And no, I dont recognize it. What about clues about the tier? Its supposed to be a mid-tier or high William cut himself off. I still have the books! I havent read all of them yet. Huh? Kae looked on incredulously as he pulled out the hatching books that hadnt been returned to the library. You have the mind to read in this situation? William was already flipping to the spot where he stopped reading Lin Lins adventure. You have something better to do? Theres one thing to watch, and it doesnt need two pairs of eyes on it. Kaes feelings didnt change. It only increased when William took a seat and held the egg on hisp as he rested the book on top of it. How are you so calm? Does this not concern you at all? He looked up and stared at Kae, giving that question real thought. He supposed that to someone who had never been in this type of situation would find his attitude shocking. However, William had learned how to deal with stressful surroundings where he had little control over future events. Without experiencing the Shard, there was no doubt that he would be as tense as Kae currently was. The issue was that it was exhausting to be so alert for long periods of time. When given an opportunity to rx, William would take it easy every time. Besides, what was he supposed to do? Wander around to see if there was a secret tunnel? Wander through the gap in the mountains like an idiot, directly toward where the massive red eye was seen? The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. No, the best n, which Kae already agreed to, was waiting. As boring as that sounded, it was the most obvious and only real choice they had. I may have gone through something simr right before I entered the Inner Court, William finally replied. Lets take turns on who keeps watch. We might be here for a while. Simr? Kae repeated. Youve been stuck in a ce that could have an unlimited number of spirit beasts with an unknown high realm entity possibly observing in the background? Yes, William was blunt. That is strangely reassuring, Kae admitted, some tension leaving his body. It isnt. If it wasnt for someone else that was stuck there with me, I would have died twenty times over. The tension was back in Kae. I see. William nodded, returning to the book. What he had done might seem counterproductive on the surface, but keeping Kae alert and ready would be far better than letting him have some false sense of security. He might be morefortable in this situation, but that didnt mean he could magically pull them out of it. Alert me if you see anything strange, William flipped a page, trying to find anything that mentioned the shell of Lin Lins spirit beast egg. Or if you feel you need a rest. It can get Its here! Kae spat. He sprang to his feet in rm, storing the book in his ring and securing the egg in his arm. He readied his Qi for activating [Force Multiplier] as he prepared for the fight of his life. William stared in the same direction as Kae, but he saw nothing. This did not lessen his level of readiness. Just because he couldnt see anything didnt mean there was nothing there. What did you see? His eyes roved the distant mountains, trying to pick up anything out of ce. The eye, Kae replied in a strained voice. It appeared for a moment. William wasnt sure what the eye was, and it was obvious Kae didnt either. The only thing he could guess was that there would be another attack. I think were about to see more beast waves, William eyed the gap carefully. Kae, dont panic and drink your transformation elixir. We might need thatter on. You say that as if you know the spirit beasts wont be too strong for you. Kaes hand twitched, aching to pull the vials out of his bracelet. I dont, William admitted. Fine, have it at the ready. Ill let you know A heavy pressure fell on them, choking off Williams sentence before he could finish. They had bigger issues to worry about since they were frozen in ce, invisible restraints restricting any movement whatsoever. He heard a distant rumbling, which was followed by a vibration that could almost be called an earthquake. Thankfully, the pressure was lifted right at that moment. The shaking ground was no obstacle for William, who twisted his body around to face whatever was causing the disturbance. He fully expected to face whatever monstrous spirit beast that red eye belonged to. Luckily, it looked like he wouldnt meet death just yet. Unfortunately, what William saw was far beyond them. Run! He pushed Kae toward the original mountain gap and legged it, taking asional nces behind him. Did you lose your mind? Kae growled as he reluctantly kept pace. Were delivering ourselves right to that eye! The other option is to stay and get ughtered by those Core Formation Realm beasts, William kept looking behind, making sure that the beasts were still rumbling slowly. We have to take our chances. Unless your transformation can let you fight above our realm. Maybe one, Kae frowned heavily. Not that many. Youre sure theyre all at that realm? It could be a trick that fooled his system, but even if only a quarter of the twenty or so lumbering beasts were in Core Formation, they were utterly fucked. The only way to be sure was to fight, and being wrong would mean death. Yes, William replied firmly, exaggerating his confidence but having no other choice. Kae couldnt have thoughts of trying his luck on a slim chance the system was wrong. There was silence for a few long seconds, if one didnt consider the thump of their footsteps and the distant growls of the spirit beasts. You know this is nned, Kae stated as he stared stonily at the nearing gap. Its obvious. The beasts are moving too slow. A gap opened right behind us, leaving us with one path. Were being corralled. It''s good that you know, Kae said, silent momentarily. Im not afraid of death, but I wont surrender to it. William managed a smirk as they nearly reached the gap. There was no massive red eye to be seen. Were of simr minds. B2 - Chapter 75 B2 - Chapter 75 It wasnt long before William was well within the gap. They jumped smoothly over the massive rubble that previously formed a mountain. He had been checking the spirit beasts that had been released behind them, and nothing could have been more evident that this was all intentional when the beasts stopped bothering to chase them. Do we keep going? Kae broke the silence. William slowed their pace to something far more leisurely. He couldnt see much ahead other than argeke that took up their narrow field of view. The mountains on both sides prevented him from seeing anything else. We can test it, William said,ing to a stop and looking behind. The beasts were moving again. Yes, we keep going. Kae nodded, not questioning his decision. At some point in their escape, Kae had decided that he would be given the lead. William wasnt sure how he felt about that, but there was no time to divvy out responsibilities. He restarted their trek but at a much slower pace. He frequently looked at the beasts in the field behind them to make sure they werent following, and they werent. As long as they kept moving forward, the beasts stayed put and didnt care how fast or slow their pace was. Do you have any idea where were heading? William asked when they settled into a mortals walking pace. No, Kae was short as always, though he rethought that after a moment. I was under the impression that nothing existed beyond the borders of each level. The first thought that appeared in Williams mind was the origination of the spirit beasts. Perhaps this was where they were raised before they ended up being ughtered. So Im guessing the destruction of a mountain isnt usual, William stated, to which Kae nodded silently. How do the beast waves usually show up? They just appear. So likely a teleportation formation, William wondered out loud. Maybe. Probably. But does it matter? Kae said gruffly. Maybe not, but it might give us a clue of what to expect. Silence fell over them again. William watched the surroundings like a hawk, trying to see if there was anything out of ce. It was a grey, drab area withrge, boulder-sized rubble of the same color. It seemed like a dead zone for all living things, nts or animals. Knowing nothing about the mountain range that circled the field that made up level two, he could only assume they were artificially created to act as a divider. cing nt life, or any life, would be an unnecessary waste of time. Whats the n if we see that eye again? William nced at Kae with a raised brow. I hope that it doesnt want to kill us. So far, it seems it wants something else. Thats what Im having trouble with. What can we provide that it needs? Who knows? William shrugged. "Maybe its bored and needs entertainment. Thats what Im hoping for anyway. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Or it wants something we hold, Kae didnt respond to his attempts to lighten the mood. Something you hold. William saw Kae staring at the spirit beast egg in his hands. He tightened his grip before looking ahead. That was a possibility he was aware of. Call him suicidal or irresponsible, but he couldnt abandon the egg to see if that was the case. All of its actions so far, the level of feeding it went through, no matter how grotesque, hinted that it was a high-tier spirit beast instead of mid-tier. He didnt want to lose the chance to have a pet of that strength, even if it was necessary to put his life in possible danger. If it worked out as he hoped, he would have something that other cultivators would give up an arm and leg for. The only thing that he regretted was pulling Kae into this. Still, it wasnt enough to change his mind. Besides, this was all based on the assumption that the being behind the red eye wanted his spirit beast egg. I doubt it, William replied. Even if this egg has a high-tier spirit beast, do you think something like that would have any desire for it? Of course it would. At that level, they have the equivalent of human intelligence. Its more than just hunting and upgrading cultivation for spirit beasts that strong. They have intricate ns that span decades and centuries. If it is the egg, what would you do? William asked as casually as possible. They werent far from leaving the mountain range. Theke was still the only thing they could see. Perhaps it was better to call it an ocean. Toss it and see if the attention is taken off us. Ill think about it, William lied. The situation is manageable right now. If it gets out of hand, I wont hesitate. The egg pulsed as if protesting his n. For all he knew, it understood precisely what was being discussed. He couldnt reassure it by telling it he had no intention of doing that, no matter how bad it got. If it came to it, he would take the chance when Kae was distracted to store the egg in his spatial stone. Again, it would have to be ast resort. Even if Kae wouldnt know of the stones existence, there was a possibility that the beast with the red eye would. They slowed to a stop when they came to a cliff. William had expected to seend, which the mountains blocked him from seeing, but he was proved wrong. This is a problem, Kae stated the obvious. William nodded, scanning the water that extended past the horizon before turning around. He could see the spirit beasts staring at them at the edge of the mountain path. They didnt move even though they had stopped. Wei Liang, look below. He took his eyes off the spirit beasts to see Kae staring down the cliff with a frown. He followed his line of sight to see a thin line that could be considered a beach. Can you get down there without breaking your legs? William asked as he considered how to get there himself. I should be able to. He nodded as he knelt, his free hand lighting up with Qi before he mmed his fingers into the side of the cliff. He felt a slight sting, but his fingers sank into the rock like a hot knife through butter. It should be doable, but there was a chance that parts of the cliff could have denser rock. He should use some of his avable attribute points for safety. Dropping straight down the cliff wouldnt kill him. Still, it would require taking a pill or elixir. He had no intention of epting impurity when it could be avoided. Spirit: 226 Strength: 110 Stamina: 110 Agility: 140 Luck: 150 Points: 232 Thirty points should be more than enough. [+30 Strength] His hand reignited with Qi, fingers slicing into the cliff before his palm smacked against rock. He couldnt feel anything this time. Perfect. Ready when you are, William said as he stood up. Are you climbing your way down? Kae stared at him with a nk look. Pretty much, William confirmed. Whats your n? This, Kae jumped, leaving William behind with wide eyes. He stared at Kaes plummeting form and hoped there was a n other than healing himself afternding. He shook his head and nced back. The spirit beasts had entered the mountain gap. William backed close to the edge and bounced on his toes to rid himself of nerves. He eyed the beasts onest time and brought the egg closer to his body before making a short hop backward over the cliff. B2 - Chapter 76 B2 - Chapter 76 William felt the wind rush past his ears as gravity pulled him down. He could feel his body wanting to tumble, but that was one thing he could control. It wasnt possible for him to fly yet, but at least he wouldnt look like a iling mortal as he fell to the beach below. He ignored everything but the cliff wall in front of him as the speed at which he fell slowly increased. He looked for any cracks or protrusions that would make it easier to stop himself. Unfortunately, the cliff was smooth, almost like it was melted rock. He quickly looked down and discovered it was the same the entire way down. So be it. Qi zed to life around his free hand. He formed a w and mmed it into the cliff wall, digging his nails into the rock. William winced as a sharp force tugged at his shoulder, but he was sessful. Not in the way he assumed. Instead of an abrupt stop, William''s fingers felt a trail of deep grooves in the rock as he slowed to a halt, the Qi acting like a softener to the rock instead of leaving it firm and brittle. William looked down and saw that he had covered a quarter of the distance needed. Not too bad, he said to himself. He only needed to repeat this a few more times. Williams fingers had left a few more long grooves into the cliff wall before he felt confident enough to let himself drop the rest of the way. He pushed off the rock and redirected his Qi to his legs, reinforcing them to be doubly safe before hisnding threw up a small plume of sand. He smiled as his n went as expected for once without something going horribly wrong. Took you long enough. William turned to see Kae standing over a suspiciously red-tinted white sand. He scanned his fellow disciples body to see where the damage was but didnt see anything obvious. You got hurt, he frowned. I did, Kae nodded. Now Im not. What you did isnt possible for me, so unless you could handle my weight on the way down, there was no other choice. William had used [Observe] on Kae right before they entered the Abyss and saw that his Strength attribute was a hundred and fifty. Ten more than his own after he assigned points to Strength. Sometimes, he forgot how much the way he controlled his Qi magnified his strengthsomething good that came out of the basic martial skills he had picked up in the Outer Court at the very start. Right, William replied awkwardly. If wee across another cliff like that, know that your additional weight would make no difference. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. Kae nced at his legs with a slight downturn of his lips before nodding. William cleared his throat and changed the subject. So, whats next? This seems endless. There was a never-ending ocean on one side, a towering cliff on the other, and a narrow strip that could barely be called a beach in the middle. In short, they had little choice but to wander on the beach. On the bright side, that eye hasnt shown up yet, Kae offered instead of a suggestion. William shot him a harsh re before he looked at the sky, fully expecting it to appear like it had been summoned. He let out a sigh of relief when that didnt happen. Lets avoid mentioning that again. Kae shrugged like he didnt almost create a disaster. Then again, he probably wasnt as superstitious as William. Let''s see where this beach leads us," William suggested. "Unless you have a better idea? I dont. Other than keeping somewhat close to this spot. Im not sure if itll make it hard for the sect to find us if were not. William hummed in thought as he looked up at the top of the cliff. It seems like the spirit beasts stopped chasing uspletely. If they were, we would be able to see them by now. Still, I''d rather put some distance between us and this area. What if thats exactly what we are being pushed to do? That could be possible, William admitted. But if harm was meant to us, it would have already happened by now. Is that what you really think, or what you wish to be true? Thetter, but William wouldnt say that out loud. He cleared his throat once again to change the subject. No point wasting time standing around. Lets go. *** William had a decent internal clock after everything he experienced in the Shard, and it told him he had spent around five hours on an uneventful walk. That was great, and not at the same time. Nothing threatened their lives, but that also meant they were left wandering without a clue about what to do next. The beach is still straight, Williammented, breaking the silence of the past few hours. It is. The mountains that made up the border in the level was circr. It was. William sighed and came to a stop, Kae following immediately after. They had covered hundreds of miles in those five hours without anything changing, and it looked like that would continue if his eyes werent being tricked. You were right a few hours ago, William turned to Kae, It might be better to just wait and see. I wouldnt go as far as to say Im right, Kae squinted at the ocean. Does it look like the water level changed? He followed Kaes line of sight with rm. The ocean, or whatever it was, had an eerily still surface. There were no waves or any movement that could cause any changes. That was normal. If Kae was right, it could mean trouble. Im not sure, William narrowed his eyes. The only way to tell was to look at where the water touched the sand on the beach. It didnt look like it changed. It seems higher to me, Kae insisted. He raised an eyebrow at that and watched for it to happen again. His increased patience paid off when it took nearly an hour for him to see it. William nced at the surrounding hundreds of miles of shoreline and saw the small increase was consistent everywhere. A shiver ran down his spine when he realized how massive something had to be to cause this. Back up, William ordered, pulling Kae toward the cliff wall. I think something ising toward us. Kae was quick to realize what he did. Should we take our chances and climb the cliff? Toote. A small hump appeared in the water. The problem was it was impossibly far from them, and if it looked this small from there, it was absolutely massive. Even worse, there were two red glowing dots at the front. In the next second, it covered half the distance to them. At this pace, it would be at the shore before they could climb halfway up the cliff. B2 - Chapter 77 B2 - Chapter 77 Williams eyes widened in shock at the size of the spirit beast when it reached the shore, and even more at what it was. So our hopes rest on its goodwill, Kae sounded resigned. I think well be just fine, Williams voice sounded faint, even to himself. [Lord Paddlington: Do you know how long I have been waiting for you?] He nced at the system message before staring at the massive turtle with an open mouth. [Lord Paddlington: No greeting? How rude. And who is this? Someone you trust like that girl?] The turtle was talking about Princess Jin. No, William didnt trust Kae at the same level. He barely knew the kid. Speaking casually to Lord Paddlington was out of the question with Kae beside him, so he would have to be indirect. Kae, mind your words. Let me do the talking. William directed that at Kae, but it was also for Lord Paddlington. [Lord Paddlington: Oh, good! I can be my lordly self.] SMALL CULTIVATORS. COME WITH ME OR PERISH. Williams lips twitched as he tried to hide a smile. He nearly forgot the theatrics Lord Paddlington loved. What should we do, Wei Liang, Kae looked like he was at a breaking point. Right. Just because he thought this was amusing instead of terrifying didnt mean Kae felt the same. At the very least, we have a choice somewhat. William did a terrible job reassuring him, but what could he do without telling the truth? THE SMART ONE IS RIGHT. BE THANKFUL IM GIVING YOU AN OPTION. Thank you, senior, Kae bowed deeply, sincere with his respect. GOOD! Lord Paddlingtons red eyes shed. William and Kae were lifted onto the turtles shell. WE SHALL ARRIVE SHORTLY. SLEEP UNTIL THEN. Kae copsed on the hard shell, unconscious the moment Lord Paddlington stopped speaking. William did not. He was left standing on a turtle the size of arge ind. The dramatics werent necessary, William shouted to be heard over the wind. The turtle must have started moving. No, but it was fun. Do you know how long Ive been waiting here? The voice seemed right next to his ear. How long? William left Kae behind to get closer to Lord Paddlingtons head. His fellow disciple would be fine since it was as safe as could be. Hours! Lord Paddlington eximed dramatically, making him roll his eyes. It took William nearly half a minute to reach the edge of Lord Paddlingtons shell near his head. The turtle really was too damnrge. He knew it could change size when necessary, but what was the need to pick one the size of an actual mountain. You know, Im relieved it was you who showed up, William said to the massive, hill-sized head. I really thought some super-strong spirit beast was ying with us. Heh, who says I wont do the same? Lord Paddlington turned its massive head slightly, enough for William to see a part of the burning-red sclera of its eye. It had never been that color before. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences elsewhere. Well, at least you wouldnt kill me, William sat down, cing the egg between his legs. It was strangely calming to see the water blur beneath them. So, what brings you here? What? I cant check up on the only cultivator my master likes? No, really. Why did the Abysse to your attention? William frowned, his minding to worrying conclusions. Like the sect being implicated in working against Sophia. Is that what it is called? Lord Paddlington wondered out loud. A fitting name for what originally powered this cursed dimension. His heart sank. What do you mean by that? Lord Paddlington let out a low growl. To William, it felt like the world was shaking beneath his feet. If I didnt sense you in this sect, I would have immediately wiped it from existence, the turtle said, but this didnt help to change Williams guess. "My masters belonging was used to create the Abyss. Luckily, I stayed my hand and took a closer look. At some point, someone reced the need for it by prodigious use of formations. If it was reced, why bother to wait here? William asked with suspicion. This dimension no longer requires it, but that doesnt mean it was removed, Lord Paddlingtons flipper twitched in irritation. For a turtle his size, that small movement created a wave that had to be hundreds of feet tall. Whoeverid down these formations might not have realized what they were recing. William didnt have a good feeling about this. Although the turtle was generally straightforward, the roundabout way it spoke told him it was stalling for some reason. That doesnt answer my question, he said pointedly. Why didnt you just take Empress SophiasYou havent said what it was Why? William narrowed his eyes, almost certain he knew what wasing next. Funny thing, Lord Paddlington chuckled. You know the realm stone your little friend absorbed? I was searching for another, and it led me right here. Except what I discovered is even worse. It was still stalling. They arrived at a t, barren ind, far smaller than level two of the Abyss. It looked like nothing special. However, since Lord Paddlington had brought him here, there was more to see than what his eyes showed him. Under that structure is a deprecated version of my masters avatar. I want you to go and remove her. William gave a long nce at the innocuous piece of dirt in the middle of the vast ocean before staring at Lord Paddlingtons enormous head, which wasrger than the ind. Why do you need me to do it? He clutched the egg tightly forfort. It actually worked for some strange reason. I wouldnt say need, Lord Paddlington stressed. William tensed when he was lifted into the air before being floated before two massive, fiery orbs. It felt like he would be burnt alive if he said the wrong thing. If you want your little sect to keep existing, you should be the one to take care of this issue. You should be allowed unrestricted entry as a member. William started to sweat profusely. He came to realize that Lord Paddlington didnt know the effect his eyes were having on him. Of course, if you dont care, I can rip through the formations holding this ce together and retrieve my masters avatar myself. [Trait Added | Burns (-10 HP per second)] No! William couldnt stand the heat anymore. No, dont do that. And put me down! Youre going to kill me! Hm? Lord Paddlingtons eyes narrowed before widening in surprise. Thankfully, he was ced on the barren ind soon after. His robes were soaked as he sat heavily on the sand, somehow having the mind to gently set the egg next to him. He looked at the system alert and sighed with a bit of relief. [-30 HP] [Trait Removed | Burns (-10 HP per second)] It wasnt terrible. All the burns resulted in was an opportunity for him to practice his Healing Qi. I forgot my eyes do that right now, Lord Paddlingtonughed, the loudness almost knocking him over. me your sect for having such an excellent ancestor. Ive been suppressing all the formations in the Abyss to prevent others froming here to investigate. Theyre trying to burn me from the inside out. William let out a weak exhale and closed his eyes. That exined why the turtles eyes were red all of a sudden. He seized his Qi and sensed where his burns were located. It was a thinyer of skin on the front of his body. Anything that was bare while it was before Lord Paddlingtons eyes. Converting to Healing Qi was easy. The rage was there, bubbling under the surface at what he knew wasing. His Qi gained that sharp quality that bordered on dangerous. Not for the first time, William wondered if this could be used in a battle. There must be a reason it had this type of sensation. He pushed that thought aside and concentrated his Healing Qi where he was burned. It was light work that took no more than a few seconds. William released his control, let the Qi revert to normal, and opened his eyes. [+30 HP] [-60 Spiritual Energy] B2 - Chapter 78 B2 - Chapter 78 You learned a new trick, Lord Paddlingtons much smaller body floated before him. William blinked in surprise at the sudden change from having a mountain-sized turtle to one slightly bigger than his palm. Wait! WheresOh. Kae was snoozing next to his egg. He should wake in a few minutes, Lord Paddlington glided close to the egg. You have a new trick and a new thing. This one is more interesting. William snatched his spirit beast egg off the sand and wrapped his arms around it as if that would protect it from the nearly salivating turtle. He couldnt be sure, but he swore that he could feel the beast inside the egg thank him. This was a gift from William froze, realizing just how bad it would have been if he revealed an imperial prince had given the egg to him. Its important to me. Lord Paddlington tilted his tiny head in thought before finally nodding. I suppose it wont be too much of a hardship if I dont make myself an omelet. Shame. This one could be one of the best. William shifted back on his butt instinctively. Go find another egg to eat. You think its easy? The turtle narrowed its eyes. Thest time I found an egg worth cooking, my master was still in this ne. Everything else has been trash! As ufortable as it was to hear Lord Paddlingtons desire to snack on his spirit beast egg, William knew this was a good sign. An excellent sign. Whatever would hatch from it was almost guaranteed to be a high-tier spirit beast. Right, William cleared his throat. So you know what this egg is, then? Why would you think that? Lord Paddlington looked at him like he was stupid. Does it look like I would care to learn about lesser creatures? The egg pulsed in anger, making William look down at it in surprise. That was the clearest indication yet that it could understand what was happening around it. Heh, Lord Paddlington floated closer to the egg. What are you angry about, whelp? Give thanks to your human. You would be cracked open and made into a delicious meal without him. The egg suddenly lost all signs of life as it retreated into its metaphorical shell. He was now confident it understood everything. Leave it alone, William stood to get the egg away from the turtle. He thought about storing it in his spatial stone since Kae was unconscious, mostly to hide it from Lord Paddlington but also to free up both arms. How difficult is it to remove Empress Sophias avatar? For the current you? Near impossible. Why are you asking me to help if thats the case? Ive seen how quickly your cultivation grows. Its reasonably fast, so I expect you will be strong enough by the time you reach the avatar, Lord Paddlington said sagely. And take the boy with you. That transformation of his will help greatly if youre about to die for being too weak. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. That made it almost mandatory for him to store the egg in his spatial stone. It would be suicide otherwise. Is it possible for you to block some of Kaes memories? There are some things I dont want revealed, things I suspect will be impossible to hide if this is as difficult as you say. Matters of the soul are not ones I am willing to touch, Lord Paddlington rejected harshly. If that was an option, I wouldnt have put your friend to sleep. William nodded slowly in eptance. He noted in the back of his mind that memories were somehow rted to the soul. He supposed that made sense since that made up who you were. More importantly, he would need to figure out how to keep his spatial stone secret while also using it to feed the egg asionally. A problem for future William to figure out. That makes sense, he cated the angry turtle. Since thats the case, tell me more about what I can expect in this retrieval mission. Who said anything about retrieve? Lord Paddlington floated to Williams face and used a flipper to pat his cheek mockingly. Remove. Thats what you need to do. Get rid of my masters avatar before it can get corrupted further. Williams face paled in fear. The word corrupted brought up images of the monsters he met in the Shard, of which even the weakest could cause him serious damage. The idea of Sophiaeven if it was only an avatar of hersgetting corrupted was the stuff of nightmares. It was almost enough for him to say his prayers to the Jade Healing Sect and walk away from this mess. And you say Ill be able to do this sessfully? William said doubtfully. Empress Sophias avatar will be able to crush me like a bug. Very true, Lord Paddlington agreed happily. Luckily for you, the corruption seems to have deteriorated the avatars power. I estimate it to be at early Core Formation, perhaps middle stage at worst. He stared at the turtle nkly. That was terrible news. Im in early stage Foundation Establishment Realm. There is no way I can cross a major realm to fight the avatar of Empress Sophia. The martial skills she must have makes me doubt if thats possible even if I were of the same cultivation! Very true, the turtle was getting on his nerves. Once again, I have good news for you! The corrupted avatar has weakened the connection it has with my master in the higher ne. That, in turn, degrades the skills and powers it can use. William nodded slowly in understanding. If that was true, he really did have a chance to do this sessfully. Since you im I will grow in power before I meet the avatar, I assume there are plenty of beasts to fight beforehand? Ah beasts, Lord Paddlington drew out the word. You could say that. So, whats your decision? Do you want to help me with this, or should I take care of the headache by erasing everything? [Main Quest: Remove Empress Sophias corrupted avatar] [Information: A Dao Seeking Realm ancestor of the Jade Healing Sect harnessed the power in Empress Sophias avatar to serve as the power source for the Nine Realms Alchemy Abyss. Lord Paddlington has offered an option to fix this issue without destroying the sect. Remove the avatar from its prison, or destroy it. Either option will work.] [Reward: ? | The Jade Healing Sect will not be destroyed] [Penalty: Death | The Jade Healing Sect will be destroyed] [ept: Y/N] An image shed in his mind when he read the penalty. A turtle the size of multiple cities hovering over the Jade Healing Sect, repeating what he had seen it do in the Shard. Bring a flipper down to shatter thend. William had resolved long ago to try and avoid anything thatid out his death as a consequence. He was alsomenting very recently about not having a main quest. Oh, youll die if you fail? Lord Paddlington moved to hover next to his face. You could avoid it and just let me take care of this. He was reminded that the turtle could see his system. As for its suggestion, that wouldnt happen. I ept. [epted] [Main Quest Added | Remove Empress Sophias corrupted avatar] B2 - Chapter 79 B2 - Chapter 79 Interesting, Lord Paddlington said, moving to hover before Williams face. "I dont see a great love for the sect other than being ufortable about some deaths. He shrugged and stored the egg in the spatial stone. He sensed relief from the egg because of the safety of its new surroundings. Ha! You epted mostly because youre bored! the turtle cackled. You found that peaceful life wasnt for you, and you gave into something that could kill you. Lets not exaggerate. I like my sect, and the people in it are dear to me. William oversold it, wanting to convince himself that it was true. False, Lord Paddlington dered. Whatever, William scoffed and turned to face Kaes unconscious body. When will he wake? In a few seconds, just in time for the gate to open, the turtle replied, making him turn back in shock. That means I should return to holding off the formations. Lord Paddlington zoomed back over the ocean before returning to his previously gargantuan size. Stay alive! The turtles voice boomed before his form blurred, reappearing in the distance and getting further by the microsecond. Wait! William screamed. How do I convert my Qi into Lightning and Thunder Qi! He had intended to ask that eventually but didnt think the ursed turtle would choose to randomly disappear. Luckily, he still got an answer. [Lord Paddlington: Why would I know anything about human cultivation? Go ask a human instead of a turtle.] It wasnt the answer William wanted to see, but it was the one he got. Who are you talking to? Kae asked with a groggy voice. He saw Kae checking the surroundings in confusion. You missed the ride of arge turtle. Thats how we got here? Kae pushed himself off the sand. Where are we? I have no idea, William said truthfully. "All I know is that we have no way of returning to where we were without the turtles help. I see, Kae took it in stride, What do we need to do? Were supposed to get rid of someone hurting the sect, he said before shrugging when Kae looked at him skeptically. I know. I asked why it didnt go to the Elders, but I didnt get an answer. Not the best lie, but since Lord Paddlington was an unknown spirit beast with far higher cultivation, the lie didnt need to be intricate. In Kaes own words, it was difficult to know the motivations of such a spirit beast since they have human-like intelligence. So be it. Do we have a safe return if weplete the request? Kae rubbed his bracelet as if he was going over inventory. We do. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. Good enough for me, Kae took out familiar vials, ones that turn him into a berserker. Wheres this thing we have to get rid of? Woah! Put those away! William said with shock. They wont be needed for a while hopefully. And its not a thing we must get rid of. Its a corrupted avatar. Avatar?! Kae raised his voice in surprise. You cant mean Kae was interrupted by the ground rumbling. They quickly regained their bnce and turned to look in the direction where they could feel the disturbance originating. The sand at the small ind''s center was bulging upward, and it showed no signs of stopping. The edges of the bulge expanded all the way to where they were standing. William and Kae had the same idea when they automatically moved back closer to the water to get out of the affected area. The protrusion extended well over ten feet before the sand was pierced at the very center. When Lord Paddlington said gate, William had assumed something the size of a typical door. Simr to the teleportation doors he had be familiar with in the sect. He was wrong. Very wrong. The archway appeared first, golden and glinting in the light. It was followed by two stone pirs etched with glowing letters that had no discernible meaning. At the heart of the gate was a swirling vortex of darkness, a chaotic maelstrom that pulled at him to enter. The shes that appeared for a fraction of a second were more terrifying than the vortex itself. Did you see that? William asked, wanting to confirm it wasnt his mind ying tricks on him. Yes, Wei Liang. I see the ancient gate that appeared out of the sand. No, William ignored the uncharacteristic sarcasm. Did you see the woman? What woman? He saw her again, and this time, she stayed. Right as Kae looked at him with concern. Pale, far from the golden skin she had when hest saw her. An aura that seemed to draw in all the light and exuded a feeling of death. Her expression was frighteningly nk, but with eyes that glinted with madness. Her gold hair was the only thing vaguely the same, but even that seemed like a gamble. It was like staring into a sun, and this was with the muted effect of the gate acting like a barrier. This was the corrupted avatar of Empress Sophia. And the turtle expected William to somehow defeat it? As if reacting to his incredulous thoughts, the corrupted avatar smiled at him like a predator before disappearing. Liang! Wei Liang! William flinched back with a pounding heart, only then realizing that Kae had been shaking him to get his attention the entire time. What happened? Was it the woman you saw? Should we back out of this? Kae asked rapidly. He honestly didnt know how to answer. His instincts were screaming abort, and it wasnt even close. That avatar was nowhere close to diminished, or whatever fancy word Lord Paddlington used. [Lord Paddlington: Dont let the avatar intimidate you. It is projecting what it was capable of when connected to my master. You have nothing to worry about as long as you grow your cultivation as I expect.] William wanted to doubt what the turtle was saying, but with how fanatically loyal it was to Sophia, it was hard to do so. It was likely the situation was exactly as it said it was. Its alright, William said before taking a deep breath. I was warned of this. The avatar we need to remove is trying to intimidate me into leaving. The gate stopped me from asking before, but do you mean what I think when you say avatar? As in the portions of will cultivators leave on this ne before ascending? Correct, Willian confirmed bluntly. Dont worry, its weakened greatly and cut off from the owner in the higher ne. We should be fine. Oh, well, I supposed thats fine, then, Kae was at his most sarcastic yet. William agreed with his mood. We have no other choice, William chuckled without humor. So, shall we enter? I would prefer to wait until I can brew a few more transformation elixirs, Kae rejected sensibly. THE GATE WILL RETREAT IN A FEW MINUTES. Lord Paddlingtons voice boomed from the distance, speaking up after Kaes n was expressed. Kae didnt blink. I guess we go with your n, Wei Liang. Lets enter. William nodded before steeling his nerves and walking toward the dark vortex. This was what he wanted while in the Inner Court. Danger and fighting with his life on the line. Now he has his wish, so there was no room toin. B2 - Chapter 80 B2 - Chapter 80 Walking through the gate was miserable. It was no wonder the teleportation door had reced it. The gate made it feel like he was passing through a space thatbined all the worst extremes of the world: searing heat, burning cold, the emptiness of the void, and much, much more. William was thankful that it onlysted long enough for him to sense it and nothing more. While the gate was as ufortable as could be to use, its duration was extremely simr to that of the teleportation doorsit was near instantaneous. He stepped into an area with an atmosphere he would have never expected. With the vortex in the middle of the gate exuding darkness and the corrupted avatar looking like the devil, he was confident he was stepping into a gloomy or fiery hell. Instead, William was staring at something that would fit right into a childrens fairy tale. It was a castle a princess would be proud to call home, with excessive pointy towers all around and arge, open drawbridge inviting him to enter. It screamed trap. Could it be more obvious? William said dryly. Not that we have a choice. He looked over his stats to see that his Spiritual Energy had almost recovered to the max. The Qi used to heal himself hadnt been much in the first ce, so only a minute or so left. Im ready when you William stopped when he saw Kae wasnt beside him. Kae? He looked around to find that he was alone. The castley ahead, and a thick jungle, almost a solid wall of trees, was behind him. He stood on a well-manicuredwn in the middle, meaning there was nowhere for Kae to be hidden from his sight. William clenched his fist in worry when he realized that Kae had likely been sent elsewhere, though most of that worry was for himself. Kae had a trump card in the form of the transformation elixirs. They would easily keep him safe. It was Williams skills that were in doubt. Spiritual Energy: 1130/1130 (20% per Hour) His Spiritual Energy was fully recovered. Although that had been his previous requirement to enter the castle, the bar was set much higher without Kae''s support. William had been stockpiling attribute points to use them smartly or attempt to use them smartly when he knew which attributes needed to be boosted above others. He would have chosen based on his affinity for elemental Qi and which heaven-tier martial skill he ended up picking. That was thrown out. No matter how much William''s brain told him it was a mistake to do so. He knew a few facts about this quest. A corrupted avatar of Sophia was waiting for him, and he was currently too weak to survive against it. [Force Multiplier] would be used without a doubt when fighting the avatar. That meant boosting the attributes that the martial skill would multiply when active was imperative. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition. William recalled what Kae had said about his berserker form: that it was possible for him to take on an early stage Core Formation Realm cultivator if needed. He didnt know if hepletely believed that, but those numbers would be what he would consider. Mainly because they were the only numbers he knew of that could supposedly let him fight above his realm. He mentallymanded the system to show what he discovered using [Observe] while Kae was under the transformation elixirs influence. Spirit: 237 (20) Strength: 150 (1000) Stamina: 225 (1000) Agility: 218 (500) [Force Multiplier] multiplied his base attributes by four, except for Spirit and Luck. Since Kae imed that a thousand in Strength and five hundred in Agility was enough to fight above his realm, that would be what William would target. He would leave Stamina aside since he didnt have enough unused points to spare. Unfortunately, he would have to put his hopes of Lord Paddlingtons assumption of him getting stronger before meeting the avatar. [+100 Strength] [+100 Agility] William bounced on his toes before darting to the left. He stopped and found that he had overshot his intended target by well over four times the length. It was expected. William had a simr problem when he increased his attributes by toorge of a percentage. It had taken a few minutes for his mind to recalibrate his body''s capabilities. William made simr, quick dashes back and forth until he stopped exactly where he expected. It would take more work to fully recalibrate, but that could be done in a fight. The same was true for his massively increased Strength. However, he was less concerned about recalibrating that beforebat. Spirit: 226 Strength: 240 Stamina: 110 Agility: 240 Luck: 150 Points: 2 The number of unused points he now had almost made him tear up in sadness. But it was for a good causeKeeping himself alive. William looked at the drawbridge for a long second before walking forward. There was no point waiting around, and if Kae was sent straight into the castle, it would be worse the longer he wasted time. One step. Two steps. Three steps. The closer he got to the drawbridge without feeling a sense of danger, the more reassured he was to keep walking. He hesitated before going over the line that separated the manicuredwn from the wood of the drawbridge. Thankfully, it was anticlimactic. William stood on the drawbridge without anything changing. He stared into therge hall of the castle, noting the emptiness within other than a few wall decorations and decorated wood pirs. The exterior of the castle itself was as Western in style as it could be, but everything inside was very much Eastern influenced. Two statues of a familiar figure caught his attention. On either side of the entrance, a lifelike sculpture of Lord Paddlington was set as if to guard the castle. Unlike the real Lord Paddlington, the statues were sporting a furious expression that he could never imagine on the turtle, yet here it was. William kept an eye on the statues as he approached the entrance. It felt like the eyes on them were tracking him, but they did nothing else. He stepped into the castle. Wee! Williams fists zed with Qi, ready to pulverize the one who spoke instantly. If only he could see where the voice came from. Who are you? William asked warily, noting that the entrance had disappeared behind him. The only plus from that was the statues were gone too which was concerning at the same time. I am the castle steward, Young Master, the voice replied. "May I be reassured that you will not attack me if I show myself? No, you cannot, William denied immediately. He would make no promises or reassurance to anyone he couldnt see. I have to say that was unexpected, the voice sounded puzzled. I suppose its not necessary. His skin prickled in fear when a familiar turtle appeared in the middle of the vast hall. My name is Lord Paddlington, Young Master, the turtle-that-shouldnt-be-here introduced itself. My master has been waiting for you. B2 - Chapter 81 B2 - Chapter 81 Whos your master? William stalled for time. He wasnt sure what the hell was going on. As far as he knew, having an avatar meant the spirit beast or cultivator had ascended. Lord Paddlington clearly had not right? It also didnt escape William that the turtle before him had no basic status floating above him. It just made everything more confusing. She wishes to speak with you herself, the probably-fake turtle crawled to the side, leaving the middle of the hall open. He stiffened, the Qi disappearing from his hands to evenly spread throughout his body. [Force Multiplier] might be needed sooner than expected. Thank you for showing respect, Young Master. There is no point in looking threatening in front of someone like my master. Another reason William doubted this was Lord Paddlington in any form. He had never seen the turtle do anything but float. Nor was it so polite, but he didnt know how it acted around Sophia, so he couldnt draw any conclusions from that. He waited, half expecting the avatar to appear without warning. Nothing happened after a minute passed. Has your master decided not to meet me? Forgive my mistake, Young Master. Please wait a few more seconds. This definitely wasnt Lord Paddlington. The turtle looked right, but its personality was one of a butler. Those doubts were immediately shoved to the back of his mind when golden stairs shimmered into existence. Golden, with abundant red ents. A figure slowly formed at the top of the stairs, on the carpet that was colored red in the middle, different from the pale gold on the sides. It was Sophia, or rather, her supposedly corrupted avatar. She certainly didnt look corrupted at first impression. In fact, she had a presence that was frighteningly simr to when Sophia, the true-form version, sent her will from the ne above to speak to him. William watched her warily as she sauntered down the stairs while smiling at him sweetly. He wasnt sure what he was more confused by: the sharine smile or the fact that Sophia looked nothing like the brief shes he saw in the gate. Ive been waiting for you, Sophia stopped at the lowest step. For far too long. How long was it, Paddy? I lost track after five thousand years, master, the turtle replied with a bowed head. Hm, I didnt think it was that long. Even I lost track. He listened to the back and forth with increasing doubt. No matter how suspicious this was, he was starting to lean toward the side of Lord Paddlingtonhis Lord Paddlingtonbeing mistaken about the corruption. Luckily, there were a few ways he could test this. Williammanded the system to show his traits. The most innocuous information it had. Traits: If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. N/A He moved the blue text to the side, making it inly viewable to both Sophia and the turtle. Whats that, Young Master? Traits? Williams hope that they wouldnt react was immediately dashed when the turtle addressed it inly. The way Sophias eyes lit up made everything worse. He needed to reevaluate. Instead of assuming they were fake, William had to prove it before he took action. This was not only to make sure he wasnt making a massive mistake but also to ensure Sophias avatar was truly limited in power. Oh! Thats simr to the system I created for myself before I ascended! Sophia took a few steps toward him, stopping when she noticed his unease. You really are meant toe here. A proper heir. That put up a red g in Williams mind. For some reason, he couldnt see Sophia ever calling him an heir. It sounded like something Daoist Chen would say. In short, a true native rather than a transmigrator like Sophia. What do you mean, Senior? William pretended he didnt know who she was. Since this avatar seemed to have no memory of their previous encounter, it would be better to y along. When I used to rule this ne, I created some techniques that were unique inparison to what others possessed. This system was one of them. Tell me, did you get any of my other creations with it? Unfortunately, I didnt, William said with disappointment, watching her reaction closely. That wont do, Sophia dered. My heir should be able to rule over the pitiful empires and sects. Youll be gifted a few heaven-tier martial skills. Really? William hade to a judgment. An empire has been a thorn in my side, Senior. This will help me show them not to mess with me! Earth will regret their actions. Since the avatar acted like a typical cultivator by throwing out rewards as a sweetener, he would act the same and have some created grudge. It worked. Earth? It must be a new empire that formed after my ascension. This was the second time she mentioned ascension, likely to impress him. It was too bad it was ineffective, especially after all the red gs she disyed. William had mostly been eyeing Sophia ever since she appeared. Now, with a decision made, he started to study the turtle. Thats when he noticed something strange. They are a fairly new empire, Senior. Its an honor to meet one such as you, the sweet smile on Sophias lips grew at his praise. The same applies to you, Lord Paddlington. Your words are appreciated, Young Master. William would strike the turtle first. It never looked away from Sophia, even when replying to him. He recalled when it had asked him a question about the system, and while it was in the corner of his eye, it hadnt looked away even then. This could be out of respect for its master, but he was starting to suspect that Sophia wasnt real. As in, this wasnt the corrupted avatar but rather a projection created by the fake Lord Paddlington. William knew it was still a massive gamble to take, but ifstress on the word ifhe was wrong, there was a decent chance he could talk himself out of it. On the other hand, not taking this gamble could be the end of his life. Follow me, Sophia turned to return to the stairs. It seems you might need more immediate help if an empire is after you. Yes, Senior, William gave a slight nod, keeping track of the turtle in the corner of his eye. Its head was following Sophia even now. More importantly, it didnt move from its spot. He walked forward, keeping pace with Sophias stride. He did his best to keep his expression in abination of awe and excitement, doing everything he could to crush the nerves bubbling underneath. William only had one thing on his mind: whether he should use the Elemental Gauntlet or [Force Multiplier]. The gauntlet was an unknown factor, which could be disastrous if his expectations for it werent met. As for [Force Multiplier], it was reliable and predictable. The issue was the penalty that would hit if he was forced to use it twice to survive. William''s eyes twitched before he punted the idea of using the Elemental Gauntlet as far from his mind as he could. Even thinking of it was peak stupidity. Reliability and extreme power were the keys in this situation. His footnded parallel to the turtles body. It was now or never. Qi surged through his body as [Force Multiplier] activated. B2 - Chapter 82 B2 - Chapter 82 You! Stop A fist glowing a harsh blue shattered the so-called Lord Paddlingtons body like ss in the middle of his sentence. William grunted when the floor cracked beneath the broken turtle as his fist broke the floor far too easily. This was strength at another level. It felt like he could take on the world. What a shame. William looked away from the broken porcin pieces the fake Lord Paddlington was made of, aware that the system didnt award him any experience. Either its level was too low for it to count, or it wasnt a living thing in the first ce. He saw Sophia staring at him with that sweet smile, still on the steps. His heart sank at the thought of the avatar actually being present instead of a projection as he had hoped. He wasntpletely mad to try to smash whatever that turtle was without being reasonably confident. He could sense a faint connection between the turtle and Sophia, which led to him making a guess when he noticed the strange way the turtle was acting. You know, that thing was supposed to remind me of my powerlessness? William backed away slightly, the feeling of invincibility from [Force Multiplier] quickly disappearing. The martial skill was far from the time limit, but the growing presence of Sophia negated his high. Though, he supposed it would be proper to call it the corrupted avatar rather than Sophia. Destroying the turtle construct stopped the need for a facade. Her visage was turning more and more like what he saw at the gate. The sweet smile stayed, though murderous would be a better description with the dark presence she now exuded. I was nning to let you live after I was freed, Sophia walked slowly toward him. Of course, your soul would not control your body, but at least it would have existed. Im afraid I no longer feel generous. William wasnt standing in ce like a sitting duck as she made her short monologue. No, he was busy trying to hold hisposure as everything around him melted. The vague, eastern-themed painting and sculptureswhich he just realized he couldnt recall the details ofthe beautifully carpeted floor, the carved wooden pirs. All of them seemed to dissolve into nothingness, leaving behind a hall that reeked of decay. The overall structure was the same, but the ravages of time left scars no longer covered by whatever illusion the turtle construct had been sustaining. Where there was a previously well-lit room, all that was left was darkness, with the only lighting from the corrupted avatara dim sheen enough to make her figure visible and nothing elseand the bright blue glow from the Qi zing around Williams body. He knew that would onlyst for a minute or so before that disappeared, too. You were so confident, Sophiano, the corrupted avatarmented. Why has it disappeared? She was right. Williams eyes sharpened. He shot off the rotted floor like a rocket, demolishing it beyond recognition. The increased Strength and Agility that [Force Multiplier] provided was in full disy. He had tunnel vision as he approached the corrupted avatar. She didnt look worried in the slightest, and that was setting off rm bells in his mind. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It was toote to back out, so selling out was the only option. His mind worked overtime to keep track of her limbs, her every movement, no matter how small. He wasnt just ounting for physicalbat, which was unlikely in the first ce, but all martial skills. They would require Qi to activate, corrupted avatar or not. If he sensed it, protecting his vitals would be paramount. A guttural roar left Williams mouth, his fist intending to make the corrupted avatars head disappear. What?! William yelled when his fist passed harmlessly through her head. The momentum was far too much for him to stop. The wall behind the avatar was his new, untended targetwhere the stairs previously existed in the illusion. His fist mmed into the stone wall, sending a shower of rubble and dust outward as he punched arge hole straight through to reveal a chamber behind it. Ill be waiting for you, the corrupted avatar chuckled behind him. Theres only one way to leave this ce, and its under my control. William pushed the rubble off him and shook the debris off as he turned, just in time to see the corrupted avatar fade out of existence. He stayed still for a few seconds, ensuring he was the only one in the hall. He sighed in relief and moved to the corner on the left, making as little noise as possible, before leaning on the wall. [Force Multiplier] would be deactivated soon, and he didnt have another light source. He wouldnt be entirely in the dark since his eyesight was leaps and bounds beyond what a mortal could possess, but it would still be severely limited. Williams ears would be of most help in this situation. A few secondster, the martial skill was deactivated. The sudden loss of light made him realize he had supplied nearly ny-nine percent of the light in the massive hall. All that was left for his eyes to see were dim shapes. That should be enough for him to tell if there was any movement. Spiritual Energy: 930/1130 (20% per Hour) As much as William wished to continue, he intended to be in the best state possible. That included recovering the two hundred Spiritual Energy used to activate [Force Multiplier]. It would take under an hour. More importantly, he needed to pass the thirty-minute mark so he could use [Force Multiplier] again without getting hit by the penalty. William kept his alertness high as he strained his eyes and ears for anything requiring him to act. All he had to do was keep this up for an hour. He didnt like that. William tapped his finger on his thigh for a few seconds before he thought of something that might help. He pulled the spirit beast egg out of his spatial stone and held it in the normal positionin the crook of his left arm. I know you can understand me, William said quietly, not that it felt like it in this dead ce. Send me a signal if youre listening. It took a few seconds, but he felt a weak ping wherever his skin touched the egg. That was too slow. Again. Signal as fast as possible the moment I stop talking. The ping was near instantaneous. It seemed like the egg had been reluctant to y along the first time. I need your help, Little Egg. You were able to sense danger outside your shell when the turtle wanted to cook you, William felt the egg send him a feeling of fear. Dont worry, I wont let it turn you into a meal. Thats what we should do, protect each other. He felt it agree, happily, in fact. William thought it was insane that he was sweet-talking a literal egg into doing his bidding, but if it worked, it worked. I need you to warn me if you sense anything moving other than me, William said slowly, wanting to ensure it wasnt misunderstood. And I mean anything. It doesnt have to be living. He felt the egg agreeing, but he couldnt be sure if it actually knew what he wanted from it. Thankfully, that was easy to find out. William kicked a small stone near his foot. The egg pinged him when the stone started to move, and not a moment before. Good. He picked up a smaller stone, part of the rubble he had created from demolishing the wall. It could barely be called pebble-sized. He threw it to the opposite side of the hall. The egg pinged him when the pebble left his hand, and it continued to do so until the pebblended and rolled to a stop. Excellent. There were better ways to find out the limits of what it could sense, but William could only use what he had avable. This was good enough to have that extra reassurance. B2 - Chapter 83 B2 - Chapter 83 A little over fifteen minutes had passed. Fifteen more before the penalty for [Force Multiplier] is no longer in y. A crucial point so he could use the skill without getting crippled by the penalty. Getting the penalty wouldnt be the end of the world, but it would involve ingesting pills to keep himself alive. It was not a situation he wanted to be in this early. It would not bode well to increase his impurity this early and the Elders who helped to heal him did mention that a repeat of his pill-popping spree in the Shard would leave him genuinely crippled. Apparently, repeatedly introducing impurities to his body makes it more susceptible to the effectsa reverse tolerance. William stiffened when the egg started to ping him. He instantly sent it back to the spatial stone and strained his senses to try and pinpoint where the movement was happening. The problem was he couldnt see or hear anything out of ce. It was dead silence, other than his own heartbeat. A few secondster, William heard it. The faintest of thumps, heavy footsteps that were at the edge of his hearing range. He stared at the massive hole he identally made in the wall. Something would being through that. William pushed himself off the corner and walked to the center of the hall. There would be a fight, there was no doubt about that. He needed to find out what he was fighting to create a n of action. He peered into the hole, only seeing darkness. However, the footsteps were getting louder. His mind formed an image of a lumbering giant. William saw its eyes before anything else. Green. ming green. Literally. The next thing he saw was the basic status. [Species: Stone Puppet | Level: 148] It looked like a bunch of rocks put together. No, that did a disservice to whoever created this puppet. The stones that made up its body were smoothened and shaped to look vaguely humanoid. A glow came from what looked like veins of jade iid across its body, a soft green that made the puppets body visible. The green mes where the eyes should be were connected to all the veins, which were at their densest on the featureless face. [Force Multiplier] would be unnecessary, and the Elemental Gauntlet likely wouldnt be too effective. His Strength should be enough to take care of this, with Qi-reinforced fists, of course. Are you alone? William asked, because why not. It might be helpful to find out if it could understand human speech. The Stone Puppet let out a low, rumbling growl that sounded like boulders grinding against each other. It was fitting. William kept track of the mental timer as it broke the wall further to enter the hall. Around thirteen minutes until [Force Multiplier] was free to use without penalty. I assume you are, William spoke again. The puppet''s reply was the jade veins lighting up a brilliant green. Fuck! He grunted as he leaped in the air, just in time to avoid getting skewered by the spikes that shot up below him. It was the stone that made up the floor, but it had a green tint, making it obvious what the cause was. The puppet growled as the jade veins dimmed, the spikes retreating at the same time. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Williamnded softly a little further away from his previous spot and stared at the puppet warily. This wouldnt be a melee like he would have preferred. He would have had an advantage if that was the case with his speed, and that was how he nned to take the puppet down. Thankfully, the attack it had just used had a telltale sign that would be impossible to miss. The dy was enough that he could avoid it while beingpletely unprepared. He was still confident, even if it was capable of being a bit faster. Now, figure out its stats mainly health with [Observe]. [Observe not avable on automatons] William cursed under his breath. The system had only allowed [Observe] on living beings before. Still, he thought the Stone Puppet qualified since it had a basic status. The green veins started to glow again. He was more than prepared to jump to avoid the spikes, but that would have been a terrible mistake. Four green, foot-long spears shot toward him from the puppet. His eyes widened briefly before he darted to the side, yelping when he had to make a sudden change, stomp his foot onto the floor, and shoot backward toward the edge of the hall. Stone spikes pierced upwards where his body had been. He had gotten away mostly unharmed, but his foot was left with a deep cut. [-40 HP] He had pushed off the floor so hard that he couldnt stop himself from crashing into the wall at full speed. Unlike when he punched a hole in the wall, he currently didnt have the strength that [Force Multiplier] gave him. The wall won the sh. [-50 HP] William didnt allow himself to linger on the sharp pain and moved away from the wall to avoid being an easy target. The Stone Puppet had multiple ranged attacks and couldbine them. The spears would be an issue, to say the least. It was much faster than the floor spikes, and that would be a headache to avoid if he was too close to it. The problem was that there was no doubt he would have to close the gap to damage it in any way. The Stone Puppet made a rumbling sound, its shoulders shaking slightly. William realized that it was . It honestly made him wary, even more than he already was. If this was it having some fun, what would it be like when it stopped ying games. Spiritual Energy: 1002/1130 (20% per Hour) There were about ten minutes left before [Force Multiplier] was penalty-free. Before that, he needed to test the Stone Puppet to see if it was necessary. Another option was the Elemental Gauntlet, but he had no idea if that would be useful. The Stone Puppet stopped its rumblingugh and slowly moved toward him. William made up his mind. He needed the puppet to show what it was truly capable of, which meant putting himself in harm''s way. The floor cracked beneath his feet as he sprinted to the Stone Puppet. The green veins started to glow brightly immediately, more than either of the times before, so he expected more than just two attacks. William shifted his body slightly, barely avoiding the spears shot at him with speeds far, far faster than before. Still, it avoided all eight that the puppet created. He ticked that off as two attacks. His assumption of expecting more was correct. William jumped well before the floor spike could ever hope to make contact, putting him directly above the Stone Puppet. His attention was on two spots. There was a cluster of jade veins near the puppets neck and an area that was entirely devoid of it. He wanted to find out if either was a weakness. William turned to his weak martial skillsthe basic ones he had disparaged so much recently: [Thunderous Palm], [Thunderous Kick], and [Earth-Shaking Stomp]. His hope was for them to be enough so he wouldnt have to resort to anything more taxing on his Spiritual Energy. His Qi-reinforced foot stomped on the puppets shoulder. Chips of rock fell off its body as it let out an annoyed growl, but it didnt make to attack; it only defended poorly with a slow-moving arm. William gritted his teeth as he avoided the arm and descended to the floor, mming his palm with every ounce of his strength into the cluster of nerves at the edge of its neck. That was far more effective. The Stone Puppet roared as the right side of its body went limp, the previously glowing veins turning grey in color as if they were dead. He shoved his surprise away and went on a frenzy. His speed allowed him to literally circle around the Stone Puppet while easily avoiding its slow, pathetic attempts at defense. Williams palm struck at every jade vein cluster exposed on the puppets body. With each destruction, the Stone Puppet became more lethargic. It eventually deteriorated to the point where all it could go was re at him as if it could murder him with its fiery green eyes. That might be possible for all he knew, so he was watchful of that. This is what you have to offer and you were that confident? William asked rhetorically, as he warily eyed thest cluster of the puppet, right on its face. He fully expected a desperatest-ditch attempt. William mmed his palm into its featureless faceother than the green me eyesand blinked in shock at the result. The green mes died immediately. B2 - Chapter 84 B2 - Chapter 84 [+42088 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x2 He felt a sense of aplishment he had almost forgotten about. It had been way too long since he had leveled up. More important than his feelings, he gained twenty unused attribute points. It was timely. William dyed studying his stats to deal with the Stone Puppets broken body. And to figure out why it was so easy to kill it. The long, grueling fight he had expected was cut short in an almost disappointing manner. The Stone Puppet''s confidence at the start made it seem as if he would be bruised and battered before the fight ended. Instead, all the dead Stone Puppet left on his body was a deep cut on his foot. The wall caused more damage than the puppet ever did, and he was embarrassed for it. William reyed the fight in his mind, trying to pick out details he might have overlooked in the heat of the moment. He was right about the Stone Puppet being slow, but the difference was so vast that he might as well have been fighting against a Qi Gathering Realm opponent. With Qi-based attacks, the Stone Puppet had a respectable quickness, but when speaking of its physical quickness, it shouldnt even be mentioned. Another was the sudden void of Qi-based attacks it used against when in melee range. The veryst time the Stone Puppets jade veins activated was when he was a few feet away from it. The moment William was in arms reach, the Stone Puppet stopped using Qi-based attacks all together. Instead, it resorted to an ineffective defense that he could casually work around, or rather, walk around. The Stone Puppet was ridiculously weak against someone who specialized in closebat. Someone like him. That was William''s conclusion, but it didnt mean the Stone Puppet was something to write off as easy experience points. Individually, that was definitely the case, but if they were in small groups, he could see himself in a world of hurt. The Stone Puppets ranged attacks would be near impossible to deal with if there were multiple at the same time. He would likely resort to [Force Multiplier] simply to escape the situation. William peered into the erged hole and wondered why the Stone Puppet wandered over here in the first ce. Or perhaps it was sent here by the corrupted avatar to get him moving. He shook his head and pulled the spirit beast egg from his spatial stone. Do you want this? William was surprised when he felt the eggs excitement. He expected the corpse to be useless since the system mentioned it was an automaton. Alright, then, he shrugged, not questioning the gift given. Eat up, but avoid everything else in the space. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. William returned the egg to the spatial stone and pulled the Stone Puppets body into it right afterward. He made a cursory check on the egg and saw it was doing asmanded. He nced at the hole before turning his attention to his stats. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 119 Experience: 13090/14875 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2010/2100 Spiritual Energy: 956/1130 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 226 Strength: 240 Stamina: 110 Agility: 240 Luck: 150 Points: 22 William could use Healing Qi to recover his health, but he wasnt sure if the cost was worth it. Spiritual Energy was worth more for him at the moment, and the hundred and eighty it would take to fully recover was significant. There would be around forty minutes of waiting to get the Spiritual Energy back, on top of the forty already needed with the current deficit. William shook his head and walked to the broken wall. He needed to get an idea of where he was and what he needed to do. Kae hadnt been forgotten, but unfortunately, his fellow disciple was a lower priority. It was by necessity. He would be of no help if he got himself killed. He stared into therge hole and noticed new details with how close he was. The level of rot and decay was consistent with the hall behind him, but he could tell that this seemed to have been a waiting room. William stepped into the smaller room, over the broken wall, and instantly saw where the Stone Puppet hade from. A broken path into the depths. He could see nothing but pitch-ckness at the bottom. However, his eyes were able to pick up some details on the path closer to him. It was tiled long ago, and perhaps even stairs in ce, but that was long gone, reced by smashed stone with dirt ground below. He could see the imprints from the Stone Puppets heavy feet from when it walked up. William grabbed arge stone from the rubble and tossed it down, half expecting to see a sudden abundance of ming green eyes looking at him from below. That didnt happen. Instead, the stonended with a sharp sound near the edge of what he could see before rolling into the darkness. He could hear it continue for nearly a minute until the sound was too faint to carry back to him. However, even if it was no longer audible, there was no doubt it was still rolling down the path. Williams goal had been aplished. He had an idea of how deep the path wentreally deepand whether any beasts or automatons would wake. There wasnt. He pushed his Qi into the spatial stone to sense what the egg was up to and was d to see it had finished up the Stone Puppets body. Unfortunately, there were no physical changes or a change in its basic status. William was disappointed the egg didnt advance, but he supposed that would be too easy. He pulled it out of the spatial stone again, interrupting the eggs contentment after the good meal. Time to earn your keep, Little Egg, William pointed at the depths of the path, feeling a little silly, pointing for something that didnt have eyes. Were going down there. You have the same job as before. Warn me if you sense anything moving other than me. Understand? If this was a spirit beast in his hand instead of an egg, William had a feeling it would squirm in unhappiness while protesting loudly. He sweetened the offer with something he intended to do anyway. If you help, Ill let you have anything I kill. Theyll be just like the body you fed on. William chuckled at the near vibration he felt from the egg. Lets get you something tasty. He tucked the egg in its usual spot when he carried it, the crook of his left arm, and steadily descended the path. B2 - Chapter 85 B2 - Chapter 85 The darkness melted away as William approached, his eyes able to pick up more details the closer he got. He turned to nce behind, and as expected, he could see nothing past fifty feet. It was a little unsettling. It was the egg that gave him confidence. Too much confidence in something that he didnt really know the capabilities of. He nced at his Spiritual Energy. Spiritual Energy: 987/1130 (20% per Hour) It would take about half an hour to fully recover everything. He would think about using Healing Qi if that actually happened. One positive news was that using [Force Multiplier] no longer carried a penalty. The positive news was an understatement. It was fantastic news. William kept walking down the path, deeper into the seemingly endless depths. He wasnt quick about it since he wanted to be prepared for any surprises, but still, he wasnt at what he would call a slow pace. He froze when he saw a familiar shape on the ground. It was another Stone Puppet, but the system didnt show its basic status. Theck of glowing jade veins or green me eyes was another indicator it wasnt active. William quickly moved closer just in case it did wake. It would be safer than staying far away due to the weakness of the automation. Huh, William narrowed his eyes, studying the details on the Stone Puppet. This is already destroyed. Chunks were missing from the body, and it matched the level of decay of the broken stones around it. This thing had been destroyed a long, long time ago. Is this useful to you, Little Egg? William asked as he looked around. He could see outlines at the edge of his vision further ahead. More Stone Puppets. The egg gave off a feeling of disgust. Hm, I thought not, William smiled as he moved forward to see more Stone Puppet bodies. The more he walked, the moremon it was, to the point where he was literally walking on the bodies because they were everywhere. He shivered at the thought of having to fight all of these. He would have had to resort to guerri strikes, running away to recover, then repeat. How about any of these? William asked quietly, noting that some of the bodies seemed to be newer in look. The egg hesitated for a few seconds before declining. Seemed like some of the bodies there were at the edge of usefulness. That made him worried. It meant they were destroyed recently. He noticed that the path was widening. A minuteter, he could no longer see the walls that had been present the entire time he had been descending. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. William had been reasonably confident that even if the egg missed a movement, he could handle it since he only needed to put most of his focus in one direction. Work hard, Little Egg, William brought it closer to his mouth, speaking in a nearly inaudible whisper. Ill feed you a Core Formation Realm corpse after this. He ignored the egg shaking in excitement as he ventured forward at a far slower pace. The ground was no longer visible. It was reced by Stone Puppets. Supposedly destroyed Stone Puppets if the eggs continued disgust was any sign. You finally arrived. William tensed at the sudden statement from the genderless voice, even more, when pulsing lines appeared all around him in the previously dark space. Countless fiery, red eyes slowly opened to stare right at him. The system was showing him far too much information. There were too many basic statuses to ount for, and it was all around him. He was surrounded by hundreds of Stone Puppets, though these were glowing red instead of green. It was precisely what he feared. The only boon at the moment was they didnt seem to be in a rush to attack him. They will not move until Imand them. He reluctantly took his eyes off the automatons to search for who was speaking. Who are you? That is not your concern, disciple. Why have you entered this ce? Are you the ancestor that built all of this? William stalled by asking a question of his own. He didnt know how to answer the question directed at him. The red veins on the Stone Puppets pulsed in unison. I will give you one more chance, disciple. Why have you entered this ce? Whoever was speaking to him, he hoped that they had zero contact with the sect. I and another disciple were sent here to remove the corruption. Another, you say? Expand on this corruption. William had hoped it would mention something about Kae, but he must not havee through here. I wasnt told much other than something in the shape of a woman with strange features. She is a minor danger to the sect and must be removed. It was an amalgamation of the truth and lies, but hopefully believable enough for whoever this voice was to ept his presence here. Foolish. Or the voice would call him out immediately. Do you expect to kill the witch as you are? I was told she is only a major realm above me. If so, I believe I can. So the sect sent two geniuses here. There was a long pause before the voice continued. Very well, you are allowed to pass. Wait! William said before he was transported away. What did you mean by two geniuses? Did you see my friend? The degenerate that sullies his human lineage by turning into a beast? The voice sounded bitter. Er, yes? This was the second time someone mentioned the distaste of being anything but a pure human. Elder Yu mentioned it when speaking of his choices in heaven-tier martial arts, though the voice was far more offended. The destruction you walk on was caused by that disciple. I have allowed him to pass. William blinked owlishly as he received the answer to what had destroyed the newer Stone Puppets. It made sense why his spirit beast egg wasnt interested in the bodies. Berserker Kae must have gone on a rampage worse than what he did against the beast waves. Perhaps the lone Stone Puppet who wandered into the main hall was one of the few who escaped the carnage. This prison was designed so that only the keepers could ess the witch. Even I do not know the easiest path to her. I wish you well, disciple. That was the second time Sophia was called a witch. It didnt take much brain power to realize that whoever designed this ce was not a fan of her. It made William wonder about the current Jade Healing Sects opinion of Empress Sophia. He didnt expect anything contentious due to her being ancient history, even to cultivators, but he suspected there was a lot of hatred in the early days of the sect. The glowing red veins and fiery eyes of the Stone Puppets dimmed. The entire chamber rumbled as the massive wall split open. Enter. The voice spoke before the chamber fell into silence. William saw the lighting from the other side. At the very least, he was happy that he would no longer be surrounded by darkness. He looked around hesitantly before entering the newly opened area. B2 - Chapter 86 B2 - Chapter 86 William winced as he shielded his eyes from the bright light. He couldnt see the light''s source, but it felt as if stage lights were shining directly at him. This was the opposite extreme of darkness, which might be even worse. It felt like something was scanning the surface of his body repeatedly. Thankfully, it didntst too long. The extreme light and the invasive scan disappeared the moment he passed the massive entrance. He turned to see the wall close with a rumble and shook his head. There were too many things here that didnt followmon sense. A fake Lord Paddlington who acted like a steward and the projection of the corrupted avatar greeting him before trying to lure him somewhere. However, with that disembodied voice in control of the passage, William didn''t know how they expected to seed. Kae had arrived early enough to demolish hundreds of Stone Puppets before advancing. It hinted at the gate dying his arrival, even though William entered at the same time as Kae. He looked down at the spirit beast egg and frowned. Did you cause a problem with the gate? If the egg could blink innocently, it definitely would have. YOU! YOURE BACK! DID YOU BRING MORE WITH YOU? William jumped and snapped his head up to see Berserker Kae charging straight at him. He instinctively sent the egg to the spatial stone, which he regretted immediately, but had no time to focus on. I RAN OUT OF THE ROCK MEN! Wait! Kae, you already killed all of them! William sidestepped, or rather, ran to the left to avoid his grasp. AGAIN? DAMN IT! Yes, William nodded rapidly, eying him warily. How long have you been here. He realized he hadnt had the chance to take in here before he was osted by Berserker Kae. TOO LONG! Berserker Kae roared. NOTHING TO KILL! ONLY STUPID MAN ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS! That really told William nothing. Too long for Berserker Kae might be a few minutes of boredom. It was his fault for asking such a vague question. GRAAH! I DONT WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE! Williams hair fluttered at the force of Berserker Kaes self-punch. He had seen this before, but still, he winced in second-hand pain at the sickening crunch of bone as Kaes fist met his own jaw. Kae was unconscious immediately, copsing to the ground with a hard impact. Like he saw before, Kae transformed back topletely human with the grotesque sight and sound of shifting bones and shedding fur, leaving behind a bloodied and battered human Kae. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been uwfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. His condition was worse than before. Far worse. William knew there had to be consequences for using the transformation elixir twice in a short period, but not to this extent. It looked like Kae would die if he was poked too hard. William rushed to his side and pulled a Vitality Restoration Pill out of his ring, ready to shove it down Kaes throat if he had to. He was losing a massive amount of blood every second. Kae groaned weakly as his eyes opened with a struggle. W-Wei. Youre here. Take this, William pushed the pill to Kaes mouth. Youre bleeding out quickly. Kae took the pill without protest, knowing how dire his situation was. William backed away to let him absorb it without being a distraction. He had seen Princess Jin take the pill in the Shard, and he knew it was a process for other cultivators, unlike him, where all he needed to do was pill pop. He nodded in satisfaction when Kaes wounds started to slow their bleeding and heal gradually. With him no longer in danger of dying, William took the opportunity to study the new area. It was a disaster. There was a telltale sign of structures belonging to the Jade Healing Sect on the medium-sized ground, but all that was left of them were pieces of rubble that were scattered about. It wasnt from decay like in the previous area, but due to a very recent event. William nced at Kae to see him pulling out vials from his bracelet. It seemed like Berserker Kae had gotten bored of being unable to kill anything and decided to demolish everything. He turned back to the destroyed grounds and noticed things that might have been automatons, but it was impossible to be sure. It looked like a savage beast repeatedly pounded them into something barely indistinguishable from the rubble around them which wasnt far from the truth. The few trees that had likely been nted for aesthetics had been uprooted, their roots the only thing intact after the fury they had to withstand. Even the soil bore deep, erratic gashes as if Berserker Kae couldnt handle knowing nothing was left to destroy. William shuddered in fear, imagining what that scene must have been like. At the same time, a significant part of him hoped that the massive difference in personality and temperament between Berserker Kae and human Kae meant that memories didnt merge smoothly. He had stored his spirit beast egg in a panic, which had to stay secret. Done, Kae announced with a hoarse voice as he moved to stand next to William. I have no idea how you got here, but thank you. I would have died without the pill. I would ask why you used the elixir so early, but I saw one of the automatons. There wasnt any time to think. I was dropped in the middle of a group of those stone monsters, Kae said grimly. Yes, I saw them all destroyed. I remember some of that, Kaes grimace grew more severe as he flexed his fingers from phantom pain. William fist-pumped mentally at being given direct confirmation that Kae had spotty memory while transformed. Then, he immediately felt guilty about being happy about it. Right, William cleared his throat. What was all of this before it was destroyed? Kae looked around nkly before shrugging. Couldnt tell you even if I tried. I was trying to conserve as much energy as possible, so I relinquished all control over my body to the beast. Thats an actual beast?! William asked with rm. Well, yes, Kae looked at him strangely. How else do you think I can change into it. He thought back to the voices disgust at Kaes transformation. It should have been obvious. Lets get to figuring out how to get out of here, William said, pushing Kaes nonhumanness aside. It wasnt a priority. Hopefully, you didnt destroy the automatons that would have made it possible. Oh, there were some here, too? Kae looked around in surprise. I didnt even realize till now. William chuckled as they walked to what had previously been thergest structure. Now, it was just thergest pile of rubble. B2 - Chapter 87 B2 - Chapter 87 Your other self told me he was bored, Williammented as they shifted through the rubble. Not sure how if this was what he was doing. Kae grunted in agreement, feeling the same as him. They continued for a few more minutes when William checked his status screen and saw what he was waiting for. Spiritual Energy: 1130/1130 (20% per Hour) Im going to step away for a minute and heal myself, he was already walking out of the rubble. Kae nced at him but didntment other than to give a slight nod. William found a spot free of debris and sat down cross-legged. He closed his eyes and went to work. The routine was standard at this point. Think of something that brought up rage inside him and harness it. This time, it was Lan Yang. His poor excuse of what he called help. The sharp disinterest in being a mentor after the auction was finished. William noticed all of that but chose to put it aside. He wasnt faultless, after all. The issue was that he was facing a very real problem, which Lan Yangs disinterest caused. He was once again without a ranged attack. Harnessing Lightning Qi might not have been the miracle fix, but it would have brought him a step closer. The sheer anger this brought up in William instantly allowed him to convert the most significant amount of Qi into Healing Qi yet. He quickly concentrated it on his foot, healing the deep cut before running it along his back to rid himself of the heavy bruising. He opened his eyes with a still surprised look on his face. He had a feeling that he would have been able to heal a broken bone that the side quest required forpletion. [+90 HP] [-180 Spiritual Energy] William couldnt deny that he had to stop himself from breaking his arm to do precisely that. Ten thousand experience points were just waiting to be imed with sess. But he knew it was too costly for his Spiritual Energy at the moment. It would be around four hundred to heal his arm, and if he was wrong about the assumed sess, it meant ingesting a pill. He pushed himself off the ground and returned to the rubble with Kae, who had stopped looking for clues. What happened? William looked around to see if something of significance was uncovered. Since when were you a healer? Huh? He turned to see Kae looking angry. I never was. I saw you use Healing Qi, Wei Liang, Kae used. For minor injuries, William was more confused than ever. I have nearly zero hope for anything worse. Do you not remember Elder Zhou and I speaking of it? You were right next to me. I was? Kae frowned in thought before eventually shaking his head. It must be the transformation blurring my memory. Forgive me for the false usation. No offense taken, William waved him off, wondering if that transformation was worth losing random memories. It was definitely beneficial for them right now, but that side effect made it too risky. What if it caused something essential to be forgotten? This content has been uwfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Maybe we should split up and take different areas, he nced at the broken automatons. Maybe they were ced there for a reason or Berserker Kae could have tossed them all to the same spot. Oh, no need. I already found something. What?! William snapped his head to Kae, only to see him holding a piece of rubble. Very funny. Not the best time for a joke, Kae. Look, Kae rolled his eyes and injected a burst of Qi into the rubble. Nothing happened. He tilted his head in confusion and tried again but got the same result. Strange. What are you doing? William didnt think Kae, of all people, would take a joke this far. This was the boy who took everything literally. You try it, Kae handed the suspicious rock to him. At this point, William believed this was anything but rubble. He injected his Qi into it. Gah! I still exist?! Every single cultivation novel shed through Williams mind. The stone spirits skin was as pure as the first snowfall on the highest peaks, its eyes shimmered like pools of the purest water and the aura to He shook his head rapidly, trying to dislodge the flowery words from his brain. Whats wrong with you? William stared at the stone spirit, whatever it was, that asked him the question. Out of everything it could have been, it chose the form of a cherubic baby that could fit on his palm. Are you mute? Great. First, I had a monster tearing up my home, and now I get this. What did I do to deserve this? And the cherubic baby had the voice of a fully grown, grizzled veteran of many wars, the deep voice of a man. William exchanged a nce with Kae before speaking to the grown-man-voice baby. What are you? Nothing now, the baby spirit threw its hands up. Look at what the monster did! Were disciples of the Jade Healing Sect, William interjected. We need to get to the avatar the witch. Do you know where to go from here? The baby spirit looked at him for a long second before doing the same to Kae. You two want Williams lips twitched in amusement when it burst out inughter and rolled around on the rock. He knew it wasughing at them, but the sound of a rough mansughing from a tiny baby rolling around and holding its stomach made it difficult to be angry. This is not aughing matter, Kae spoke over the uninterruptedughter. You are obligated to tell us, spirit. The baby wiped the tears from its eyes as it finally calmed down. My name isnt spirit, boy, its Shitou. And youre right about me being obliged, but Id be happy to tell you even if I wasnt. Whys that? William asked with a raised brow. Do you know how boring it is to have nothing but puppets aspanions? Even thats gone now. With how slow the Greeter is, I wont have recement puppets for another century! The voice that opened the wall for me, is that the Greeter? William couldnt help his curiosity. It wasnt necessary information, but it was better than calling it voice the entire time. Who else is in here? Shitou looked at him like he should have known. You still havent told us how to get to the avatar, Kae interrupted. Yes, yes, Shitou noted rapidly. Which one of you should I go with? William blinked. What? Do either of you have the key? Shitou asked pointedly. He shared a puzzled look with Kae before bringing out his Inner Court pass. This? Whats that? Shitou leaned closer to the jade pass and sniffed. Terrible jade. How is this a key? Never mind, William put the pass away. He knew it was highly unlikely that was what Shitou was talking about. We dont have a key. Whats next? You leave it up to fate, Shitou said, the dreaded word William hated. I open the door, and you enter. There is one path that will take you straight to the witch, who will kill you. And thousands of others that will try to kill you before you get to the witch! William took a second to absorb that before asking something still unexined. Why do you ask who to go with? We dont intend on going separately. Something about security, Shitou shrugged its tiny shoulders. Youll be separated no matter what. Kae looked worried, and he knew why. Can you give us pills if needed? William asked directly. As if I would reduce myself to be an errand boy to either of you. You can forget Shitou yelped when a pill was shoved into his body. What was that?! William ignored Shitou and spoke to Kae. It needs to go with you. It?! Im a he, boy! He needs to go with you, William corrected with a roll of his eyes. When Kae looked reluctant, he added, You know why. As you say, Kae agreed reluctantly before saying, Its shameful for a junior to give up an advantage for me. Lets focus on staying alive, William turned his attention back to a mutinous Shitou. If you want to relieve your boredom, you must go with Kae. Deal? Shitou glowered at him, making William want to pat his head and apologize until he spoke. Fine. You have a deal. That deep voice was a good reminder that Shitou wasnt some innocent baby spirit. B2 - Chapter 88 B2 - Chapter 88 He looked away to check his stats, mainly his Spiritual Energy. Spiritual Energy: 1037/1130 (20% per Hour) Only a little over twenty minutes to recover all of it. Lets set off in about half an hour, William announced. Unless you know how to make the Greeter work faster, nobody is going anywhere for hours, let alone half, Shitou corrected. Why would this Greeter be needed? Kae asked the question on Williams mind. Another security thing. How should He tuned out Shitou and started to make ns immediately. Kae might be unhappy about the dy, but this was perfect for him. The Elemental Gauntlet cost him six hundred Spiritual Energy for each use. Recovering that spent energy would take over two hours, so this was a perfect time to test it out. Shitou, is this ce safe? William interrupted the baby spirits ranting. It used to be. Then that monster came here and destroyed everything. Im sure that wont happen again, he replied with an awkward chuckle before handing the rock to Kae. Im going to test my spirit artifact while we wait. Let me know if you need me. Kae nced at the gold, glove-like gauntlet on his right hand and nodded. Go ahead. Hey! Did I say you could hand me off like somemon object? Dont let my appearance William tuned out Shitou again and retreated to a distance. He didnt know how the gauntlet activated, but its cost implied that it might be violent. He flexed his right hand and sent most of his Qi to the Elemental Gauntlet, fully expecting it to drain most of it. That didnt happen. Instead of a system alert letting him know that six hundred Spiritual Energy was deducted, his right hand lit up with a fierce glow of concentrated Qi. William stared at his hand before releasing the Qi, cutting off the glow on his hand. He hadnt used a spirit artifact since the Impact Boots in the Shard, which had been destroyed. Maybe he was just out of practice. He tried again, this time with more care. He closed his eyes and gathered his Qi before guiding it to his right hand. He could feel the Qi eager to spread out, so he waited a few seconds for it to settle and then pushed. William directed his Qi to enter the Elemental Gauntlet as he observed the process carefully. Just like before, it wasnt sessful. The gauntlet seemed to actually reject his Qi. He sensed it fail to enter the spirit artifact before returning to his body. He opened his eyes and frowned in thought. He remembered the Impact Boot eager to absorb the Qi it was provided, so he wasnt sure why the gauntlet was different. It wasnt an issue with a deficiency of Spiritual Energy since he had more than enough avable, and the system didnt warn him about not meeting the requirements to activate it. William shifted through his memories to rey what Mei Lingxi said about the Elemental Gauntlet when she introduced it to him. There must be something obvious he was missing. For those that can bear the cost, it is a lethal tool that could act as the decider in battle. It amplifies any element of the wearer and directs it into the target. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. He shook his head to rid himself of the drowsiness. Doing that was mentally and physically taxing, to the point where it was simr to an hour of intense fighting. Still, it was worth it. William hadpletely forgotten thetter sentence. The gauntlet doesnt convert Qi into elemental Qi as he had assumed. It only amplified it. That made it far less desirable in his eyes. He had been walking around with a glorified glove the entire time, thinking it could possibly save him if he had backed himself into a corner. He shuddered at the likely fatal surprise that he would have before an embarrassing death. William sighed as he sat cross-legged on the ground. It looked like he would be spending the few hours of dy trying to convert his Qi into Lightning Qi. He remember a saying that was popr on Earth. Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. William decided not to be insane and to try something different. Instead of jumping right into attempting to convert his Qi, he would do something he scoffed at before. Meditate on lightning, specifically, how Lan Yangs Lightning Qi felt when it was rampaging in his body. He had to shove aside his skepticism of this working, which took more than a few minutes, before he immersed himself in his memories. Unpredictable. Destructive. Powerful. Those words stood out as he let the memory of the rampaging Lightning Qi permeate his consciousness. It shifted from calm to destructive in an instant, attempting to tear at anything in its path. William saw some information he missed. Yes, Lightning Qi required him topress his Qi to ridiculous levels, but it also needed organized chaos. It was hard to exin, even to himself, but William had an idea of what to change. Admittedly, it was a minor changepared to what he had been trying before, but enough where it should have a hopefully satisfactory result. He slumped in exhaustion when he pulled himself out of the meditative state. He didnt have quantified stamina, but he knew he was closer to empty than full. William took a few seconds to gather himself before getting back to work. This time, he turned his senses inward instead of meditating. He repeated the steps he had had sess withst time, gathering all his Qi andpressing until it changed to a state that vaguely reminded him of sma. He then carefully withdrew the firmmand he had over it that kept itpressed. William started at the center, carefully letting go of his control while keeping a firm barrier that slowly expanded. Outside the barrier, hismand kept his Qi in order. Inside, it was free to act as it wished. At first, it didnt seem like it did much of anything. But the pace at which he was expanding the barrier was excruciatingly slow. When the barrier surrounded around one percent of his Qi, it happened faster than he could react. Lightning Qi burst into life, fighting to destroy the barrier and escape. Someone, William was able to keep hisposure and continue methodically expanding the barrier. Sweat dripped down his face as the barrier kept getting bigger and bigger, reaching the point where nearly fifty percent of his Qi had been transformed into Lightning Qi. He couldn''t maintain the barrier any longer. The Lightning Qi shattered the barrier and seeped into his body, making him twitch erratically at the repeated shocks he could feel. He was terrified that his health was taking a beating but was powerless to do anything about it. It took nearly a minute for it to end before Williams body went back to normal. He gave his QI a quick check, noticing a qualitative chance that suggested that converting it to Lighting Qi would now only take a simplemand before opening his eyes. [Side Quest Completed | ess Lightning Qi] [+10000 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Convert 5% of your Qi into Lightning Qi] [+2500 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Convert 10% of your Qi into Lightning Qi] [+5000 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Convert 25% of your Qi into Lightning Qi] [+10000 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Convert 50% of your Qi into Lightning Qi] [+20000 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x4 [Modified | Martial Skill Compatibility] [Heavenly Thunder Infusion | 0% > 27%] [Trait Added | Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect (+20 Agility)] William smiled happily as he read the alerts. It had been a while since he had received a hidden bonus frompleting a quest. On top of that, he had his very first positive trait and increasedpatibility with the human-tier martial skill of [Heavenly Thunder Scripture]. With Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi being the requirement for [Heavenly Thunder Infusion], the increasedpatibility made it clear how to get the full hundred percent. It would reach fifty percent when he had the ability to change all of his Qi into Lightning Qi. He would need to do the same with Thunder Qi to get that hundred percent. Wei Liang, Shitou says hes ready, Kae called out. William looked away from the system screen and stood up. He felt much more confident, even though he hadnt had a chance to test the Elemental Gauntlet. B2 - Chapter 89 B2 - Chapter 89 Already? William asked with a braised brow. Its barely been an hour. Youre sweating, Shitou scrunched his tiny nose. He looked down and saw his drenched robes. Indeed, he was. But he was no longer exhausted. The Lightning Qi must have restored his Stamina. Its been hours, Wie Liang, Kae corrected. Congrattions on your sess with Lightning Qi. You show why the sect allowed you into the Inner Court so early. Thanks, William slowly processed what he was told. I must have been too focused on meditating to keep track of time. Understandable. In fact, its admirable. Only the true This is boring, Shitou interrupted Kae. Are you two ready to go? Kae? William left it to him. Im ready, Kae nodded firmly. Here, William pulled out five Vitality Restoration Pills and handed it to him. This should be more than enough even for the worst emergency. Shitou snapped its fingers as Kae stored the pills in his bracelet. A doorportal about ten feet tall and six wide appeared right next to them. Its center was a white space. You go first, Shitou looked at William. I wont be able to keep it open if I enter. Ill see you at the finish, Kae. William didnt dally and walked through the door before he could overthink. He stepped onto a massive, circr metal tform with wallspletely surrounding it, and he had no ce to go. He looked up and saw a high ceiling enclosing him in the space. William quickly concluded that this was not the direct path to the corrupted avatar. He walked around the tform, trying to see if he could find anything that would clue him into what he had to do. The tform itself didnt have anything that stood out, but there were four spots where it touched the wall that let him make a guess. This was an elevator or something simr. William looked up again, nervous about what would happen if the tform rose too high. Would he be able to break it and escape? William looked down and clenched his fist. He could give it a try right now to get a feel of the toughness. He checked his status to double-check what he had gained from his recent level-ups. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 123 Experience: 215/15375 Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 2100/2100 Spiritual Energy: 1130/1130 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 226 Strength: 240 Stamina: 110 Agility: 240 (260) Luck: 150 Points: 62 Traits (1): 1. Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive Effect (+20 Agility) His Spiritual Energy was fully recovered, so that wasnt an issue. And he had sixty-two attribute points in reserve. William had been nning on saving that for Stamina, but circumstances often change ns. He would dump it in Strength if needed. His fist started to glow with Qi. He wouldnt go anything extreme for his first attempt. Just a standard Qi-infused punch. William grunted as he mmed his fist down on the metal tform, doing absolutely zero damage, but causing a loud ng that nearly deafened him. Fuck! William yelled as he covered his ears to try and block out some of the sound. It took a few seconds for the echo to die down. Wee to the Wheel of Death! He looked around in a panic for who had spoken. The rules are simple! Kill them before they kill you! For added fun, a surprise will be added on the fifth round! And remember, you may forfeit at any time by calling out your apanying Elders name and sacrificing a piece of your flesh! The voice stopped speaking, and the tform groaned loudly before descending several feet. It stopped when a massive hole was revealed in the wall, and William immediately moved to the opposite side of the tform. Whatever he had to kill would being out of there. He had no idea what all of this was. Or why it existed in the first ce. The Jade Healing Sect was focused on alchemy and healing. It was very recently that they started to put significant resources into the Sentinels. This entire dimension suggested otherwise. The voice that announced the Wheel of Death clearly said apanying Elder. It implied that in the long past, perhaps long enough to be forgotten, the Jade Healing Sect was a brutal,bat-focused sect. William only had one hope. Whatever he would face was in the same major realm as him. If so, this was a perfect arena for William. The tform wasrge but notrge enough where his weakness would be put on disy. Even before the passive effect [Heavenly Thunder Infusion] provided for his Agility, he could have covered any part of the tform in less than a blink of an eye. Williams ears picked up a low growl. Multiple low growls. He then saw a multitude of blue eyes staring at him from the hole. He stiffened in shock at what he saw leave the hole before a level of rage he never experienced clouded his mind. [Species: Sky Hare Emperor | Level: 121] This fucking thing. William thought he was past killing rabbits, but no, there were plenty that were in the Foundation Establishment Realm before him. They looked like the same species, just evolved. Their pink noses twitched as they sniffed curiously at him, almost looking like an adorable pet, but he knew better. These cannibalistic abominations would feel on their brethren''s corpses and grow stronger. The only reason they hadnt already turned on each other was the fact they were all at level one hundred and twenty-one. William learned from his mistake in the Garden. He was too slow to kill the Sky Hares at that time due to his inexperience. It allowed them to go on a feeding frenzy until one had eaten all the corpses and became a monstrous flying rabbit. Another thing he had to watch for. It didnt look like any of the Sky Hare Emperors could fly, but appearances could be deceiving. One thing was sure. William would enjoy killing these things. Little Egg, he said with a manic smile. Are you ready to feed? He felt the spirit beast egg vibrating in anticipation in the spatial stone. There were well over ten rabbits. Hopefully, this would be the push needed for the egg to cross level ny-nine. The rabbits twitched when Williams fists started to glow. He knew it wasnt from fear, but excitement. The crazy things wanted him to kill their brethren so they could feat. Too bad he wouldnt allow that to happen. William disappeared from his spot. He was already above a clueless Sky Hare Emperor, fist ready to split its skull open. B2 - Chapter 90 B2 - Chapter 90 The massive, tiger-sized rabbit didnt know how it died. A sickening squelch echoed in the enclosed tform as Williams fist crushed the Sky Hare Emperors skull. [+4538 XP] He noticed the eyes of the other rabbits starting to turn from blue to blood red. They were eager to start their feasting. Before they had the chance to even twitch toward the dead body, William pulled his kill into the spatial stone and threw the corpse at the spirit beast egg. Just in time, too, when a Sky Hare Emperor swiped at where the corpse used to be. He felt anothering at him from behind and retreated to the other side of the tform in rm. The rabbits had gone through a drastic change that made them nearly unrecognizable. He had already noticed the color change of their eyes. Everything else hit him with shock. The blood spatter on his body caused the change, with every single Sky Hare Emperor staring right at him with ravenous eyes. William had seen a simr change in the Garden with the weaker Sky Hares, but this was to a greater extent. The Sky Hare Emperors had previously looked like normal rabbitswith white fluffy fur, short stubby paws, and an overall harmless lookexcept super-sized. The change put them on the other extreme. Their soft, fluffy coats bristled and darkened, casting a shadow over their previously gentle appearance. Sharp, elongated ws emerged from their dainty paws. They glinted with every move, prepared to slice through flesh with little effort. Even their previously adorable whiskers stiffened, pointing aggressively forward as their once rounded and benign faces elongated into snarling muzzles. The bared, razor-sharp teethpleted the change to show the true nature of the Sky Hare Emperors. They were dangerous, suicidal monsters. Williams eyes scanned the murderous rabbits to get an exact count for the first time. Nine of them. Not an insurmountable number, but it would be a difficult fight since they were no longer passive like at the start. Before they could move, he used [Observe] to determine the difference between their attributes and his. He fully expected The Sky Hare Emperors'' Agility to be higher than his, but still hold an advantage with the other attributes. [Observe not avable on automatons] William''s mind nked, and he wasnt able to process the system message in time. One of the Sky Hare Emperors jumped at him with a screeching snarl. The Elemental Gauntlet stretched tightly around his fist as he shot forward to meet it mid-jump, eyes intently tracking the speed of the attacking Sky Hare Emperors limbs. It was well within his capabilities. Williams eyes widened when the ws on the rabbits paws extended drastically. He barely shifted his body to avoid getting skewered. Having diminished control since he was in the air did not help. Thankfully, it wouldnt be needed. That was the only thing the Sky Hare Emperor could do before he reached its body. William didnt bat an eye when his palm caused the rabbit to explode in a shower of blood and guts. He quickly pulled most of the remains into the spatial stone beforending with the bottom part of the Sky Hare Emperor still in his hands. [+4538 XP] This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The others had made their move, but it wasnt to lunge at him. They were too busy fighting with each other for the chance to get a taste of their killed brethren to be in any danger. He kept an eye on them as he retreated back to the other side of the tform. He nced at the bloody, torn-off part of the rabbit he just killed and wondered how this was considered an automaton. It was all flesh and blood. And they had the same behaviors as a regr Sky Hare, with a rabid desire to consume corpses. William shoved that thought away when he noticed the Sky Hare Emperors realized they were making no progress getting to the flesh in his hands by fighting each other. He waited until a few of them separated from the group to make a few hops toward him. That was enough for him to make a move. William flung the flesh in his hand as hard as he could to the side. Before it could hit the wall and spatter into a bloody mess, the Sky Hare Emperors jumped after it, as he expected. He followed suit. William had moved the instant there were no eyes on him. Every single Sky Hare Emperor had their entire focus on the ripped flesh flying in the air. Some were just a bit separated from the pact. Those were the ones he targeted. William had the advantage of being the first mover, or he would have never caught the trailing Sky Hare Emperors by surprise. They were in the motion of the start of a jump when his palms pierced their sides, reaching a thick bone in each one. He ignored their pained screeches, more worried about the fact his palms hadnt bisected their bodies and killed them instantly. The transformation was more than just for looks. It seemed to boost their physical makeup. William clenched his hands around the bonesthey were ridgedand released a loud grunt through clenched teeth as he yanked with all his strength. His only goal was to cause as much damage as possible on the way out to make it easier to kill them. Both Sky Hare Emperors let out ear-shattering squeals before suddenly falling silent. To Williams surprise, he saw the system sh blue twice. It indicated that the beastsautomatonswere dead. [+4538 XP] x2 [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] He shoved the alerts aside. The two whole, bleeding corpses were much more attractive targets for the remaining Sky Hare Emperorsat least for the five who lost the race to the flesh he threw to distract them. A lone Sky Hare Emperor was at the back, ripping into its prize as it eyed him greedily for the possibility of more. William pulled one corpse into the spatial stone to feed the egg while leaving one out to use as another distraction. He hadnt forgotten that the voice had said there would be a surprise after five rounds. The Sky Hare Emperors were the first round. He assumed that each subsequent round would involve more formidable beastsautomatonswhatever they were. Williams goal was to use as little of his Spiritual Energy as possible with the Sky Hare Emperors and reserve it for where it was truly needed. His eyes widened in surprise when they lunged him without warning, at a speed that made it dangerous to try and avoid while lugging around the heavy corpse. He made the quick decision to leave it behind. He doubted anything he would face in the following rounds would be single-minded enough to ignore him in favor of something like eating. William jumped high in the air, still in the same spot, above the corpse. He made the correct assumption that none of the Sky Hare Emperors would bother with him and instead fight over the corpse. He watched them with ill intent as he reached the peak of his jump. Two of the Sky Hare Emperors had their teeth sunk into the corpse, and three of them were struggling to do the same. William noticed that those three were a little hobbled with their movements. They were injured significantly morepared to the others. His legs lit up from his Qi, reinforcing them for theing impact. He would have immediately gained their attention if this was any other spirit beastautomaton. Once again, he thanked the Sky Hare Emperors for being stupidly single-minded, even in the face of certain death. William let himself rocket down to the tform like a meteor, pulverizing a Sky Hare Emperor as he mmed into its back and split it messily in half. [+3025 XP] He was only able to pull one half of the corpse into the spatial stone, the other flying out of reach. The remaining two Sky Hare Emperors immediately rushed after it, giving up on the whole corpse being fought over by their stronger brethren. William knew he couldnt stop both from escaping his reach, but one was doable. His blood-covered hands shot forward to grab the hind leg of one of the Sky Hare Emperors, heaving it back to him before swinging it over his head and mming its body onto the tform. Its head smacked off the metaldazing it slightlyenough for William to jump onto his body and piece his palms through it, leaving fatal wounds before quickly reaching its neck and snapping the head with a vicious twist. [+3025 XP] William pulled the corpse into the spatial stone instantly before lunging at the nearest Sky Hare Emperor to continue the massacre. B2 - Chapter 91 B2 - Chapter 91 He had an unintended manic grin as he rushed to his next target, face covered by the blood of his past kills. Something about these damned rabbits brought out the worst in him. William wasntining. Not when he was on an experience-gaining spree without any damage himself. He crashed feet first on one of the Sky Hare Emperors fighting for the whole corpse. There was a brief moment of surprise when he didnt bisect it like he did to its brethren. Still, he quickly suppressed it to follow his initial attack with his palm, tearing through the damaged flesh to extinguish its life. [+6200 XP] William nced at the system alert in surprise. That was far more experience than he had expected. The remaining Sky Hare Emperor snarled at him, drawing his attention. It was gorging down whatever remained of the corpsewhite fur stained red with bloodwhile ring at him murderously. His eyes went to its basic status. [Species: Sky Hare Emperor | Level: 126] William blinked, not expecting that it would have raised its level by five from just partially consuming the corpse. Thest one he killed must have done something simr. His shock disappeared and turned into worry when the level pipped up. [Species: Sky Hare Emperor | Level: 127] It was still within a manageable range to kill without the use of any martial skills or Spiritual Energy depleting moves. Still, William was more concerned about the other two, who had been left to their own devices. Those two had the time to eat without interruption, meaning their advancement would also be more significant. William pushed off the tform and appeared in front of the rabbit. It refused to stop eating even though he was barely a foot away, but unlike the others, which had prioritized only the act of consuming a corpse and nothing else, this one made an attempt at warding him off. The Sky Hare Emperors ws shed before rapidly extending into his space. He shifted his body to avoid getting skewered but hadn''t anticipated an attack. It cost him. [-100 HP] William grimaced in anger when the razor-sharp ws sliced through his skin, leaving deep gouges at the sides of his stomach. He used that range and snarled like a beast as he pounded his fist into the Sky Hare Emperors skull. He was hyperaware of its ws, jumped out of its reach by getting directly on top of the rabbit and repeatedly tried to cave its skull with his fists. If it werent for its refusal to stop eating, he would have had a much harder time finishing it off. William was rmed at the number of times the Sky Hare Emperor could absorb a full-strength fist directly on its skull without dying. The majority of the previous ones he killed were taken care of with one strike, but this one required well over five. He let out a harsh grunt as he brought down his fist with everything he had, finally shattering the skull. The body copsed below him, but as always, he was quick in pulling the corpse into his spatial stone. Stolen from its rightful ce, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. [+9525 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] William was breathing heavily as he felt the fatigue setting in, finally approaching the limits of his Stamina. However, he had no time to rest. He pulled the mostly eaten corpse that the recently killed Sky Hare Emperor was consuming into his spatial stone as he turned his attention to the remaining rabbits. William blinked and corrected himselfthe one remaining Sky Hare Emperor. A limb was hanging from its mouth, which quickly disappeared into its stomach. It was the other rabbit that should still be alive. The lone Sky Hare Emperor had likely eaten the corpse and killed its brethren with its increased level and gobbled that up, too. That exnation certainly exined its level. [Species: Sky Hare Emperor | Level: 149] William returned the stare of the Sky Hare Emperor warily. It was staring at the blood caking his body with ravenous hunger, briefly making him wonder if getting rid of it would make it lose interest in him. Of course, that was only a stray thought. He remembered how an evolved version of a base Sky Hare chased after him in the Garden even though he had been mostly blood-free. His Qi was ready to activate [Force Multiplier]. It would be done as ast resort, but his diminished stamina and the sudden level difference might require it. William tensed and jumped back the moment he noticed the Sky Hare Emperor move its paw. Hended on the vertical wall surrounding the tform for a moment, catching the glint of sharp ws before he pushed off with his legs before gravity could make him fall. He rocketed to the opposite end of the tform, reaching even higher on the wall as the Sky Hare Emperors w mmed into the spot he was at. A torturous, metal-on-metal sound echoed from the contact, making him wince as he jumped off the wall again to keep himself in the air. William wanted to put space between him and the Sky Hare Emperor to figure out how it could attack him from a distance while giving himself enough time to react. With the tform a fixed size, the only way to do that was to go up. He frowned when he jumped to the other side again, already halfway to the ceiling. The stupid thing below had stopped bothering to attack him in favor of catching the blood dripping down his body. William pushed off the wall to a higher spot on the opposite side. The ceiling was getting closer and closer. His eyes tracked the Sky Hare Emperor while ncing at different ces on the wall. If it was content to ignore him for the droplets of blood, he could use that to his advantage. He jumped, making sure his path went directly over the Sky Hare Emperor as he descended,nding on a spot lower on the opposite wall. He repeated that multiple times, keeping the rabbit distracted by the blood dripping off his body as he jumped off the walls, descending just a bit every time. William could feel his Stamina depleting with every jump, but he was still filled with confidence. He was reserving most of his energy to use his maximum speed for thest few jumps. He wanted to negate the level difference with the force that would be provided from sheer speed. His eyes grew more focused with every jump as he approached the Sky Hare Emperor. It still ignored him in favor of the blood droplets. William was only twenty or so feet above the rabbit when he decided to strike. His legs shed a bright blue with Qi as he used [Earth-Shaking Stomp] in reverse. The world blurred around him as he shot toward the Sky Hare Emperor. His legs lost the glow of Qi in favor of his right palm. He had an image of piercing through the rabbit using his entire body like a spear, his hand leading the way. Williams eyes sharpened when he was inches away, the image about to be reality. He felt his palm sink into the soft fur and barely touch the flesh underneath when he saw a sudden change in the Sky Hare Emperors demeanor. The rabbit''s body shifted at an unreal speed. His hand was no longer in contact with it. He noticed it in the corner of his eyes, on its haunches beside him. It had a look in its eyes that terrified him. [-200 HP] [Trait Added | Blood Loss (-10 HP per minute)] GAH! William yelled in surprise and pain as hended on the tform. He nced down to see his left leg bleeding heavily, missing a chunk of flesh from his calf. He quickly put his attention back on the Sky Hare Emperor to confirm what he thought he had seen. It was staring at William with a yful look in its eyes. He didnt care about it having fun. He cared that it was a sign of intelligence. It meant the Sky Hare Emperor had been ying with him the entire time he had been jumping around like a monkey. B2 - Chapter 92 B2 - Chapter 92 William didnt want to use it, not this early, but he was left with no choice. The speed that the Sky Hare Emperor revealed that it was far beyond him without any boosts. The Elemental Gauntlet was too costly, and its effects were still unknown. It left him with [Force Multiplier], his often used trump card, almost to the point of losing the right to be called trump card. [-200 Spiritual Energy] The Sky Hare Emperor tilted its head when ethereal mes came to life around his body as if it was curious about what challenge he offered now. William hoped it stayed curious long enough to stay put and receive a quick death. A sharp metallic gong echoed when he pushed off the tform. He closed the short distance between him and the Sky Hare Emperor in a fraction of a second. It was still staring at the spot where he was standing when his palm was inches from its face. By some miracle, it was able to react in time to avoid instant pulverization. Instead of hopping to the sides or behind to avoid his palm, the Sky Hare Emperor went up. Williams ridiculously strong momentum carried him forward at a force that was too much to redirect. Still, his palm left a deep, nearly fatal gash along the underside of the Sky Hare Emperors body. If only it was a thousandths of a second slower in reacting to his strike, he was sure he would have sessfully taken its life. He stomped on the tform to slow his momentum, but because it was metal, it offered little help. He mmed into the wall at nearly full speed, his hands bracing for impact to prevent any injuries resulting from the collision. William pushed off and turned as quickly as possible, not wanting to leave himself to an attack from the back. After a quick scan, he was surprised to find the tform empty but immediately looked up. The Sky Hare Emperor was flying, using the small wings protruding from its back. It was already near the ceiling to get as far away from him as it could. He could see why. It was bleeding heavily from therge gash that spanned the entire length of its body. However, it wasnt as precarious of an injury as he assumed it would be. William could see the wound repairing itself before his eyes. He estimated that it would be healed in a few seconds. He wouldnt give it the time. William previously needed to use the walls to make a climb, but [Force Multiplier] had many uses, from brutal attacks, like ripping a spirit beast in half with his bare hands, to simple abilities, like jumping much higher. He bent his legs slightly, catching the worry in the Sky Hare Emperors eyes. With a smirk, he shot toward it like a rocket, covering the distance in less than a second. Very fast, but not fast enough to catch the rabbit. Williams expression didnt change when it barely moved out of the way to avoid death, leading him to head straight into the ceiling. He shifted his body tond on the ceiling feet first. The tremendous force with which he mmed into it kept him standing upside down as if he could defy the naturalws, but only for a moment. That was more than enough for William to track the Sky Hare Emperor. It hadnt got far enough to be in any real safety. He pushed off the ceiling with the same force as his jump. This time, gravity assisted him instead of fighting against him. The Sky Hare Emperor tried to get away, and when that obviously wouldn''t work, it tried to attack him, but none of its efforts were sessful. William casually batted away the sharp ws aimed at him. The thing that did so much damage against him was entirely ineffective. He mmed into the Sky Hare Emperor hands first, its body depressing inward at the point of contact, the healing gash reopening in a worse state. He plummeted to the tform with the Sky Hare Emperor trying to free itself under him. Of course, it could do nothing. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. William didnt try to soften his ownnding by letting go. He wanted to make sure the Sky Hare Emperor would die, leaving no chance for it to make aeback. A thunderous boom shook the tform, overshadowing the Sky Hare Emperor dying an explosive death from the impact. The bloody result doused Wim and everything around him, leaving only a few remaining intact body parts. [+29800 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x2 He grimaced before spitting out the small amount of blood that got into his mouth. He still had no idea how those things were automatons. They were all flesh and blood. The word automaton must be broad. William wiped his face, shook the blood off his hands, and looked around. It was a shame that the strongest Sky Hare Emperor turned into this. It was impossible to try and pull all of this into his spatial stone unless. He sent his Qi into the spatial stone to see if the egg was finished with the corpses he sent. It was, and it vibrated in excitement when it sensed his Qi. William chuckled and pulled it out of the stone. He didnt know when the tform would start moving again, so time was of the essence. You have a few seconds to clean up all of the mess around me, William said, holding the egg at level with his face. Start now. He was surprised when it swelled a bit before returning to its normal state. At the same time, the egg sent him a ping that felt like eptance. William ced it in thergest puddle of blood and stepped back. Enjoy. The appearance of the vortex was near instantaneous after he said the word, but the gathering of the sttered remains was slow due to how spread out they were. Still, at least it wasnt going to waste. [Trait Activated | Blood Loss] [-10 HP] William nced at the system alert in surprise. [Force Multiplier] had negated almost all the effects of his poor state, and he had forgotten a chunk of his calf was missing. He pulled up his status screen to see the total damage. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 127 Experience: 7692/15875 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) Health: 1790/2100 Spiritual Energy: 935/1130 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 226 Strength: 240 (960) Stamina: 110 (440) Agility: 240 (980) Luck: 150 Points: 102 Traits (2): 1. Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect (+20 Agility) 2. Blood Loss (-10 HP per minute) William intended to focus on his health, and he did nce at it initially, but his attention was quickly taken by his attributes. Specifically, his Strength, Stamina, and Agility. He was aware that [Force Multiplier] increased those attributes by four times, but he had never pulled up his status screen while it was active. Ironically, [Force Multiplier] deactivated as William was marveling at his own stats, removing the massive boosts to his attributes before his eyes. He frowned as he returned to considering how to recover his health. While anger might be a terrible way to activate Healing Qi, he had found a perfect way while fighting the Sky Hare Emperors. All he had to do was think of those damned rabbits, and it would skyrocket. In fact, he could feel it happening simply by thinking of the possibility. The question was whether it was sensible to spend six hundred and twenty Spiritual Energy or use the good old Vitality Restoration Pills. He hated the idea of ingesting more impurity, but it might be the best option. William stared at the egg vacuuming up the remains as he thought it over, half-hoping the tform would start to move again so the only choice would be to take the pill. [Trait Activated | Blood Loss] [-10 HP] He grimaced at seeing the alert. Every minute wasted would cost him more Spiritual Energy. William forgoed his usual habit of sitting down and simply thought about the Sky Hares: their falsely innocent looks, their ravenous cannibalistic appetite, his fear of them when they chased him in the Garden long ago, and the rage he felt when he saw hime out of the cave revealed by the tform. He started to sweat in fear when nearly all of his Qi was instantly converted to Healing Qi. The feeling of danger was as high as it could have been, like one wrong move would end his life before he knew it. William shoved the fear away the best he could to keep feeling the anger, running his Healing Qi to the injured areas of his body, starting with his calf. He needed to rid himself of the blood loss trait first. He was finished healing himself surprisingly fast. The egg was still trying to draw in the scattered remains. [Trait Removed | Blood Loss] [+320 HP] [-640 Spiritual Energy] William nced at his previously half-missing half and smiled. It looked as if it had never been harmed. So much for not being suitable for the healing arts. He imagined himself as the first cultivator who became immortal because he was simply too furious to die. He chuckled to himself and looked at his Spiritual Energy stat. Spiritual Energy: 299/1130 (20% per Hour) It was sufficient for a second use of [Force Multiplier] if necessary, but it was still ufortably low. He needed to fix that. B2 - Chapter 93 B2 - Chapter 93 Congrattions on facing your biggest fear and surviving! Williamfroze when the voice suddenly reappeared and registered what it said. He didnt fear the rabbits. He hated them. The most obvious evidence was the Healing Qi. Anger was their fuel, and it had never been so effective before. Unless William was angry that he feared the rabbits so much. He frowned in distaste at that possibility. The Wheel of Death will continue! As a reminder, your apanying Elder is just a shout away! William cursed and rushed to the egg, which was still trying to absorb the tiniest bit of blood like the greedy thing it was. He ignored its protests and sent it into the spatial stone just as the tform started to descend. He scanned his status screen and made a quick decision. He was saving his points to use on Stamina if necessary, but having enough Spiritual Energy to use both [Force Multiplier] and the Elemental Gauntleteven if he had no clue of its effectswas a higher priority. Spiritual Energy: 304/1130 (20% per Hour) William needed to get that to eight hundred, which meant adding a hundred points to his Spirit. Points: 102 He had just enough. The tform slowed its descent. Thest time it happened, the cave with the Sky Hare Emperors was revealed. William quickly added his unused points to Spirit. [+100 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1130 > 1630] The sudden rush of new Qi introduced to his spiritual pathways was euphoric. However, it would also be concerning in most situations where he increased his Spirit attribute massively due to the potential bacsh. William had calcted the limits of what his Kidney Meridian could handle before it rejected additional Qi. William was supremely confident that the hundred points he added would not reach that limit. He directed the new Qi to his Kidney Meridian while putting most of his attention on what would be revealed as the toon slowed to a crawl. He sensed the Kidney Meridian greedily ept all the Qi he pushed to it without any sign of stopping, nor did he sense the telltale sign of impending rejectionthe speck of light in the centerforming in the meridian. It finished just in time for the tform toe to a halt. William looked around warily, not seeing any cave or something simr. He was surrounded by wall and nothing else. [WARNING | External factor affecting mental state] He didnt know when his surroundings had changed. One moment, he was looking at the alert; the next, he was in a busy city market. William recognized this ce. It was the bustling central market of Xuanjing City. He took a long sniff and marveled at how real it was to his senses. In fact, there was nothing he could tell apart at first nce to truly differentiate it from the real thing. What shocked him the most was how quickly he forgot he was in an illusion when he wasnt looking at the system alert. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. William shuddered to think of how clueless he would be without it. He didnt tempt fate and decided to keep the warning alert in his view at all times to make sure he was aware this was not real. It brought to his attention things that he would have otherwise missed, mainly the expressions of the people around him, which suddenly became dead the moment he wasnt focusing on them. A simr effect applied to conversations. They went from muddled to clear, depending on his focus. Those twobined presented an experience that sent shivers down Williams spine. He could see people in the corner of his eyes with dead expressions and mumbling nonsense leaving their moving lips. It was uncanny valley taken to the max. William explored the illusion, unsure of what his goal should be. He didnt want anything that might be observing him from afar to realize that he wasnt affected by it, so he did his best to act like he was truly in the market. That meant speaking to one of the sellers. This looks interesting, William said, pointing at a small, braided rope. Why is it priced so high? You have a good eye! The stall seller beamed. This is a specialty from my home vige. Its proven to give you a boost on your fortunate encounters! He knew this was all fake, but it couldnt be denied that his interest was piqued. Really? William leaned closer to the rope. How was it proven? And why would you not keep it for yourself? Every single person in my vige has had sess, the seller boasted. I wish I could use it myself, but it only works once per person. So, are you interested? Its only two Spirit Stones! Williams eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline at the cost. He had seen the number two on the tag attached to the rope, but he assumed it represented Gold, or at worse, Qi Stones. Xuanjing City was a ce for mortals, and he doubted anything sold in the street stalls would be priced in Spirit Stones. Youre clearly trying to rob me, William stepped back, disgust on his face. Good day, sir. He turned and heard the seller call after him desperately. Wait! I can bring the price down. Just for you! William held back a shudder when he saw the dead expression of the seller from the corner of his eyes. That should not bebined with a desperate tone. He found it curious that the voice didnt immediately devolve into a muddle when he turned away. It meant there was some logic behind this illusion. There might not be enough power to run everything as lifelike as possible to make it indistinguishable from reality, but without the system alert reminding him of the illusion, it was doing more than enough to fool anyone else. William wandered around aimlessly, asionally wasting time at a stall here and there until he finally saw something different. In the most ostentatious way possible, a stall blurred all the surroundings around him when he looked at it, forcing tunnel vision on him artificially to make him look at the brightly glowing book in the middle of arge tower of tattered manuscripts and manuals. More importantly, William saw a basic status for the first time in the illusion. [Species: Mimic | Level: 188] He stopped in his tracks, ensuring his eyes were locked onto the glowing book, but he was panicking about the level difference. The thirty-minute time window hadnt passed, so using [Force Multiplier] would be disastrous with the penalty he would incur. That left the Elemental Gauntlet, and he didnt want to use that with something in thete stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. It would be suicide with extra steps. Hey! If you wont buy something, stop blocking my stall! William used that as an excuse to stare at the Mimic. It was apparently a spirit beast, but he could tell no difference between it and a regr human. It was entirely forgettable, with a in masculine face, thinning hair, and nd attire that begged to be forgotten. The Mimic was doing everything possible to put all his attention on the glowing book. Sorry, William said sheepishly as he moved closer, trying not to show his nervousness. I was distracted by that. The Mimic made a show of looking at where he was pointing. By what? The glowing book, William said slowly, wondering what the game was now. Boy, are you ying with me? Pick what you want from the pile and give me one Qi Stone. I dont have the energy to deal with pranksters. A bulb lit up in Williams mind. With the first round dealing with his fear, this could be something along the same vein. Perhaps his humility or righteousness. He could take the glowing book that only he could apparently see for the low price of one Qi Stone, or he coulde clean and tell the Mimic that it was likely worth far more. There was one thing that stopped him from going right to that option. William was currently on something called the Wheel of Death. How likely was it that one of the rounds involvedmon market haggling? B2 - Chapter 94 B2 - Chapter 94 The first move should be to use [Observe] and then decide what to do from there. It should be safe to do so unless the illusion somehow interfered with the system functions, and that didnt seem to be the case since it was working without issue. Plus, if the Mimic has a high chance of detecting his use of [Observe], the system should warn him of the percentage of risk he would be taking. There was also the chance of the Mimic being an automaton, making all of this moot. [-5 Spiritual Energy] Species: Mimic Level: 188 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Late Stage) Health: 2900/2900 Spiritual Energy: 3263/6175 Spirit: 1235 Strength: 50 Stamina: 50 Agility: 50 William couldnt deny that he had a sudden urge to reach over the stall and end the Mimics life as soon as he saw its stats. It had a mind-boggling amount of Spirit, which in turn meant its Spiritual Energy was off the charts. However, the rest of its attributes made the Mimic an easy source of experience pointsan easy kill. Using [Observe] almost confirmed that the Mimic controlled the illusion around him. It made sense why the world only seemed alive when he focused on it. The Mimic simply didnt have the skill or Spiritual Energy to do it on the level of someone like Daoist Chen. There was another reason William refrained from doing anything drastic. While its physical attributes were pathetic, who knew what type of Qi attacks the Mimic was capable of. Oi! Why do you keep staring? Is there really something with these things? The Mimic narrowed its eyes at the tower of papers and books. Er, I should be saying this, but you have something special there, William pointed at the glowing book. Tell me a fair price, and Ill give it to you. The Mimic looked at him suspiciously before pulling the book out of the messy stack, a few loose papers jostled from the disturbance, and studied it for a few minutes. William was happy that time was passing by. He was almost out of the penalty time limit for [Force Multiplier]. I still see nothing, the Mimic muttered. What did you see again? Its glowing or something? Almost blindingly, William replied truthfully. I have no idea why it''s doing so, but surely it''s worth more than one measly Qi Stone. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Alright, the Mimic drew out the word. Look, how about you tell me what you want to pay, then Ill decide. He raised an eyebrow instinctively in doubt. I cant do that. It wouldnt be fair to either of us if I did so. What if I said two Qi Stones? If you think thats fair, then lets do it for two, the Mimic nodded, offering the book to him over the counter. William had rms shing at the unnatural interaction. With how much effort was put into recreating the feeling of Xuanjing Citys central market, why would the Mimic be so sloppy in its role as a stall seller? This wasnt even close to being realistic. That wasnt an offer, he backed away to avoid touching the book willingly. It was just an example. The Mimic sighed dramatically. Two Qi Stones might not be much in your eyes, but it will let me feel my family for months. If you cant tell, I dont have many customers buying my wares. The only thing special about my vige are these old books lying around, but nobodys buying them. William stared, finding the story stupidly simr to the first seller he spoke to. Only, the braided rope was reced with books. The price was also at the extreme opposite. So, two Qi Stones would be very helpful to you, William repeated the Mimics words, thinking his options over. Yes, the Mimic replied pitifully, it really would. He made the decision. Fine, you have a deal, William pulled out two Qi Stones from his ring and held them in his left hand, moving to make the exchange. Youre a good person, the Mimic smiled happily. This kindness will bring you great fortune in It was cut off by a screaming, crackling, thunderous roar as a nearly solid bolt of lightning vaporized the Mimic in the middle of its sentence. The illusion immediately copsed, returning William back to the tform. [-600 Spiritual Energy] [+88713 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x5 William stared at the smoking glove on his hand in amazement. He had used all of the Qi supplied to the Elemental Gauntlet in one shotnegating the supposed ten-minute durationbut the power it disyed still shocked him into silence. There was no doubt that the Mimics weak physical attributes yed arge part in its easy death. However, the Elemental Gauntlet would still be a true weapon he could rely on in the future. He was able to eventually tear his eyes away from the glove and look around. There were no remains of the Mimic to be seen, which was a shame for his spirit beast egg. William took a gamble on killing it. Something was screaming at him to refuse to make any sort of deal with the Mimic, and he wasing to trust his gut when it felt so strongly. Many things could have gone wrong since he was in an illusion world created by the thing he was trying to kill, but thankfully, it worked out as nned. He waited nervously to see if he passed the second round. Just because he sessfully killed the Mimic didnt mean he necessarily passed. He waited idly for a minute before he started to feel jittery. He pulled up his status screen to confirm some of the changes. Level: 132 Experience: 5780/16500 Spiritual Energy: 362/1630 (20% per Hour) Points: 52 William debated adding more points to Spirit, but he was getting close to the limit of what his Kidney Meridian could handle. He didnt think he could afford to sit down and carefully guide his Qi if required. Congrattions on suppressing your greed and surviving! He paused for a moment before a broad smile appeared on his face. He made the right decision by not touching that book. The Wheel of Death will continue! As a reminder, your apanying Elder is just a shout away! The tform started to descend to round three. Round one was fear, and round two was greed. He tried to predict what woulde next, initially thinking of the seven sins from Earth, but that didnt fit. Fear was not a sin. It could be the ssic, let go of all attachments cultivation training that was somon in the novels. The tform stopped. William would find out soon enough. He looked around and found that, once again, there was no ce for any beast or automaton to exit. He expected another illusion-type attack. B2 - Chapter 95 B2 - Chapter 95 Congrattions on having no pride and surviving! The Wheel of Death will continue! As a reminder, your apanying Elder is just a shout away! William stood still, staring nkly at the wall as the tform descended again. It was good that he automatically passed that round. William wanted to think that, but he could not help but feel insulted. It was apparent from the previous two rounds that they were specialized to his prior experiences and based on his personality. He could agree on being greedy. It was a trait he was well aware of and frequently had to fight against to stop himself from making stupid decisions. Though sometimes he lost that fight. Fearing the Sky Hares was debatable but eptable. However, being told he had no pride hurt his pride. Surely, that should mean something. The tform came to a stop. William looked up to see the ceiling well over four times the distancepared to when he was at round two. That surprise would being after the next round. He nced at his surroundings and wasnt surprised to see no visible exits on the wall. It seemed like that was a specialty of round one. He wasnt sure what he preferred to happen next. For the voice to give him another pass or to save his apparently non-existent pride and experience round four. [WARNING | External factor affecting mental state] That alert negated Williams self-debate. He flexed his fingers nervously as he waited to be brought into the illusion. He was racking his brain to try and guess what he would be tested on now, but he came up with a nk. The most probable test would be something rted to love and desire. Anothermon test he had noticed was brought up frequently in the cultivation novels he read on Earth. However, the issue was he had no such attachment on this world. Unless it counted fondness as love, then yes, there were a few that he was fond of. Still, that was highly unlikely. The tests were meant to ovee attachments such as love to free cultivators to fully dedicate themselves to pursuing immortality. Doing that same to friendships was a little much. William frowned when nearly a minute passed without his surroundings changing. He started to get a creeping feeling that he was already in the illusion and simply didnt know it. Then, the world around him flickered. He was standing in a hallway he had practically forgotten. It had been years since he visited, not due to any real animosity but a gradual distance that grew over time. Will! Eat your food while its still hot! William stared at his mother standing on the open end of the hallway with a furious look on her face. She was far younger than thest time he had seen her, with the familiar harried look from dealing with too much at once. This story has been uwfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. The lines on her face hadnt set in, and her gaze held more exasperation than disappointment. It reminded him that this was an illusionnot realityeven if the system had stopped working for some reason. Youre not real, William said out loud, both for his illusionary mother and himself. What?! She took a heavy step toward him. Dont y games with me today! We have to leave in an hour to catch the flight to New He found himself back on the tform, his unwee trip to Earthillusion or notover. William gasped in shock when the metal tform beneath him plummeted without warning. It was at a speed that made him lose contact with it, and he ended up free-falling without support. The tform crashed with a force that shook the entire elevator-like shaft, with Williamnding roughly on his feet soon after. By some miracle, he was able to control it enough to not cause himself any damage. The Wheel of Death has encountered an error. It is closed until further notice. Your apanying Elder will be with you shortly. He took in that information silently as he looked around, seeing something other than walls for the first time since he entered this ce. In fact, there were no walls at all. The tform fell out of the shaft andnded on soil. William nced up and grew curious. He walked off the tform to see a massive, cement-colored cylinder hanging in the air without any visible support. It could be supported from above, but the sky looked as natural as it could get. It was a mostly clear night sky, with a few wispy clouds doing nothing to block the soft moonlight shining down from above to illuminate thend. He supposed it could be another illusion, but he seriously doubted that as a possibility. The system didnt warn him of it, and even though it wasnt infallible, it was confident it was working just fine at the moment. William recalled when the illusion broke. His momillusionary motherwas about to say New York or a ce that only existed on Earth. He didnt know why that was enough to break the Wheel of Death, but perhaps it could only simte what could exist in this world. Or perhaps it was the whole illusion, and the strain was too much for whatever was creating it, breaking at that word by coincidence. It was not the best reasoning, even to himself, but his gut told him he was on the right track. He shook his head and faced the only thing of any interestother than the colossal cylinder hanging above himthergepound in the distance. William could see faint lights evenly spaced around the walls, with arge estate beyond towering above everything around it. This was begging to be visited, and that made him suspicious. He nced at his status screen and zeroed in on his Spiritual Energy. Spiritual Energy: 428/1630 (20% per Hour) It would take roughly four hours to recover all of that. Long, exceptionally so, but necessary. Thatpound could only house two things in Williams mind. Either this was the surprise that the voice mentioned after round five, or this was where the corrupted avatar was imprisoned. Both possibilities needed for him to be at his peak state. However, that didnt mean he would simply sit here and waste time. He could get quite a lot done to give himself additional help. The one that could further his strength the most was his Spirit attribute. The math he had done on how much Spirit he needed topletely fill his major meridians indicated that he was close. In fact, William thought there was a good chance he currently had enough unused points to get him there. He brought out the spirit beast egg from the spatial stone and studied it carefully for the first time since they entered the Wheel of Death. It didnt seem to have changed much physically other than the flowery decorations growing darker, but it was definitely more lively. The egg moved around happily on his palm, which he hoped was a sign it would hatch soon. You know the deal, Little Egg, William was used to talking to it by now. Alert me if anything gets close. Ill give you a good treat soon. The egg rocked forward, sending a ping that practically screamed yes at him. William chuckled and sat crosslegged on the grass, not far from the massive metal tform. He ced the egg on hisp and prepared himself, hoping he would unlock the next stage of his cultivation technique. B2 - Chapter 96 B2 - Chapter 96 [+52 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1630 > 1890] William felt his Dantian flood his spiritual pathways with new Qi. He would usually be casual about guiding it to the correct primary meridian if it wasnt for the fact he was close to hitting the limit of the Kidney Meridian. He closed his eyes and tookmand of his new Qi, guiding it quickly to its destination. The Kidney Meridian was as eager to ept new Qi as ever. Still, it was different this time, as he expected. The thick fog of Qi that filled the meridian grew increasingly opaque as the Kidney Meridian absorbed Qi. Near the end of the process, when the Qi avable had almost all been absorbed, he saw the sign he had been waiting for. A dim light appeared in the middle through the dense fog of Qi, shining and pulsating softly. It hadnt reached the tipping point yet. The fog hadnt been absorbed by the light at the center. William opened his eyes with arge frown. Thest bit of Qi had been absorbed without meeting the requirements for crossing the tipping point. He needed just a few more points to assign to his Spirit attribute. Unfortunately, he had none left. Experience: 5780/16500 He needed over ten thousand experience points to get to the next level. Not a lot, as long as he had beasts or automatons around his level for ughtering, but he currently didnt have that option. William stared at thepound and wondered if it was reasonable to take the risk and hunt for his experience points. He shook his head and quickly dismissed that thought. Perhaps if that was the only option left, but he had to consider others first. The most obvious being the Healing Qi quest. [Side Quest: Learn the basics of self-healing] [Information: Su Rao has shown you how to convert your Qi into Healing Qi. Be aplished enough to heal a broken bone on your own.] [Reward: 10000 XP] [Penalty: Decreased reputation with Su Rao] Ten thousand experience points didnt quite meet the amount necessary to get to the next level. Still, he had the assumption that there would be hidden bonuses if he went above and beyond with the quest, just like with the Lightning Qi quest. In his opinion, William had already self-healed a far more difficult injury than a simple broken bone. He had regrown the flesh that had been sliced off his calf, and the only reason the side quest hadnt been consideredpleted must have been the wording. Even if what he healed was moreplex, it wasnt a broken bone. William studied his body, ncing at therger bones before settling on his left arm. He wanted to keep his legs in perfect condition if he needed to escape while healing himself. He picked the egg off hisp and ced it to his side. There was no hesitation inmitting to his self-brutality. [-270 HP] William didnt flinch when his arm was snapped in half at the elbow and forearm, the former an unnecessarily difficult ce to break a bone, but one he thought would give him the most experience points. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He immediately immersed his thoughts with Sky Hares. There was a pang of fear when it didnt elicit as much rage as he had assumed, but thankfully, it was still more than enough. He converted the majority of his remaining Qi to Healing Qi, using that anger as fuel, before concentrating all of it at his broken elbow. He could feel the small bones heal fully before snapping back into ce, then he moved the Healing Qi to his forearm. William let out a soft sigh of relief. He opened his eyes to an excessive number of blue, shing system alerts. [+270 HP] [-540 Spiritual Energy] [Side Quest Completed | Learn the basics of self-healing] [+10000 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Heal multiple broken bones] [+2500 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Heal a bonerger than a finger] [+5000 XP] [Hidden Bonus | Restore flesh to a perfect state] [+10000 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x2 [Cultivation upgraded | Foundation Establishment (Early Stage) > Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage)] [Modified | Health Overall: 2100 > 2400] [New upgrade requirements avable] Upgrade Requirements (2): 1. Spirit: 167 2. Eligible for Level 167 [Modification Necessary | Recalibrating Attribute Maximums] [Max Luck Attribute | 150 > 175] He scanned all the alerts before taking a long breath to calm himself. No matter how much he wanted to, this wasnt the time to scream in happiness. Two of the most significant benefits of advancing a minor realm from early to middle stage were his increased health and higher Luck attribute limit. Thetter he would max out as soon as he could spare enough stat points to do so. For now, he would return to his original goalthe reason he broke his arm. To see what would happen when hepletely filled his primary meridians. [+10 Spirit] [Modified | Spiritual Energy] [Spiritual Energy Capacity | 1890 > 1940] William restarted the process, though it was admittedly far faster with only a small amount of Qi to guide. He was at the Kidney Meridian in a fraction of a second and drip-fed the Qi into it. He didnt want to face arge bacsh when he was vulnerable in an unknown area. He had around half of the Qi left, still not having reached the tipping point, so he allowed another drip of Qi to enter. That was enough. The light at the center of the Kidney Meridian pulsed strongly, with nearly enough force to push his presence away. The fog of Qi in the meridian started to orbit the light, moving quicker with every full rotation before it began to be pulled into the center. The speck of light devoured everything inside the Kidney Meridian until nothing was left but itself. William didnt interfere and simply observed, hoping to see some sort of benefit from this, but nothing noticeable happened. He still had a little Qi to assign to a primary meridian, but it was apparent that the Kidney Meridian wasnt an option. The light at the center pulsed menacingly as if warning him against trying. He did what seemed obvious and returned to the Lung Meridian, the very first one he started to fill. William had honestly expected this to fail, so when the Lung Meridian epted the Qi without issue, he was shocked. He observed the newly introduced faint wisps of Qi circling the speck of light in the Lung Meridian. However, it wasnt getting absorbed. He watched for a little longer before pulling his focus away from the inner workings of his spiritual pathways and opening his eyes. [Trait Added | Minor Mastery of Horizons Seeker (x1.2 multiplier on all Qi-based skills and attacks)] William stared at the trait, unsure if he should be happy or disappointed. It was a positive trait, which was always a good thing, but it seemed to be a small benefitpared to his expectations. He paused, realizing that this applied to [Force Multiplier]. That means instead of boosting his physical attributes by four times, it would instead be four points eight Williams thoughts halted when he remembered what happened to [Force Multiplier] when he advanced a cultivation realmminor or major. He pulled up the skill on his status screen. Martial Skills (4): Force Multiplier (100%) 3.8x He sighed in relief. It didnt reduce in effectiveness as much as he feared. Even with the reduction, the trait he gained would make [Force Multiplier] multiply his physical stats by around four point five. That was better than before, and William would dly take it. B2 - Chapter 97 B2 - Chapter 97 It was strange to sit in in view of a likely upiedpound without anyoneing to check on him. William had no misconceptions about being hidden. His entrance, with the metal tform mming into the ground and creating enough disturbance to resemble a small earthquake, would have made hiding impossible. Even if that had somehow been ignored, anyone or anything with decently high cultivation looking in his direction would have seen him sitting on the grass. And he hadnt moved for hours. He spent the time ncing at the status screen, experimenting with his Lightning Qi, and speaking quietly with his suddenly excitable egg. It felt strangely peaceful, even though what awaited him was anything but. It was a gift to be left alone for hours and given plenty of time to fully recover, but at the same time, the why was constantly being asked in his mind. William nced at his status screen again and finally saw what he was waiting for. Spiritual Energy: 1940/1940 (20% per Hour) He grabbed the constantly rocking spirit beast egg and ignored the feeling of indignation it pinged at him. He sent it into his spatial stone and started his trek. Though, ''trek'' was an exaggeration. William could cover the distance between him and thepound in less than a minute if he tried, but he was wary of any hidden traps on the way there. He shouldnt have been. William met no resistance of any kind on the way to the gates of thepound. He could even see guards stationed on either side, and he simply stared at him without reacting to his presence. He supposed that made sense. After all, he had been sitting in the field for far too long. They would have known he was there, and if they had been bothered, they would have already done something about it. The closer William got to the gates, the more he saw the oddness of the guards themselves. They seemed like regr human cultivators from afar, but there was something unnatural about them. Halt. The guard on the right jerked his arm up and held his palm out. State your business. William had no intention of getting close. Not with the basic status above their heads. [Species: Flesh Puppet | Level: 151] [Species: Flesh Puppet | Level: 150] He targeted the one that spoke to him and used [Observe]. [Observe not avable on automatons] Of course. Speak, stranger. Why are you on our mistresssnds. That gave William a rather massive clue about who was inside. Still, speaking to these things was not something he was keen on extending. They smelt of rotten flesh, and their eyes glowed a faint, malignant light, giving off a feeling that they would prefer to do nothing more than feast on his flesh. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. If your mistress is Empress Sophia, then I was invited. You were invited. Now, you are not, the guard replied in a dead tone. Leave, and you may yet live. William nced between the two, clearly remembering how the corrupted avatar tried to lure him here, promising a possible escape route under her control. She had needed him for something and now she didnt. He was allowed to stay in the vicinity for hours without being disturbed, only told to go back after he approached. Leaving aside the fact that there was no ce to go back to, rms were going off in his head, and his gut told him he knew precisely why the corrupted avatar no longer needed him. William wasnt the only one that was targeting this ce. Kae was the other, and his gut told him his fellow disciple was in the corrupted avatars clutches. His eyes sharpened as he studied the Flesh Puppet guards with renewed interest. There was a high chance he would need to fight through them in a short while. He was primarily concerned about the number inside. William would prefer to save [Force Multiplier] for the corrupted avatar, but that might not be an option he had. It would depend on the fragility of these Flesh Puppets. They looked inherently weak in terms of speed, with their jerky motions and slow movements. He hoped that would also apply when involved in a fight. That would reduce the difficulty of dealing with these to the point where he could do so without martial skills. I dont think so, William said, taking a step forward, the yellowish-red light in the Flesh Puppets eyes growing stronger. I came all the way here, and I wont leave without meeting the avatar. The Flesh Puppets stared at him for a long moment, pausing as if they were getting instructions on what to do. Denied, they replied in unison. You will be removed by force. William wanted this. Any reason to test himself against the Flesh Puppets. He waited for them to make the first move, wanting to get an idea of the speed he would be against. The light in the Flesh Puppets'' eyes grew stronger as it took on a reddish tint, something he noted as a possible tell before an attack. It would make dealing with these things even easier. The wait for the Flesh Puppets to do something was nearly torturous. It took less than a second, but with the speed that William was now used to, that might as well be an eternity. Still, he refrained from acting first in case this was a false opening that encouraged him to make a mistake. Williams eyes widened, and he pushed off the ground to appear ten feet away. Both Flesh Puppets bit down where his body was previously, teeth cking together loudly. Their necks had bulging vessels that seemed to be pulsing angrily, perhaps from the sheer force they put in their bite. He ignored how they went straight into attempting to eat his flesh instead of using Qi or physical strikes though he supposed using teeth was a sort of physical strike. No, he was noting how the odd movement they possessed. The Flesh Puppets were faster than he would have guessed, but not quite fast enough to take him by surprise. He would be able to handily beat them in speed if what they showed was the best they had to offer. The odd part was the movement of their limbs. The jerky, awkward motions William noticed whenmanded to halt at the start still existed. It was like there was a dy in the connection between the brain and muscles. He narrowed his eyes in confusion when the Flesh Puppets simply stood there. Their eyes, which had lost the reddish tint after their strange attack, slowly regained it over a second. This time, he was ready. William disappeared from his spot the moment the Flesh Puppets moved, reappearing close by. Only about five feet away. He was curious if they would take any action due to his proximity. They didnt. He stopped being passive, reasonably confident that he understood their limitations. The Flesh Puppets had returned to staring at him without that reddish tint in their eyes. It was like they were gettingmands on what to do from afar, causing a significant dy in their actions. William shot toward them with a fist shining bright blue, infused with Qi. He kept track of both Flesh Puppets but targeted one for his first strike. Hended a haymaker that caved in the targeted Flesh Puppets skull with a sickening crack, but something was wrong. He quickly retreated and stared at the now-horribly disfigured Flesh Puppet in shock. The skin on its cheek was broken through to show teeth and bone, but there was no sign of blood at all. What should have been fatal damage to all other opponents he had foughtcultivators, spirit beasts, and automatonswas treated as nothing by the Flesh Puppet. Their eyes once again gained a reddish tint. William casually avoided their pointless attempt to attack. He decided to see how much damage it needed to take before dying. B2 - Chapter 98 B2 - Chapter 98 He rocketed toward them with a murderous look in his eyes. Most fights with something around his level ended quickly due to his overwhelming advantage in Strength, which was multiplied by his Qi. This was the first time that wasnt the case. William delivered a brutal body blow to the already-damaged Flesh Puppets chestcaving it inbefore following the strike with another. This one blew a hole through the body, but the Flesh Puppet stared at him without emotion. He saw its eyes gaining that red tint again, but he didnt stop his savage attacks. If destroying the area where its heart was located had no effect, he would go after the brain. William snarled in anger at his ineffectiveness and used it to bring down his fist like a hammer on the Flesh Puppets head, crushing it t into its shoulders. [+17344 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] He shifted his body rapidly to avoid the bite of the remaining Flesh Puppet before bringing his hand down on its neck in a slicing motion. He tried something that had been on his mind for a long time. The edge of his palm was lined with Healing Qi, but instead of avoiding the dangerous properties like he did when healing himself, he focused on it. The Flesh Puppets head was cut cleanly off its body. The point of contact made it seem like arge sword did the work instead of his palm. [+17459 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] [-50 HP] William nced between the chopped-off head and his badly mangled hand. Using Healing Qi to kill workedas odd as that soundedbut there seemed to be a minor penalty to his health in return. Or maybe he was just too inexperienced to do it without receiving coteral damage. Still, the price was well worth it. Of course, this would depend on his target staying mostly still to allow him a clean cut. He couldnt see it working otherwise. He stared past the gates into thepound and wondered if the strange dy in action would be consistent if he met more Flesh Puppets inside. It would be an easy walkthrough if that was the case. William converted some of his Qi into Healing Qi and concentrated it on his hand. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. [+50 HP] [-100 Spiritual Energy] It was getting easier to do that with every try after he learned to quickly immerse himself into the proper memory needed to feel the appropriate anger. He pulled the corpses of the Flesh Puppets into his spatial stone and threw them to his spirit beast egg. There was nothing left to do other than enter thepound. William took a deep breath and prepared himself for any surprises after he passed the gates. He stepped into a courtyard that was fit for an emperor, which was fitting considering whose avatar was imprisoned here. It was a sprawling garden that somehow managed to be colorful under the dim moonlight. Trees with fruits ripe for the picking, beautiful flowers lining the edges of every path, and a small stream of a purple-tinted liquid that snaked through the garden, originating from the only building in thepound. He made a cursory scan of the garden to register any threats before looking beyond. That was where the dangery. Two Flesh Puppets guarded the gate. The interior of thepound had far too many to count. The familiar, dim, malignant glow from a Flesh Puppets eyes was numerous, all staring at him from their posts at the wall. William stepped back to the still-open gate. He could still survive this, but it would require multiple uses of [Force Multiplier] and a copious amount of Vitality Restoration Pills to recover afterward. Even then, it would leave him vulnerable to the corrupted avatar. He paused at the entrance to see if any Flesh Puppets would make a move. None did. William clenched his fist before deciding to take the risk. If he was overwhelmed, retreat could be possible, and if that was somehow blocked off, thebination of [Force Multiplier] and the Elemental Gauntlet would be enough. Whatever happened after would be an issue for his future self. He took steady steps onto the path in the garden with no reaction from the Flesh Puppets. They tracked him with their eyes but did nothing more. When they still did nothing after he was halfway through the path, he started to suspect he was being allowed entry by the corrupted avatar. He wasnt sure what to feel about that. William ignored the tempting spirit fruits and beckoning flowers, asking to be plucked, and focused only on his destination. He was greedy but not fool enough to try and take something from a garden such as this. He reached therge door to the building without issue, the eyes of the Flesh Puppets still on his back. It opened for him the moment he stepped before it. He stared into the well-lit entrance at the familiar figure smiling at him. We finally meet face-to-face, the corrupted avatar smiled. A normal smile that still terrified him. William wasnt sure if he should immediately go on the attack or first confirm if Kae was held inside. If he wasnt, waiting for him before acting would be wise. Your friend told me you know Im an avatar. I find it curious that you still feel confident facing me with such hostility. Seemed like he didnt need to wait. Kae was inside. It might have had something to do with you wanting to take control of my body. William didnt wait for her to reply and immediately activated [Force Multiplier]. With a roar, he lunged at the corrupted avatar, zing fist aimed directly at her face. B2 - Chapter 99 B2 - Chapter 99 rm bells rang in his head when the corrupted avatar didnt bother to move, but it was toote to reverse course. He chose to instigate, and he would follow through, for better or worse. William fully expected to be pped aside like a fly. He wasnt. Instead, he flew right through the corrupted avatar and unceremoniously mmed face-first into the wall directly behind her. William let out a small groan as he rubbed his face and turned, noting that the wall was still in perfect shape after that collision. It was stupidly strong. Always with the punches, the corrupted avatar said with amusement. What would you have done if I hadnt broken the illusion of you meeting your mother? Would you have punched her, too? He had too many questions that needed to be answered but also had [Force Multiplier] active. There was a time limit, and it had gone toplete waste so far. William ignored that casual revtion of why the Wheel of Death had malfunctioned and shot toward the corrupted avatar again. This might not have worked the first time, but there has to be something he missed. He tracked her body with sharp eyes to see if something was amiss as he swung an uppercut at her stomach that was fast enough to create cutting winds. He didnt think targeting her stomach would cause more damage; he wanted arger target than her head to ensure the first failure wasnt a fluke. The smile on the corrupted avatars face was unchanged, which didnt bode well for him. William let out a growl as his fist elerated right before hopeful impact. It hit nothing. His hair fluttered wildly as the gusts of wind from his punch filled the entrance hall. He stared at his fist in dismay; it looked like it was embedded in the corrupted avatar, but he could feel nothing but air around it. Are you finished? William flinched and jumped back to put distance between them. Youre another projection. Wrong, the corrupted avatar chirped. Im going through a bit of a revival, you could say. It just so happens that I will be incorporeal in the process. He stared at her nkly. He just wasted an activation of [Force Multiplier]. Wheres Kae? Kae is the hybrid boy, yes? She crunched her nose as if it were disgusting to even think of. Hes resting in the hall there. William rushed off in the direction the corrupted avatar pointed and entered a massive sitting room dripped with luxury. He didnt care for the decorations. He saw Kae on a couch, sleeping on his back. Are you not at all interested in why I broke the illusion? The corrupted avatar asked from behind. He had tried to put it out of his mind, knowing that the answers he would get wouldnt be of any help with his situation. In fact, her willingness to discuss this was suspect. Talking to him at all was suspect. Uwfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. What did you do to him? William asked tersely, ignoring her question. He worked hard to escape my Flesh Puppets, but even a giant can be felled by ants if there are enough of them. I couldnt let such a young cultivator die, so I gave him a gift. You mean you decided to take over Kaes body! William turned, a fierce look on his face. Yes, she confirmed as if it was obvious. He was fated to die, so what harm would there be if I used his body? And you should be happy that you are no longer needed. He winced when [Force Multiplier] deactivated. The time limit ran out. Quite a useful martial skill, the corrupted avatarmented. Instrumental for you to pass round one in the Wheel of Death. William didnt take the bait. There were more worrying things to focus on than satisfying his curiosity, the most headache-inducing being Kae. The corrupted avatar gave off an amenable personality, but he couldnt trust its motives, no matter what it said. Lord Paddlington practically worshipped Sophia, and when it told him to kill one of her avatars, it wouldnt be done lightly. Anything William was told by the corrupted avatar wouldntcouldntbe believed. That was the reason he didnt want to hear her answers to whatever questions he had. It was also the reason he was quick toe to a sobering conclusion. Kae might have to be killed. He didnt know why the corrupted avatar was so keen on taking over a body, but it couldnt be allowed, even if he had to take drastic measures. The problem was that he had to prevent his own body from being taken over even if everything went exactly as nned, which was doubtful. William ignored the corrupted avatar and approached Kae. If she hadnt done anything to harm him by now, he would work under the assumption that she cant. I would suggest not to do that. He continued to ignore her and tried to lift Kae up. The moment he touched his fellow disciple, he found himself mmed into the wall at a frightening speed. He had absolutely no chance to react. You didnt think it would be that easy, did you? William recognized that deep voice. It wasnt the corrupted avatar. He saw a cherubic baby standing on Kaes forehead, with an infuriating smirk on its face. The dots were quickly starting to connect in his mind. He might have sent Kae to his end by insisting Shitou apany him. You led us here, William said nkly. Youre partly right, the corrupted avatar smiled. I certainly led your friend here, but you? Not so much. I had hoped you would be dyed by the Wheel of Death, but I had to stop that myself. Why? I still had two rounds left. That would have bought you more time for whatever you have nned. William honestly couldnt care less. He was desperately hoping some idea for escape would miraculously appear. He was a punch-and-hope-it-works type of guy, and he quite literally could not punch the corrupted avatar. Dont tter yourself. Does it look like your presence is stopping me in any way? I wanted you dyed to avoid having to kill a human directly. There it was againsomeone speaking of humans as if they were a special, rare ssa possible topic to stall for more time if needed. You still havent told me why you changed your mind. Every challenge you faced resulted in you significantly increasing your cultivation. I couldnt allow that to continue. The corrupted avatar looked a little more transparent. William felt the urge to do something, anything to stop that. He made the obvious assumption that the more transparent she was, the closer Kaes body was to being taken over. Then what about those guards at the gate? I wouldnt call them a challenge, but you didnt stop them. Observing you from afar has its limitations, the corrupted avatar shrugged. I wanted to see how you gained from simply killing things. Williams heart skipped a beat. And? What did you learn? Nothing. Its illogical. He would have smiled at the annoyed frown if not for the precarious situation. There was little doubt that this wasnt the real Sophia, but this admission confirmed that. Sophia would definitely know he gained cultivation through experience points. But you know, the corrupted avatar stated, staring into his eyes. Tell me. William nced at her, then switched his focus to Shitou, whose arms were smugly crossed while iming Kaes forehead as his territory. He tried to find the humor in the situation, but it was hard to do so when the corrupted avatar was visibly fading out of existence. B2 - Chapter 100 B2 - Chapter 100 William finally stood up and scanned the room, ignoring Shitous ready pose and the corrupted avatars raised brow. If he couldnt directly touch Kae without being knocked on his ass, he had to quickly confirm that the corrupted avatar truly was incorporeal and not just another projection. He had a tough choiceone he didnt even know he could do. Before he would take the step to try and take Kaes life, he needed to be sure there was no other alternative. Williams body blurred as he left the hall, intending to explore every room possible to see if there was a sign of some sort of anchor the corrupted avatar was using. It was a stretch, and he honestly had little hope. The corrupted avatar did nothing when he left. That reeked of confidence that he couldnt find anything to make a difference. He ignored that nagging voice in his head, telling him he was wasting time searching for something that didnt exist. Asrge as the estate was, there werent many ces to search. Other than the entrance hall and the hall where Kaes body was resting, the only other ces he saw were a massive Qi refining room that had to take up half the estate and several small storage rooms filled with red elixirs in small vials. If it gives you any relief, he wont feel anything, the corrupted avatar was behind him. William didnt look away from the elixirs as he slowly came to terms with what he had to do. Shitou, William finally turned to her. Why is he listening to you? He calls you a witch and then acts as your guard dog. He supposedly cowered during Kaes rampage, but I assume that was also an act. He felt the speed and power behind the force that repelled him from Kaes body. He put Shitou at thete stage Foundation Establishment Realm at the minimum. Besides my pet turtle, which you destroyed, there are only two other truly sentient beings in this prison. What do you think happens after thousands of years of silence? William shuddered involuntarily at the thought of being in that situation. Insanity. That, the corrupted avatar nodded, and a desperation for escape. However possible. So, the Greeter and Shitou are helping you escape? Not at all, she chuckled. The Greeter is stubborn and refuses to think of speaking to me. Though, it has now reached the point of going through the motions and doing whatever Shitou asks, which is enough for me. Shitou is the reason for all this, William wanted to hold on to that. This would be the way he avoided the torment of being partially responsible for Kaes end. Im guessing youll take those two out with you. Dont be silly, the corrupted avatar shook her head gently as if she were a teacher chiding him. He didnt like that. They are linked to this dimension. There is no leaving for them. William paused, realizing what that meant. They want to die. As I said, however possible. That settled it. He had been thinking of ways to try and pull Shitou on his sideas unlikely as that would have beenbut if the stone spirit was hoping for death, there was nothing he could do to sway him. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. You William paused, cutting himself off when he felt the frantic pings of the spirit beast egg. He didnt know the egg could take the initiative and contact him from the spatial stone. Despite the urgency of the current situation, he sent his Qi into the spatial stone to ensure the egg was fine. William sensed it jumpyes, jumpin ce as it pushed an image of a vial containing red elixir. He cut off his flow of Qi and frowned. So thats why you stored my Flesh Puppets. To have such an artifact at your cultivation the corrupted avatar muttered beside him. William knew that his interaction with the spatial stone had been discovered, though he didnt really care too much about that. At least, thats what her words implied since she must know about Kaes bracelet, a normal spatial artifact. He set that matter aside and gave the spirit beast egg what it wanted. He focused and surrounded everything in the storage room with his Qivials, shelves, anything that was detachableand pulled it into his spatial stone. What are you doing? William nced at the corrupted avatar after her question. He found that she had be more transparent than a few minutes ago. That just made him work faster. He emptied all the storage rooms in the estate, five of them, and had given the spirit beast egg thousands of those red elixirs to do whatever it wanted with them. It took him less than a minute to do so, and it also came with the added benefit of making the corrupted avatar furious. A first since he had been ying to her tune until now. Control yourself, boy! The corrupted avatars visage darkened. You might be a pure human, but even a talent like you can cross boundaries I cannot forgive. Return the elixirs, and I will forgive your stupidity. I dont think so, William rushed back to the main hall where Kae was located. What need do you have for the Flesh Creation Elixir?! He blinked in surprise and saw that she had reached the tipping point. Her aura was exactly like why he had seen at the gatesomething Lord Paddlington assured that he didnt have to worry about. William still wasnt overly concerned about the corrupted avatar. If she had been able to stop him, he would already know by now. As for the red elixirs, it made sense why his spirit beast egg wanted them with what they were named. Im guessing thats how you make your Flesh Puppets? Williammented as he stormed into the main hall with the corrupted avatar fuming beside him. Yes, the corrupted avatar replied through gritted teeth. Last chance, boy. Killing you would be regrettable, but the human race is numerous. Another like you will eventually be born. He still had no idea why she was so stuck on the human race nonsense. Perhaps some conflict in her era consumed her mind, making her into her current corrupted form. Whatever it was, he hadnt paid her seeming ramblings any mind the entire time, so why start now? I cant imagine why you would need them if you seed in escaping. William wondered why she hadnt called in some of the many Flesh Puppets stationed outside to deal with him instead of ineffectively threatening him. Unless you n to use them as your army? He said thatst part with some humor, but the corrupted avatars expression told him that his guess was correct. She was insane. William concluded that with certainty. There were cultivators at the Spirit Severing Realm watching over the Tianxia Empire. Even if she had millions of Flesh Puppets, there would still be a less than zero chance of seeding in whatever she had nned. Do I need to deal with him? Shitou inserted himself in the conversation, still standing on Kaes forehead. The corrupted avatar looked tempted at the offer but still shook her head. No, dont waste the bodys energy. William was happy to let the two ignore him as long as the corrupted avatar didnt elerate her rate of bing transparent. He had been ncing at his status screen to check the time remaining for the [Force Multiplier] penalty. Spiritual Energy: 1843/1940 (20% per Hour) A hundred Spiritual Energy had been spent to heal his hand, with another two hundred to activate [Force Multiplier]. Factoring in a small amount of Spiritual Energy he recovered on the walk through the garden, only a few more seconds to be free of the penalty. Another Soul Lotus will need to be used at this rate if you are this eager. Calm yourself, Shitou. That got Williams attention. B2 - Chapter 101 B2 - Chapter 101 As terrible as it sounded, he had forced himself to think of Kae as dead to stomach what he had to do. He wasnt concerned about the negative effect of the Soul Lotus on Kaes nonexistent future. William was worried about the Soul Lotus boosting Kaes cultivation and the corrupted avatar having ess to it. He might have already blundered by waiting too long and hesitating on what to do with Kae. He hadnt been able to see Kaes basic status since the start, so he had no idea what level he was at. It was both a good and bad thing. It put off an appearance that Kae was genuinely dead, which made what he was about to do only traumatic instead of devastatingly traumatic. He was aware that Shitou was still speaking to the corrupted avatar, but the conversation was muddy. He knew what he had to do. He just had to do it without faltering. Im sorry, Kae. [-600 Spiritual Energy] Violent crackling filled the hall as the Elemental Gauntlet on Williams right fist came to life. Lightning arced between his knuckles as he prepared to repeat what he did to the Mimic. Shitou! Shield! The corrupted avatar screamed. There was a fraction of a section when the air stilled before a lightning bolt burst from Williams fist and mmed into Kae. The light blinded him from seeing the result immediately, and arge part of him was d for it. The Elemental Gauntlet shut off after a few seconds, using up all the Lightning Qi he provided. The deafening sound of the lightning died, and so did the blinding light. William still clenched his fist at the ready, converting more Qi into Lighting Qi for a redo. He didnt get an alert from the system for experience points. That could be because the corrupted avatar lied when she said Kae was still alivewhich he hoped was the caseor Kaes body hadnt been destroyed. His stomach lurched when he saw a massive hole in Kaes chest. He had been targeting the entire upper body, but it seemed like he had overestimated the power behind the Elemental Gauntlet. You destroyed it, the corrupted avatar hissed beside him. William stared at Kae andforted himself that at least this meant he had been dead all along. Good. Kae would have preferred his body destroyed instead of having it used like a puppet. His breath was abruptly cut off. He choked as he was lifted in the air by a deathtrap on his neck. He scratched at the arm and was about to activate [Force Multiplier] before he forced himself to hold off. The corrupted avatar had started to be corporeal, her arm fully opaque. The rest of her body was slowly following. William acting on Kaes bodyhis dead bodyhad worked as he hoped. Williams next step was to somehow get rid of the corrupted avatar. However, he didnt want to activate [Force Multiplier] and then waste precious time waiting for the rest of her body to be corporeal. Its fine, she said more to herself. I waited for millennia. What is a few more hours? If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. He could feel her fingers digging into his neck, almost to the point of piercing the skin. However, her strength wasnt quite there. Shitou, the corrupted avatar barked. Prepare the body for another Soul Lotus! A dim, lethargic Shitou appeared on Kaes forehead. His body flickered like it was going to blink out of existence, but despite that, he trudged down to Kaes missed chest and melted into the cauterized hole. I would apud your conviction, the corrupted avatar addressed William. Willing to kill your friend for the greater good requires a special mindset. But this persistence is grating on my patience. [-25 HP] He choked as the mp on his neck tightened. Again, he held back his impulse to activate [Force Multiplier]. He mmed his palm into her arm to try and weaken her grip with little effect. Im still too weak in this state, the corrupted avatar growled in disgust. So be it. You crossed too many lines. William finally thought she would call the Flesh Puppets into the estate. Shitou, she called without taking her eyes away. Give me the spare petals. There isnt enough, Shitous voice was a whisper, likely due to his weak state. The body will need everything to recover. Then maybe I should have a backup just in case, the corrupted avatar squeezed her hand. me this on yourself, boy. Williams eyes widened when he was unceremoniously thrown out of the estate through the window. He immediately went into survival mode, expecting to be besieged on all sides by the Flesh Puppets. However, he found that they hadnt moved from their spots on the wall. He was second-guessing himself. Maybe it would have been better to take action instead of waiting for the corrupted avatar to be fully corporeal. His goal had been to stay near Kaes body at all costs while also saving enough Spiritual Energy to survive. It was a thin line to walk, and he felt there were no right decisions, only ones that would lead to worse or disastrous situations. William felt that he might have pushed himself into thetter. The corrupted avatar followed him out of the estate, around a quarter of her body now corporeal. This is regrettable, shemented, her aura turning darker by the second. Your body would not have been needed if you hadnt interfered with your friends purification. A Soul Lotus is used to raise cultivation, not purification. William couldnt help but raise that point, hoping to draw more information from her. This was another reason he was hesitant to take action. He only had enough Spiritual Energy to use the Elemental Gauntlet two more times, but that would also mean there wasnt enough for [Force Multiplier]. The initial attempt to destroy Kaes body was apparently unsessful since Shitou shielded the face, and their actions implied Kae was still usable even with the hole in his chest. I created the Soul Lotus, the corrupted avatar spread her arms. I know what it is capable of. William was taken aback at the revtion and even more so at the strange pose she was making. It was as if she wanted praise from him. He had been confident that this truly wasnt Sophia, but she revealed bits and pieces of information that put some doubt in that confidence. The corrupted avatar was like Sophia, except for some key memories that were taken away, which made her act like any other old monster. Any native with extremely high cultivation would likely act like this. He had assumed that corrupted avatar meant evil. That wasnt the case at all. She was just like any other cultivator looking out for her own interest. However, this was from his own observation, which was admittedly short. William would still have to fall back on Lord Paddlingtons words that she had to be removed. Still, referring to her by who she really was made more sense instead of corrupted avatar. If Empress Sophia had created the Soul Lotus, I would have easily found out when I was researching them. William noticed the air shimmering around her outstretched fingers. He was about to forget about any ns and just attack before it was toote. So you knew who I was, Corrupted Sophia curled her fingers, yet you chose to be this obstinate. The Flesh Puppets were finally moving. He decided it was now or never. He activated [Force Multiplier]. [-200 Spiritual Energy] B2 - Chapter 102 B2 - Chapter 102 William rocketed toward Corrupted Sophia, ignoring everything else in the courtyard. The Flesh Puppets were too weak when he had [Force Multiplier] active, and she was the one that brought him out of the estate for a reasonhe didnt want to find out what that reason was. His Qi-covered fist met Corrupted Sophias outstretched fingers with an intent to destroy. Her fingers crackedsounding like ss shatteringand broke apart into thousands of pieces that disintegrated. The first strike was far more sessful than William could have hoped. He didnt let up. With a grunt, he mmed his other fist into Corrupted Sophias only corporeal shoulder. It shattered just like her fingers before fading. He sensed danger from behind and quickly jumped to get clear of any Flesh Puppets around him. He saw several that had been only ten feet away, with far more following behind. William wished he could have finished the job and reached all of the corporeal parts of Corrupted Sophias body, but this was a start. He knew it wasn''t enough. He saw the unaffected expression on Corrupted Sophiathe same expression she had throughout the damage he caused. He scanned the crowd of Flesh Puppets and confirmed that all the levels were in the hundred and fifty to hundred and sixty range. The strange part was the unwavering focus he saw among the Flesh Puppetsnot at him, but at Corrupted Sophia. William felt a chill run down his spine. Even the feeling of invincibility couldnt prevent his skin from prickling in fear when he realized that Corrupted Sophia was staring up at him with a smileone filled with regret. With all her talk about preferring to keep William alive due to being a pure human, he quickly understood what that meant. She saw him as a dead man. Corrupted Sophia had her right shoulder, arm, and hand missing, with the rest of herpletely transparent. Even with that, she thought he had no chance to live. William finally started to descend from the peak of his jump. He had to stop whatever was going to happen. He immediately disregarded Corrupted Sophia since he could do nothing to her when she was in that state. However, the Flesh Puppets were another matter. Corrupted Sophia summoned them, but it didnt seem to be for dealing with him. He shifted, turning his body to face the Flesh Puppets instead of Corrupted Sophia. He needed to eliminate as many of them as possible within the time limit of [Force Multiplier]. William was ready to crush a few Flesh Puppets beneath his feet when he caught a disturbing sight in the corner of his eye. The four Flesh Puppets closest to Corrupted Sophia had been absorbed by her. That by itself was enough to shock him, but the parts of the body that he had disintegrated were slowly reappearing. The rm that rang through Williams mind couldnt be any louder. This was probably why she had brought him out here. Of course, he had no doubt that a small part of the reason was to get him away from Kaes body, but this was the real reason. Corrupted Sophia would be restored bybining with these Flesh Puppets. It suddenly made sense why she was furious about him taking all the Flesh Creation Elixirs. William mmed into the ground with all the force he could muster, crushing two Flesh Puppets on hisnding. [+17575 XP] The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the vition. [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] [+14800 XP] He made sure to pull the crushed Flesh Puppets into the spatial stone. With the way his spirit beast egg was helped by corpses, he didnt want to risk leaving them out for Corrupted Sophia to possibly use them the same way. If this was any other situation, he would be celebrating that an avatar of Sophiacorrupted or nothad a simr ability to gather strength as his spirit beast egg. Unfortunately, this was terrible for William. He dashed forward into the nearest crowd of Flesh Puppets and did his best impression of Berserker Kae. He did his best to ignore the tiny voice in his mind yelling that he was the reason Kae was dead. It wasnt effective. Luckily, he was hurtling towards a perfect outlet. This would be a tribute to the boy whose life was taken by this dimension. William collided with the dense wall made of Flesh Puppets at full speed. The sheer force of the impact shredded multiple puppets, covering him in the dry flesh they possessed. He noticed multiple system alerts shing blue after the kills but quickly pushed them away. They could be reviewed when he wasnt in the middle of a ughter fest. William''s fist exploded through a Flesh Puppet that attempted to bite hima seeminglymon attack with themshredding the torso into nonexistence, leaving only its head and legs to fall on the ground. He didnt let up. He followed the brutal kill by grabbing two of them by the head and crushing both under his hands effortlessly. It was a blur of nonstop carnage. One that exined why Corrupted Sophia didnt bother calling Flesh Puppets into the estate as a backup to control him. They were in the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, but they were so handicapped in terms of actual fighting ability that he might as well have been facing mortals when his martial skill was activated. The problem was that every time he killed one, three reced them. There was a circle of death around William, with bodies piling up from his inability to pull them into the spatial stone without being distracted. The Flesh Puppets were doing nothing but trying to rip off a chunk of his flesh with their teeth, but [Force Multiplier] made their attemptsughable. However, the fraction of a second it would take to pull the bodies into his spatial stone was enough time for them to sink their teeth in. [Force Multiplier] increased his physical attributes, but he didnt want to test if it would protect him from tens of bites from the things that seemed to specialize in it. Thats enough. William grunted in surprise when he feltand hearda booming kick to the middle of his back. He wasunched straight into the middle of the garden, his body crashing through the well-manicured hedges, ruining several exotic flowers and shredding a tree in his way. He finally regained control andnded on his feet, but the momentum caused his feet to leave deep gouges in the soil. He had been so engrossed in destroying the Flesh Puppets that he had neglected to be aware of the main problemCorrupted Sophia. [Force Multiplier] saved him from any real damage. You are a marvel, Corrupted Sophia said appreciatively. All you need to do to cultivate is to kill. It almost makes me hesitant about what I am about to do. The Qi meszily flickering around Williams suddenly disappeared. I was waiting for that, she nodded. Ive observed that you need time between uses of the skill. He had the impulse to use [Force Multiplier] again and surprise Corrupted Sophia by proving her assumption wrong, but simply looking at her let him know that was a terrible idea. William had killed around twenty Flesh Puppets, which left nearly a hundred still standing woodenly near Corrupted Sophia. This didnt include whatever had already been absorbed. Even though he wasnt sure of the number, William was confident it didnt exceed what he had killed. And just that was enough to make Corrupted Sophia nearly corporeal. Using [Force Multiplier] now would mean wasting hisst chance on tryingand failingto kill the rest of the Flesh Puppets. Isnt this going to dy whatever you were doing with Kaes body? William asked loudly, keeping a distance. Consideration for dys was thrown out when you put a hole in your friends body, Corrupted Sophia absorbed another Flesh Puppet. However, this was far slower than what he glimpsed at the start. Shitou might sound pessimistic, but I foresee the body recovering to my standards. He saw another Flesh Puppet getting absorbed, which was also slower than the previous one. The absorption rate decreased the closer Corrupted Sophia got to being fully corporeal. I will let you keep your life until that is confirmed, but still, you must be put to sleep. Your actions are grating. William left her to it. Since he couldnt stop her from using the Flesh Puppets, he needed to better himself before he fought for his life in a minute or so. Luckily, he had a mass of alerts to go through and additional unused attribute points to assign. He kept an eye on Corrupted Sophia as he nced at the system alerts he ignored during his carnage. B2 - Chapter 103 B2 - Chapter 103 [+14240 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] [+19012 XP] [33 total alerts] [Consolidate? | Y/N] Williams eyes widened before mentally epting. [Showing consolidated alerts] [+257763 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x15 He knew the Flesh Puppets would be a great source of experience points, but he didnt think it was this much. If fifteen of the alerts had been of level-ups, there were eighteen for experience points. William frowned slightly from disappointment in himself. He had only killed eighteen Flesh Puppets. He nced at therge group of them surrounding Corrupted Sophia and was again tempted to activate [Force Multiplier], this time to farm experience points. It wasnt a terrible idea, and it would be one that he would give serious thought to after using the sudden wealth of attribute points. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 152 Experience: 11047/19000 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage) Health: 2375/2400 Spiritual Energy: 1141/1940 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 388 Strength: 240 Stamina: 110 Agility: 240 (260) Luck: 150 Points: 190 William immediately disregarded Stamina. He had only felt fatigued once, and that was when he was not using [Force Multiplier]. Without the martial skill active, he assumed it would be impossible to even hope toy a finger on Corrupted Sophia, so there was no point in bolstering the attribute. It mighte back to bite him in the future, but at least he would have a future that he could regret. No, Stamina was not an option. Neither was Luck, since that wouldnt have any tangible effect on his current situation. William needed to make [Force Multiplier] as powerful as possible, making Strength and Agile the most obvious choices. Spirit was an attribute that would be nice to increase, but its level of importance came after Strength and Agility. He did some quick math to determine the approximate Strength attribute of a cultivator in the early-stage Core Formation Realm. Because the stat points he received doubled when he advanced from Qi Gathering to Foundation Establishment, he assumed the same would happen after advancing to Core Formation. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ... The number William got made zero sense. If all the attributes were evenly spread outwhich he knew was unlikelyStrength would be a little over five hundred for a cultivator cusp of early and middle-stage Core Formation Realm. This was considering that the natives Luck attribute was freely given, unlike William, who had to assign points to it. Even if he allocated a ridiculous half of the approximate attribute points, it would be around a thousand Strength. Currently, with [Force Multiplier] active, his Strength attribute was a little less than a thousand one hundred. Corrupted Sophia shouldnt have been able to kick him away from the Flesh Puppets so easily unless he was horribly wrong with his approximations or she was at a higher realm than early-stage Core Formation. William stiffened in fear at the possibility and nced at Corrupted Sophia. She was nearly corporeal. One or two more Flesh Puppets might be absorbed before she would turn her attention to him. He quickly made the calctions for a cultivator at the peak of the Core Formation Realm. He assigned a not-as-ridiculous but still doubtful forty percent of the total points to Strength. The number came out to one thousand and four hundred. If that was the case, it made sense how he was kicked away so easily. The attribute points didnt scale linearly, which William knew for sure, so even a small percentage difference could be significant. William intended to assign enough to Strength to beat that approximated, and hopefully overestimated, number with [Force Multiplier] and have Agility match. He would keep the rest in reserve to make adjustments if needed. [+90 Strength] [+70 Agility] He had a passive effect that gave him twenty Agility, so he was able to reserve more attribute points. He pulled up the stats to give it a once-over. Spirit: 388 Strength: 330 Stamina: 110 Agility: 310 (330) Luck: 150 Points: 30 Perish. William tensed, thinking Corrupted Sophia directed that at him. His legs were already bent to make his escape when he saw what she did. The Flesh Puppets around herover seventy for suremelted onto the ground in a puddle of gooey flesh. Did you think I would continue to let you gain strength from them? Corrupted Sophia smiled at his surprise before checking her corporeal body. I have an offer for youast chance if you will. Surrender, and I guarantee your life as long as your friends body is usable. [Name: Sophia (Corrupted Avatar) | Level: ?] She now had a basic status, which settled some doubts he still had. She was indeed a corrupted avatar, so he wasnt making a massive mistake. And she was in the Core Formation Realm. William considered her offer seriously. It was hard not to when there were so many uncertainties. He might be able to match her in a fight, but it would only be for a minute while [Force Multiplier] was active. After that, he would be helplessor so he suspected. The overuse penalty for [Force Multiplier] only mentioned what would happen if there were two uses within a thirty-minute timeframe. There was nothing about a third use. It was likely it wouldnt even activate, or if it did, the result wouldnt be pretty. Even if William was able to finish the fight with Corrupted Sophia within a minute, there was another issue. Could she even be killed? Or would she just revert to her incorporeal form, making her basically untouchable? On the other hand, taking Corrupted Sophias offer would be the easy path. Much easier. Corrupted Sophia didnt know Lord Paddlington was waiting for them outside the dimension. It would be an instant death for her when she exited the dimension. However, there were two main negatives about this. Kae might still be alive since Shitou had protected his head from the Lightning Gauntlet, and the way Corrupted Sophia spoke implied that was the case. William had already tried to destroy Kaes body, but that was far, far different than letting him die. The former was out of desperation and necessity, thetter out of cowardice. Thinking about letting Corrupted Sophia take over Kaes body left a bad taste in his mouth. The other negative was the one that made taking Corrupted Sophias offer nearly impossible. William did not trust a single wording out of her mouth. He had no reason to. Zheng Tao had acted kind and amenable, just like this corrupted avatar of Sophia, but the end result was full of deceit. If a fledgling cultivator was capable of such betrayal, so could a millennia-old, corrupted avatar. Theres still something I dont get, William sidestepped her offer and prepared himself for what wasing. Why do you need to use Kaes body when yours is perfectly fine? Im the key. As long as Im alive, this dimension cannot fall. Nor can anyone leave unless a prison keeper allows you to. But Im sure they died eons ago. He had just been thinking that nothing out of her mouth could be trusted, but this was an exception. It made too much sense. Otherwise, there was no logic in Corrupted Sophia willingly letting go of her body and recing it with Kaesa beast hybrid. Freedom would be enough reason to look past her disdain for non-pure humans. I see, William nodded. I suppose that should let me stomach what youre doing to Kae. Corrupted Sophia raised an immacte eyebrow. And yet, I suspect what follows will not please me. [-200 Spiritual Energy] William appeared before her in an instant, fists shining with Qi inches from her face. B2 - Chapter 104 B2 - Chapter 104 The explosion from the impact created a shockwave that cratered the ground and lifted Corrupted Sophia clean off her feet before rocketing into the estate behind her. The building copsed from the force of her body crashing into it. William nced at his fist with wide eyes before quickly crushing his shock and lunged after her. He was so swift that he tore through the very fabric of the air as he locked onto her like a missile. Corrupted Sophia had still been getting her bearings, cheek swollen from the punch it had absorbed, when William was well within her personal space. His fists were a blur, aimed with lethal precision. His only goal was to cause as much damage as possible and take her out in the minute timeframe he had. William had blocked out the fact that this was Sophias avatar, with her exact visage. He needed to inflict savagery upon her without faltering. Instead of Corrupted Sophia before him, he imagined it was Zheng Tao to avoid conflicting feelings. William''s unlimited fury and hatred toward the traitor was critical to the barrage of fists he was unleashing. Corrupted Sophias face, torso, joints, and anything vulnerable in Williams eyes were key targets. Enough! Corrupted Sophia screamed, a burst of fire exploding out of her and pushing William away. YOU WILL DIE, BOY! He had been thrown all the way to the entrance, giving him a full view of the change in Corrupted Sophia. A massive sphere of fire burnt anything but the estate to ashes, likely the thing that threw William so far away. The next moment, the sphere of fire disappeared so quickly he would have thought he imagined it if not for the damage around Corrupted Sophia. She no longer looked like the amenable woman who had been speaking to him. She looked murderous. Understandable due to what just urred. Corrupted Sophia red as her arms rose, hands facing the sky before a low rumble was heard from above. William saw storm clouds forming, quickly realizing what she was nning. If she wanted to bring down lightning, he was happy to let her. That would take time. His fist would not. The ground cracked when William''s form disappeared, a trail of destruction behind him as he shot toward Corrupted Sophia. This time, she was prepared. Corrupted Sophias blue eyes glowed brightly before she brought down an arm from the sky in a fury. He thought he would be struck by a bolt, causing him to shred the ground in his attempt to avoid it. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. William was wrong. It wasnt lighting but ice. Deadly spears made of ice struck the spot he had just vacated, but that wasnt the end. Corrupted Sophia had plenty to spare. William spent precious seconds hopping around the garden, ruining everything in his path by cratering the ground in his avoidance attempts. Every single second was being tracked by him, knowing that once he hit sixty, it was over. Corrupted Sophia smirked as she kept him away with constant ice spear barrages. She knew precisely what he was worried about and was doing everything to dy. William roared in anger after a few more seconds were wasted. If he had to take damage to get closer to her, so be it. He stopped in his tracks, eyeing the ice spearsing directly at him with rage before exploding forward. He only had use of his fists, so that was precisely what he used against the spears. [-5 HP] William growled in satisfaction when the ice spear shattered on his fist. The tiny pinprick of pain was well worth it. He set to ignore the system alerts and powered on, ice shards surrounding him like a fog as the spears shattered continuously before him as he punched her attacks into submission. Again, this talent is wasted on you! Corrupted Sophia uncharacteristically yelled with wild eyes. He ignored her. She was well within reach, and for some strange reason, she refused to move. William didnt care why. He stared into her hate-filled eyes and edged closer before getting to his spot. He grunted as his right fist mmed into the side of her head, his left following with a brutal punch that left an indent at the bottom of her ribs, shattering it without a doubt. He continued without slowing, never hesitating. Corrupted Sophia needed to die, and die fast. He might have been confused as to why she refused to move, but after the tenth bone-breaking fist failed to get her left arm, he knew. She was desperately gathering the storm clouds above while risking it all. She did nothing to protect her body or face, but anything targeting her left arm was fiercely defended, to the point of lunacy. She was standing like a wall, absorbing everything he had to give, meaning there was no cushion for the blows. William felt fatigue seeping into his bones, and his barrage grew weaker. His intense rage had lessened, allowing him to notice something in his calmer state. Corrupted Sophia willingly allowed herself to be damaged for a good reason. It took him far too long to realize why. Each hit hended caused the sky to grow more ominous. And each hit hended was apanied by the slightest movement by Corrupted Sophia, making his blows look impressive but doing no true damage to her. William''s heart skipped a beat in terror. He immediately put space between them and nced at the sky to see roiling snakes of lightning traveling through the pitch-ck clouds. Not bad, Corrupted Sophia suddenly sounded calmer. He saw her wounds visibly healing, and his heart sank. He only had ten seconds left, and counting. There was little else he could do, not that he still wasnt trying his damndest to figure something out. This healing is superficial. You left four serious injuries on me, and Im sure they would have been fatal for any other Core Formation Realm cultivator. You were quite impressive in what you achieved, Corrupted Sophia said to cheer him up for some reason. However, I despise my person in such a state. Its unbing, dont you agree? Five seconds left. William still had no idea what to do. The moment you dared to touch me, your fate was sealed, Corrupted Sophias visage grew dark even though she was still smiling. Death is too good for you. Your soul shall be reaped. He thought his heart was beating fast before. That was nothing. He could feel it strain itself as he panicked. Corrupted Sophia brought her arm down. The world went white. B2 - Chapter 105 B2 - Chapter 105 William had several thoughts when Corrupted Sophia brought down the sky. The first was obvioushe would die. The second was more of the sameno soul means no reincarnation. The third was a wild hopeconvert as much Qi as possible into Lightning Qi. [Force Multiplier] was still activetwo seconds leftmeaning all the Qi in his body was being used. He forced the conversion anyway. He would meet a fate worse than death if he didnt try. It worked technically. Only the smallest percentage of his Qi was able to be converted, less than one percent. That was all the time William had before he froze, unable to move anything, but his thoughts were running at full speed. Not that it did any good. All he could think of was pain. He had never felt anything like it. It was literal torture that he could feel breaking his mind, and he wasnt sure if he could hold on if there was anything to hold on for. William could feel something moving inside him, searching for something important. He needed a distraction, so he eagerly tried to shift his focus there. PAIN. He cked out. *** William shuddered back to consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes to see ck clouds gradually disappear from the sky above him, which he was staring at on his back. It seemed like he had fainted? Every time I decide to take your life, you prove how much of a waste that would be. He winced and tried to push himself off the ground to sit up, but it was a struggle to move even a finger. He had run out of Stamina. I suppose that had to be the weakest Heavenly Punishment I had summoned. Perhaps if I allowed you to continue your strikes, Corrupted Sophia continued to speak to herself. My power is still too diminished. William didnt think much time had passed, but the only thing that mattered was that he was alive. The first thing he needed to do was add Stamina so he could move. He mentally called for the system and was shown the missed alerts. [Showing consolidated alerts] [-5 HP] x43 [Force Multiplier Overuse Penalty] [-1200 HP] [Trait Added | Attribute Penalty - 25% reduction of Strength, Stamina, and Agility] [Heavenly Punishment Detected] [Single wave of Heavenly Punishment too weak to damage Perfected Soul] [Modified | Martial Skill Compatibility] Stolen story; please report. [Heavenly Thunder Infusion | 27% > 100%] [Trait Modified | Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect] [(+20 Agility) > (+40 Agility, +40 Strength)] [Earth-Tier marital skill unlocked] [Heavenly Thunder Scripture (0% Compatibility)] The multiple small losses of health were from the ice spears he punched out of existence. The rest of the alerts were self-exnatory. The overuse penalty was expected, but the fact that he was attacked by Heavenly Punishment was definitely not. Perfecting his soul had saved him from erasure from the reincarnation cycle. If he could get out of this dimension with his life, he swore to find a way to upgrade his soul again. With all the trouble attracted to him, he was unfortunately sure this wouldnt be thest time he experienced Heavenly Punishment. Thought it would be more fitting to call it Heavenly Reward instead. As long as the unimaginable pain was ignored, it was a gift bestowed on him. William still couldnt move his body, but he could feel the pure Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi just waiting to be summoned in his body. The Heavenly Punishments lightning forced his body to learn what he had been struggling so much with, automatically giving him ess to the earth-tier martial skill he won in the auction. Im not even angry, Corrupted Sophiaughed heartily. Instead of having your soul erased, you use the heavens to benefit. We have far too much inmon! He quickly made the system screen disappear. Of all the idiotic things he could have done, forgetting that Corrupted Sophia, even if she was a corrupted avatar, could see his system messages was near inexcusable. William knew he had thirty unused attribute points. He ensured no alerts would show and added all those points to Stamina. It still felt like his body had a million-ton weight holding it down, but he was able to ess his Qi, though with a struggle. He wasnt sure how that would help. If Corrupted Sophia was able to casually take every strike when he was giving maximum effort, there was nothing he could do in his state. Unless. He saw Corrupted Sophia standing over him with an interested look in her eyes. He wasnt sure what she was nning for him now, but he wanted no part of it. There were some things he hadnt attempted, mainly because he had no idea what would happen even if he did, but there were no other options. First, he needed an excuse to use his Qi to check the spatial stone without Corrupted Sophia stopping him, or worse. Wait, William winced at his dry, cracked voice. Ill return all the elixirs if you let me live. Not a bad deal, but whats stopping me from taking it myself? Corrupted Sophia asked with amusement. Try it. William hoped Elder Yu''s words about the spatial stone were true. If a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator couldnt do anything to it, neither could a cultivator whose cultivation was lower by a major realm. However, his concern wasnt about the corrupted avatars Core Formation Realm cultivation. It was the fact that Sophia had created this spatial tone for him in the Shard. The corrupted avatar might have had some type of backdoor to ess the spatial stone since she technically was the one who created it. He desperately hoped that wasnt the case. Confident, Corrupted Sophia said with raised brows. Lets see if your words match reality. William felt himself suffocate when her Qi surrounded him briefly before focusing on his chest. She was targeting his spatial stone, but it felt like an additional million-ton weight was ced on his body. Thankfully, it didntst long. It seems youre right, Corrupted Sophia frowned. That spatial artifact was created by someone with skill that might have matched mine when I was at my peak. The corrupted avatar of Sophia was praising her ascended self. William wanted tough, but it was exhausting to make unnecessary movements, so he kept quiet. We have a deal. Give me the elixirs. William gave her a slight nod and mustered all his will to send the barest amount of Qi into the spatial stone. He immediately saw that every single elixir was gone, consumed by the spirit beast egg that seemed to be in a slumber. He didnt care. William never intended to return the elixirs. He didnt suddenly trust the wordsing out of the corrupted avatar. He distrusted it even more. After all, this was someone who smiled while casually announcing that she would be erasing his soul. No, he was under the firm belief that he would die today. Since that was the case, he would do everything he could to take her out with him. That involved the three treasures he had received in the Shard. Treasures that were meant for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators. B2 - Chapter 106 B2 - Chapter 106 William didnt have the chance to look at his health, but with the alerts he saw, it was safe to assume he had around a third left. It would be ideal if he could take some Vitality Restoration Pills to restore it before attempting this, but the corrupted avatar would never allow that to happen. He pushed away the depressing thought of his impending doom. There could have been things that he had done differently, and maybe it might have been better to take his chances in trusting the corrupted avatars word at the start. But he didnt. William warily scanned the three treasures to see if he could glean any from them. It had been so long since he had dared to even look at them, afraid that the treasures would somehow be found out if he did. The treasures were parts of the massive giantMagmaheart Goliaththat Sophia had installed in the Shard as the caretaker of the realm stone. A small, palm-sized puddle of gold liquidthe blood. A charred cube as tall as he was, with a rough, pitted surfacethe skin. A crystal ball half a foot wide, glowing a deep red with wisps of bright orange appearing asionallythe eyes. Williams brief scan didnt tell him much. He wished he could bring them all out at once, but again, the corrupted avatar would likely kill him before he could. He barely had enough control over his Qi in his weakened state to bring out one, let alone three. The gold liquid was tossed as a choice. He felt it was more likely to be for healing instead of damage. However, he could certainly see the liquid acting likeva due to where it originated. Thetter was the obvious choice between the charred cube and the crystal ball. The cube clearly represented the skin of the Magmaheart Goliath. It might have been good for defense, but he couldnt see how it would help with taking down the corrupted avatar. William sensed that two seconds had passed. Too long. She would be getting suspicious. He let go of his fear and wrapped his Qi around the crystal ball. Unlike when he did this to move it into the spatial stone, the crystal ball reacted. The red glow retreated to reveal a burning orange sclera and a vertical, elongated, ck oval pupil spanning the side facing him. It was staring straight at him unblinkingly. William could feel the faint presence of the creature it once wasthe same beast that he had killed to escape the Shard. He thought for a moment that he had just weed another issue right when he couldnt afford it. Thankfully, the eye dimmed before returning to its docile statea crystal ball that glowed red. He let out a mental sigh that was abination of relief and happiness. The treasure didnt seem to be against him. Since it had some level of sentience, hopefully, it would recognize what Corrupted Sophia was. William remembered how much the Magmaheart Goliath hated abominations and those that worked against Sophia. He prayed that the corrupted avatar qualified to earn its hatred. He pulled the crystal ball out of the spatial stone, and itnded on his chest. Corrupted Sophia chuckled above him. I wondered why you were suddenly willing to negotiate. I must say Im disappointed. What is this supposed to be? William was disappointed, too. He nkly stared at the night sky, the dark clouds no longer blocking the moon. He supposed this wasnt too bad of a sight to have before he died. The bodys ready, Shitous voice called from the ruined estate. Looked like the rock spirit and Kae were unaffected by the destruction caused by him throwing Corrupted Sophia into it. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. You put up a valiant effort, but its time to conclude this, Corrupted Sophia bent down to peer at the crystal ball. And you are truly filled with artifacts beyond your means. If you were able to use this, you would have likely been able to seed. What does it do? No idea, William had a dead tone. He didnt care to bother with speaking to his soon-to-be killer, especially to give information. Hm, Corrupted Sophia shrugged and picked up the crystal ball. Itll be put to good use once I regain some of my cultivation. He had a slight hope that the corrupted avatar touching the crystal ball would have caused it to react, but all that brought him was more disappointment. William grimaced when she covered his forehead with her palm. Taking out the crystal ball had sapped him of so much energy that he couldnt even fight back. Your body will be preserved, and your soul will not be erased, Corrupted Sophiaforted. I hope you are not as obstinate in your next life. He tensed when he sensed her Qi pressing into him, suppressing his thoughts and dimming his vision. She was going to suffocate his consciousness until he was just an empty shell. Abomination. Williams mind was slowly emerging from his muddy state, but even then, it was hard not to hear the booming voice filled with disgust. Your existence is sphemous to the Empress. He blinked away the blurriness to see Corrupted Sophia standing unnaturally straight. A burning orange-sclera eye floated in front of her. It looked like she was frozen and unable to move, even to look away from the eye. William didnt have time to celebrate before the oval pupil focused on him. This exceeds the requirements for imntation. Do you still wish to use the abomination as the sacrifice? Requirements for what? Whats being imnted? He blurted out, eying the rage on Corrupted Sophias face. Silence was his answer. The eye kept staring at him, waiting. It looked like he would have to make another choice with little knowledge. However, it wasnt as if there was a choice other than this. The eye was saying that Corrupted Sophia was to be the sacrifice, and he had been determined to make her die with him. This was close enough. Hopefully, whatever was going to be imnted wouldnt be disastrous. How long can you hold her in ce? William tried another question. He hoped to recover some stamina and pull the Vitality Restorations Pills out of the ring. Choose now. Do you wish to use the abomination as the sacrifice? William frowned, assuming that was the eye giving him the answer indirectly. He didnt think he could risk waiting too long even if it wasn''t. He nced at Corrupted Sophia for hopefully thest time. If looks would kill, he would be dead twenty times over. Yes. A tether sprung into existence between the eye and the corrupted avatar. William recognized this. It was precisely the same as the tether that formed between Princess Jin and the Seedling in the Shard. The eye would use Corrupted Sophias life force to power whatever it was imnting. William was still on his back, still unable to move, and unable to use the Stamina Elixirs that Kae had given at the start. He could do nothing but stare when the eye turned back to him and started to glow a bright gold. The tether of light between the eye and Corrupted Sofia increased in intensity to match the glow. William gasped when a tether formed between him and the eye, this one gold. It didnt feel like it was doing anything to him, but he knew it was only a matter of time. He came to the obvious conclusion that whatever was being imnted would being from Corrupted Sophia. The gold tether expanded, slowly covering more and more of his body until all he could see was gold. It wasnt harsh to look at, more muted and natural, but it still terrified him of what was toe. William didnt have to wait long to find out. It started as pinpricks on his feet, slowly expanding until it covered his entire body. It wasnt painful, just beyond ufortable. Coring. The word itself installed terror. For good reason. William opened his mouth to scream soundlessly. It felt like something was drilling through his insidesnerves, blood vessels, organseverything. He could feel something recing whatever was cored out. This was a good thing. A great thing. Probably. He had gone through intense moments of pain before, and this wasnt even the worst. The Heavenly Punishment that Corrupted Sophia had called down was worse by multiple orders of magnitude. Losing his mind then was eptable since William had thought he would die. This coring was the opposite. He was benefitting. William clenched his teeth and crushed the pain as much as he could before putting all his focus on the changes happening inside him. Extracting. The pain spiked, and the world went ck. B2 - Chapter 107 B2 - Chapter 107 William opened his eyes to a white sky. He pushed himself to sit up and groaned from the soreness of his body. It felt like he had overdone a training session He stood up instantly and looked around, remembering what happened before he lost consciousness. Corrupted Sophia was nowhere to be seen, and neither was that crystal ball that turned into an eyed. And it couldnt be forgotten that thetter also performed surgery on him. William ran his hands over his body to see if anything had changed or, worse, missing. He felt his face, the shape still familiar andforting. Everything was fine externally. Internal changes would have to be examined by someone from the sect. He looked around again to confirm that the corrupted avatar was gone and noticed something strange. He narrowed his eyes and realized that the sky wasnt white. It was nk. The few remaining portions of the night sky remained, but they were slowly being deletedyer byyer. The dimension was copsing. William shook his head and pulled up the missed system alerts to discover what had happened. [+30 Stamina] That was it. Nothing was indicating what, if anything, had changed with his body. He pulled up the status screen. Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 152 Experience: 11047/19000 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage) Health: 955/2400 Spiritual Energy: 1940/1940 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 388 Strength: 330 (289) Stamina: 140 (105) Agility: 310 (283) Luck: 150 Points: 0 Traits (3): 1. Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect (+40 Agility, +40 Strength) 2. Minor Mastery of Horizons Seeker (x1.2 multiplier on all Qi-based skills and attacks) 3. Attribute Penalty - 25% reduction of Strength, Stamina, and Agility William scanned it and saw nothing that caught his eye. He did notice that his Spiritual Energy was fully recovered, which meant he had been unconscious for hours. There were no changes whatsoever. The recovered Spiritual Energy did help to remove the worry of getting killed. If the corrupted avatar had somehow survived, he would surely have been finished off while unconscious. Still, it didnt exin this. Main Quest (1): 1. Remove Empress Sophias corrupted avatar William just hoped the quest was active because the dimension still existed. He froze, realizing he had forgotten about Kae in all the worry about the state of his body. He rushed to the estate and threw the debris in his way beforeing to his fellow disciples body. The first thing William noticed was that it was healed. Kaes chest no longer had a gaping hole, and he was breathing steadily. Kae was alive. William let out a relievedugh at the sight. Thanks. His eyes sharpened at hearing Shitous voice. Thankfully, it came from the floor instead of Kaes forehead. For what? William asked warily. He couldnt afford to have another fight. He remembered how Shitou had repelled him from Kaes body. Ending this ce, Shitou shrugged his tiny shoulders. I didnt care how it would happen, just that it did happen. It would have been much easier if you hadnt lured Kae William cut himself off and took a deep breath. Forget it. Its over. Is Kae going to be fine? Hes breathing, but did the avatar do something to his mind? Soul? No idea, Shitou replied unhelpfully. I didnt care to pay attention to what the witch was doing. Right, William sighed before looking out the broken wall at the quickening copse of the dimension. How do I get out of here? This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Just wait. You dont belong here. Neither of you. Youll be kicked out when the dimension cant support outsiders. He had no choice but to believe what Shitou said. This whole ce was confusing, with too many contradictory possibilities, which meant he was missing something big. William found it hard to believe the Jade Healing Sect, in its entirety, hadpletely forgotten about this ce. Lord Paddlington was powerful, but he didnt know the sect''s inner workings. He could only conclude what seemed to have happened based on appearances. If this dimension had been unused for millennia, it would look forgotten to anyone. The more likely exnation was that it was kept as a high-level secret that only a few would know, but he couldnt understand why the dimension was left like this. It had deteriorated heavily over time, and it was apparent how much just from Sophias corrupted avatar. Hey. William was snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Shitou. Really, thanks again. If I had known the witch had be so weak, I would have helped you instead. The copse of the dimension had reached the estate. It looked like Shitou was saying hisst words. Not out of guilt but just to speak. William kept his mouth shut and nodded slightly. Shitou was going to die. There was no need to anger him and possibly cause issues right when it was all over. As if a higher power heard him, a crack appeared in the air before splitting open to reveal a dark vortex. It instantly started to pull at William and Kae, proving Shitou''s words right about getting kicked out. William propped Kae on his shoulder and quickly walked into the vortex, ready to end their stay in the dimension as fast as possible. He felt the familiar, ufortable travel before reappearing on the tiny ind where it all started. Never thought I would be so happy to see this tiny ind, William smiled to himself as he looked around. It doesnt seem like hes possessed. William snapped his head to the voice. Lord Paddlington was poking at his Kaes cheek. What are you doing? He asked with a frown. Kaes injured. Dont disturb him. Thats the problem, Lord Paddlington floated to face him. Why is he only injured? That corrupted avatar should be possessing his body. The wheels in Williams mind slowly turned. You told me to bring Kae to give her a target. Kae was never meant toe out alive. Well, yes, Lord Paddlington bobbed its head. You would probably moan andin, so I didnt tell youDid you fail? The turtles face became rmed before it zipped to the gate. It returned shortly and stared at him with an odd look. No, you didnt fail Lord Paddlington was interrupted by sudden system alerts that distracted both of them. [Main Quest Completed | Remove Empress Sophias corrupted avatar] [+200000 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] x10 [Hidden Bonus | Pass the 1st round of the Wheel of Death with no injuries] [+20000 XP] [Level Up! | 10 Stat Points Added] Is that good? Lord Paddlington stared at the text with a puzzled expression. William honestly expected more, but he supposed that the corrupted avatar breaking the Wheel of Death prevented him from getting many hidden bonuses. Still, that wasnt the thing he wanted to talk about. You sent Kae to his death, William returned to the topic he cared about, and you lied about the corrupted avatars strength. I was barely able to do anything against her. So youre saying you were able to do something? Lord Paddlington looked impressed. Your growth rate is more impressive than I thought. She should have had the physical attributes of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm, even if her cultivation had fallen to the middle of Core Formation. With the way the corrupted avatar had tanked Williams strikes while [Force Multiplier] was active, that made a lot of sense. Still, this wasnt what he wanted to discuss. What would you have done if Kaes body had actually been taken over by the corrupted avatar? Lord Paddlington looked at him with concern. Killed him, of course. Why did you ask a question with such an obvious answer? Forget it, William sighed. He was just frustrated with the whole thing. Okay, Lord Paddlington nodded, ncing behind him. Can you see if Kaes going to be fine? Stop asking me human issues, the turtle said, not turning to look at him. How should I know? You all look the same to me. William rolled his eyes. Then send us back to the sect. I want to get Kae checked as soon as possible. Lord Paddlington finally looked away from whatever had his focus to face him. I released control over the formations. Your Elders should be here in a few minutes. Good, good, William nodded in thanks. I could use some rest, too. Hm, Lord Paddlington was apathetic. Ill be heading to the capital from here. I sense another fragmented realm stone near the area. Since my master ced her trust in you, Im willing to give you some responsibility. Are you interested? He was immediately wary. It depends on what you want me to do. I know the three remaining fragmented realm stones are within the Tianxia Empire, but there is something simr in a smaller kingdom that borders it. I want you to find out what it is and deal with it as necessary. Like what I dealt with in there? William pointed to the now-broken gate. It might be, but I cant be sure. He thought over it for a second and didnt see the harm in doing it. Still, he needed more information. Where is it, exactly? And what else should I know? William asked before quickly adding, I wont be taking Kae with me, so there wont be anyone to be used as a sacrificial pawn. He didnt want to walk into another situation unprepared. I dont know enough to warn you of anything, Lord Paddlington shook its tiny head. As for the location, its in one of the newer kingdoms called the Sunrise Kingdom. [Main Quest: Investigate the hint of Empress Sophias presence in the Sunrise Kingdom] [Information: Lord Paddlington has discovered the lingering presence of his master in the Sunrise Kingdom. While he locates the remaining realm stones, he wants you to find out how the Sunrise Kingdom can still have his masters presence.] [Reward: ?] [Penalty: ? | Decreased reputation with Lord Paddlington] [ept: Y/N] I will think less of you if you fail? Lord Paddlington tilted its head as it read the message with him. It nodded its head. The system is right. I will think less of you if you fail to do something so simple. William ignored the turtle. This was the kingdom that Lin Lin created. He wanted to go. I ept. [Main Quest epted | Investigate the hint of Empress Sophias presence in the Sunrise Kingdom] Excellent! I dont have to waste time in some pointless kingdom, Lord Paddlington raised its flippers in celebration. The turtle grew smaller, to the size of half his palm, before freezing. It floated ufortably close to Williams eyes. Did you always have different colored eyes? What? He blinked in confusion. Wait, I have different colored eyes?! This one is white, with a dot in the center, Lord Paddlington described his left eye poetically, and this one is red. William reached up to cover his right eye in confusion. His mind immediately went to the imntation he had gone through. There had been no way to look at himself, so he couldnt have known that his right eye had changed. How did you not see the difference immediately? William asked faintly, more focused on how this new eye must be from the Magmaheart Goliath. The beast had burning eyes, but he didnt know what they could do, nor did the system inform him of the change. I told you, all you humans look the same to me, Lord Paddlington nced back again. Its time for me to go. Give me good news the next time I see you, Wei Liang. The turtle disappeared. William supported Kae as he wondered how to exin what happened to the Elders. B2 - Final Stats B2 - Final Stats Name: Wei Liang (William) Age: 14 Level: 163 Experience: 17172/20375 Cultivation: Foundation Establishment (Middle Stage) Health: 955/2400 Spiritual Energy: 1940/1940 (20% per Hour) Spirit: 388 Strength: 330 (370) Stamina: 140 The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the vition. Agility: 310 (340) Luck: 150 Points: 110 Traits (3): 1. Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect (+40 Agility, +40 Strength) 2. Minor Mastery of Horizons Seeker (x1.2 multiplier on all Qi-based skills and attacks) 3. Attribute Penalty - 25% reduction of Strength, Stamina, and Agility Main Quest (1): 1. Investigate the hint of Empress Sophias presence in the Sunrise Kingdom Side Quests (7): 1. Daoist Chen has challenged you to be a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward 2. Mission: Investigating Strange urrences 3. Kill Zheng Tao and the cell he belongs to 4. Visit the Jade Cauldron Peak 5. Be a martial arts expert 6. Help Rising Merchant House gain a foothold in Qingyun City 7. Mission: Clear 6 beast waves at Level 2 Book 2 Preorder + Book 3 Info + Series News Book 2 Preorder + Book 3 Info + Series News I''m thinking about adding an Elder Yu chapter at the end of the book. If I decide to, I''ll post it here tomorrow. Book 2 Preorder Info: The book is getting the needed edits and will be released in 5-8 days. The exact date depends on when Book 2 is finalized. If you''re interested, the link is below. Book 2 Preorder Book 3 Info: If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. I basically dumped the chapters on Patreon to RR to get the full book here before stub. This means I''ll have to build the chapters back. It''ll take around 2 weeks to have 25 chapters posted on Patreon, so the posting on RR will be paused until then. Series News: The series will be continued to at least 5 books. It was intended to be 3, but there is no way I can finish it that fast with the pace I chose. The first novel is doing decent on Amazon, which definitely helps this decision, but I would have done it no matter what. The Amazon earnings just makes me write it faster than I would have without it. That pretty much covers it for Transcending Dreams news. I know a bunch skip these kinds of updates, so for the ones that read, here''s some unrted news. I''ve been writing a second novel since about Novemberst year. I have the first book fully written and will be ready to start posting on RR once I have a decent bit of the next book done. It''s our secret B2 End - Yu Yanhua B2 End - Yu Yanhua Yu Yanhua peered at the border with a nk expression. The Dazhou Kingdomy just beyond, and with a disciple of the sect already insulting them by running away from her station, it would take time to get what she wanted from the royal family. The kingdom was uniquepared to most others, choosing to specialize in the arts instead of one of the orthodox cultivation paths. They shunned alchemy andbat-focused cultivation for ones incorporating musical instruments, calligraphy, and painting. Those were the mostmon specialties within Dazhou Kingdoms border. Yu Yanhua knew there were many she couldnt ever hope to recognize. However, she didnt look down on the kingdom because of this unorthodox path. Plenty of powerhouse cultivators rose from Dazhou Kingdom. In fact, they were only second to the Tianxia Empire in the number of Spirit Severing Realm cultivators they produced. It was doubly impressive since Dazhou Kingdom was the smallest of the independent kingdoms that bordered the Tianxia Empire. There were hardliners in the Empire that often brought up the idea of annexing Dazhou Kingdom every few decades, but they only represented the extremes of the Empire. The cost to do so would be extreme, and those hardliners were treated as annoying flies before being ignored. Yu Yanhua wasnt here at the Empire''s request. She was here to purchase a drum that created a bubble of protection by separating spacea necessary item for visiting the Deste Land below Nascent Soul Realm. Her goal would have been easier to aplish if Disciple Su Rou hadnt treated Dazhou Kingdom with disdain. She sighed and continued to wait in ce. Yu Yanhua had received word that Wei Liang and another disciple had been on a routine level two mission when the Abyss malfunctioned, blocking anyone from entering or exiting. She had never heard of such a thing happening in recent memory or in the past records since the Abyss was opened for disciples. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. She remembered how Wei Liang had somehow found himself pulled into the Shard on another routine mission and wondered if this was another case simr to that. This news arrived nearly a day ago when Yu Yanhua was still far from the Empires border. She didnt think much of it since this was within the sect''s borders. When she reached the border without any further news, she realized that this was a massive issue. Yu Yanhua didnt deal with the Abyss but knew the formations that supported the dimension gaveplete control to the Elders in charge. Nothing could happen in the Abyss without them knowing about it. There were fail-safes that created multiple passages to the Abyss to prevent anyone from getting trapped, and the amount of time without an update implied all of that had failed. She now knew there was a real chance that Wei Liang was lost. Yu Yanhua saw no need to enter Dazhou Kingdom until he was confirmed to be alive. Geniuses were lost all the time, and their deaths usually brought down the sect behind them. Thankfully, she hadnt spent any of the allocated resources. It wouldnt have been ruinous, but it would have damaged the sects finances for a few decades. Yu Yanhua straightened when a crack formed in front of her, splitting open slightly before a jade token was expelled. She caught it with a frown. Such a method of passing on messages wouldnt done unless it was of grave importance. She rubbed her thumb over the smooth surface and pushed her Qi into it. The Sect Masters voice was transmitted into her mind. Wei Liang has been retrieved. He has experienced significant cultivation growth and is on the cusp of thete-stage Foundation Establishment Realm. Hispanion, Disciple Kae, is still unconscious but expected to fully recover. That was the good news. This is the bad. Yu Yanhua, Wei Liang has gained the eye of Empress Sophias guardian beast. I have been able to hide this from the other Elders for now, but he will need instruction on deactivating it. The boy is also lying about what happened in the Abyss, or at least telling half-truths. The Jade Tree Forest is dying. It started showing signs immediately after the Abyss returned to normal. I suspect the same is happening with the forest the Imperial Family controls. The Soul Lotus will no longer exist in a few decades. The Imperial Familys demands on our resources will increase soon. Return to the sect. Teach We Liang to hide the eye. Talk to him and find out what happened. You might have better luck. Yu Yanhua red her Qi, disintegrating the jade token into nonexistence with arge frown on her face. She nced at the border before turning around. She would returnter. New Story Announcement: [Farmer] Mage New Story Announcement: [Farmer] Mage So this unfortunately isn''t a chapter update. Book 3 has been kicking my ass, but I''m finally making some progress on it after getting my mind off it for a few weeks. I didn''t stop writing though. In those few weeks, I wrote the start of a new story that I had in mind for a while. While you wait for TD Book 3 to continue, give [Farmer] Mage a try. If you like the new story, follow it and rate it! [Farmer] Mage
Cal was the pride of his guild, the one that other Initiates looked up to. Then he died. So did his guild. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. His understanding of the world shattered before his death. His guild was nothingpared to others, which meant he was the best of the worst. When Cal was given a second chance, he wouldnt repeat his mistakes. Who cared about being a [Mage] when it would just mean death? He would survive, even if it meant being something he sneered at in his previous life. A [Farmer]. Of course, when did anything go ording to n? Never.
[Farmer] Mage [Farmer] Mage And for those who remember the secret I shared previously. This is not the novel I was talking about. That isn''t ready for release yet. B3 - Chapter 1 B3 - Chapter 1 William reread the passage to double-check that he understood. Hisst attempt to create the formation failed, and even though nobody witnessed it, he felt enough embarrassment for himself to make sure he followed it up with sess. It was a simple light-emitting formation that all beginners first do, or so Mei Lingxi¡¯s notes said. He believed them¡ªthey were far too thorough not to. Each instruction was supported by excerpts pulled from other texts to make it easier for him to learn. Mei Lingxi had put in a tremendous amount of effort to create this, and it needed to be rewarded. William noticed that she liked having more responsibility if her excitement at managing the Rising Merchant House in his stead said anything. It could also be the power it gave her to have that position. He didn¡¯t care either way. He would figure out to reward her since the notes she had created deserved it. William skimmed over the steps again before getting up from the chair. He kneeled at the center of the room and pushed his pointing finger into the floor. A slight depression was created wherever he moved his finger, the floor acting like soft dirt instead of the hard tile it was made of. It didn¡¯t phase him. A few feet away from his failed attempt, there was more of the same. Formations could be created with anything that made a ¡®mark.¡¯ It was usually done with ink or something simr. However, since William had nothing like that avable in the room, he had to create physical marks. It wasn¡¯t ideal, especially in a critical situation, but this was for learning. It wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference. He finished the formation by dragging his finger to join with a previously made depression. He then tried to direct his Qi into the formation, frowning when he still found himself unable to use neutral Qi.William had missed how his Qi had changed after he experienced one wave of Heavenly Punishment. He was more concerned about his own health and Kae¡¯s status, but after an borately dressed Elder retrieved him and locked him in this room, the change was hard to miss. His Qi was permanently ¡®stuck¡¯ in two elemental states. Lightning and Thunder Qi. At first, it didn¡¯t seem like a problem, but it wasn¡¯t hard to realize the disadvantages. The most obvious was that Healing Qi was out of reach. In fact, William was still bruised and battered from the Abyss. For whatever reason, the Elder who left him in this room didn¡¯t bother to call for a healer. He had a few guesses about why this was the case, and most were not good for him. William was asked minimal questions before he was left alone. His answers were mostly truthful, but it must not have satisfied the Elder since there had been no follow-up since then. William shook his head to push aside his worries. He had decided to get started on formations to be productive instead of pointlessly worrying about how much trouble he was in. It would be a shame if he let those thoughts intrude on the cusp of sessfully creating his first formation. He refocused on his Qi and called only on Lightning Qi. Thunder Qi felt rather explosive, and using it for a light-emitting formation seemed counterproductive. William directed the flow of Lightning Qi into the finger in contact with the formation before allowing it to fill it to capacity. [-150 Spiritual Energy] He stepped back when the formation started to emit a harsh blue light, with hints of sparks running through the imprints he made into the floor. This definitely wasn¡¯t supposed to happen. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. A proper, sessful light-emitting formation let out a soft glow that took minimal Spiritual Energy to power. William wouldn¡¯t call a hundred and fifty Spiritual Energy minimal, nor would he call what the formation was emitting a ¡®soft glow.¡¯ He med the usage of Lighting Qi for the differences. The instructions mentioned that the formation would be active for nearly half an hour when done normally. With how much Spiritual Energy was fueling the formation, William assumed that his version wouldst for hours. He made to break the formation by deforming the imprint when it shed a blinding white. William flinched, eyes wide, when the Lightning Qi powering the formation lifted, separating and rising into the air. It was a pure, spherical ball of sma. It buzzed with energy and alternated randomly between shing blue and orange. Thankfully, it onlysted a few seconds before the Spiritual Energy powering the strange reaction emptied. The room fell back to its usual quietness, to William¡¯s relief. ¡°Congrattions, Wei Liang. Though, I suggest you avoid using Elemental Qi when the formation wasn¡¯t designed for it.¡± He flinched in surprise, not just at the unexpected voice in the room but also at the fact that he hadn¡¯t noticed anyone enter. Looked like his cultivation realm still wasn¡¯t high enough to prevent that from happening. ¡°Elder Yu!¡± William smiled genuinely. She was the first person he had seen in days. ¡°Are you here to free me?¡± ¡°Free? You think you¡¯re detained?¡± Elder Yu asked with amusement. ¡°¡­ Am I not? I was left to my own devices after I was brought here. And I haven¡¯t been able to get medical care either.¡± ¡°All for your benefit,¡± Elder Yu walked closer before tilting his head. The injuries you have are not life-threatening, and we need to fix this before anyone else knows you have it.¡± She tapped the top of his right cheekbone. It was hard for William to not know what she was talking about. He hadn¡¯t forgotten that his right eye was suddenly a bright, burning red. ¡°You know what this is,¡± William stated. The system had told him nothing after the change. ¡°First, tell me how you got the eye,¡± Elder Yu said as she studied his right eye closely. He shifted uneasily during the inspection but didn¡¯t protest because he wanted to know more about it, too. ¡°Is it safe to speak here?¡± ¡°Be free with your words. Only the Sect Master and I will know what you reveal.¡± William hesitated before slowly nodding. He still hadn¡¯t met the Sect Master, but it wasn¡¯t hard to understand he was the one who used his authority in the sect to allow Elder Yu to offer him help as she pleased. ¡°It was from something that I got from the Shard. I was desperate enough to use it and ended up with the eye.¡± Elder Yu narrowed her eyes. ¡°Yet another surprise from the Shard. How many more will you reveal?¡± He thought about the two treasures left in his spatial stone as he shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll need to know what happened in the Abyss. The Elders in charge tell me that most of the formations holding it together must be repaired before further use.¡± William¡¯s mind went to Lord Paddlington¡¯s burning red eyes¡ªdifferent from his own. All the formations in the Abyss had tried¡ªand failed¡ªto burn the turtle from the inside out. It wasn¡¯t surprising that they needed maintenance after such continued use. Just because he knew all that didn¡¯t mean he should tell Elder Yu every detail. He wouldn¡¯t lie, but names would be left out. She could be trusted, but he had a habit of being careful when beings far, far stronger than him were involved. Even if Sophia wasn¡¯t technically involved with the Abyss, Lord Paddlington was. That turtle might seem scatterbrained and casual in its interactions with William so far, but he wasn¡¯t going to forget how destruction-happy the turtle was. Lord Paddlington was more than happy to destroy the sect if need be, and William''s presence was the only thing holding its flipper back. Still, even that didn¡¯t seem to have much value. The turtle had lied to William without hesitation about the danger the corrupted avatar held for him. The im that he could beat the avatar after ¡®leveling up¡¯ on his way to it was hriously wrong. The corrupted avatar might have been in the Core Formation Realm, but it had the strength of a cultivator in the Nascent Soul Realm. William had no chance of ever overtaking it in cultivation or strength. Without Kae apanying him as an unwitting sacrifice and everything going exactly right, there was no way he would have escaped alive. Lord Paddlington knew that, yet still lied to his face and let him enter. He didn¡¯t realize it till long after the turtle had left the Abyss. With Kae as the unwitting sacrifice, he shouldn¡¯t have been needed to enter the dimension at all. The only reason the turtle let him go was as a backup. A backup sacrifice. Lord Paddlington was not his friend. Certainly not an enemy, but not a friend. It looked like Sophia ¡®choosing¡¯ him only had so much importance in the turtle¡¯s eyes. ¡°Wei Liang,¡± Elder Yu shifted closer. ¡°What happened to you in the Abyss? You¡¯re sweating.¡± B3 - Chapter 2 B3 - Chapter 2 William touched his forehead, his fingers catching a few drops trickling down his skin. It looked like the thought of Lord Paddlington not being entirely on his side concerned him more than his own thoughts showed. ¡°Elder Yu,¡± he started slowly, ¡°I will admit upfront that this isn¡¯t the whole story, but this is as close as I can tell.¡± Elder Yu¡¯s eyes sharpened with concern as she gave him a brisk nod. ¡°A¡­ spirit beast interrupted my mission in the Abyss. It broke the border and forced Kae and me out before bringing us to a small ind surrounded by water on all sides. A gate took us to another ce¡ªone with a rotting castle.¡± ¡°What did this beast look like?¡± Elder Yu¡¯s expression suggested that she already had an idea. It was likely she knew the ce he was led to. ¡°¡­ I¡¯m not sure I should say, but I had to face an avatar at the end,¡± William figured that should be enough to clue her in if she actually knew where he went. If not, then he would stay silent for self-preservation. It would be easier to exin if the sect¡¯s administration could easily connect the dots rather than needing to be walked through the entire adventure. ¡°That¡¯s all I need to know,¡± Elder Yu swiftly held up her hand. ¡°Wait.¡± It wasn¡¯t like he could go anywhere. He watched her leave the room, returning a short minuteter with the Elder who had left him here days ago. With the context clues easily put together, he realized this wasn¡¯t an Elder. This was the Sect Master.William nced at the over-the-top robes¡ªthe overwhelming gold jewelry making it more so¡ªwhen he suddenly recalled an old memory. "Sect Master Guan Feng has a¡­ taste for mortal metals. You must tell me, Junior Brother, if you feel such a desire. I will be able to fix it before it bes an issue." Lan Yin told him that while they were walking the streets of Xuanjing City. This almost confirmed his guess of who this man was. Still, there was a slight chance he might be wrong, so pretending to be clueless was the right thing to do. If he greeted the man like a sect master and happened to be incorrect, that would be a faux pas of the highest order. Elder Yu raised a brow at the silence in the room, unimpressed by the near-staring contest that sprung up. ¡°It seems you were not introduced. Wei Liang, meet Sect Master Guan.¡± Elder Yu cleared up the confusion in William¡¯s mind, which was typical. He bowed deeply. ¡°Thank you for the retrieval, Sect Master.¡± The Sect Master nodded briskly. ¡°I wished to introduce myself in different circumstances, Disciple Wei, but it¡¯s not to be. And I would have preferred to let Elder Yu deal with this issue, but unfortunately, the situation is more severe than I imagined.¡± William immediately assumed that the Sect Master was aware of Sophia¡¯s avatar. Still, he stayed silent, wanting him to say it directly. Lord Paddlington was unpredictable, and the sect¡¯s administration knowing of the gate leading to the avatar without his direct admission might give him usible deniability. ¡­ He knew that was a stretch. With Lord Paddlington¡¯s seemingly random moods, there was an equal chance of the turtle not caring or deciding he deserved instant death. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°The Sect Master is trying to say that we know about Empress Sophia¡¯s avatar,¡± Elder Yu cut in bluntly. ¡°The avatar is an essential part of the sect, so if you can, let him know what happened.¡± ¡°Thank you for that, Elder Yu,¡± the Sect Master said drily. "I don¡¯t need to know every detail of what you experienced in the Abyss. I don¡¯t even need to know how you managed to escape¡ªjust the condition of the avatar.¡± William fidgeted uneasily. ¡°¡­ The avatar was destroyed.¡± The Sect Master and Elder Yu stared at him in shock. He didn¡¯t me them. ¡°You destroyed the avatar?¡± The Sect Master asked with disbelief. William would have been willing to tell the truth if Elder Yu hadn¡¯t said the avatar was essential to the sect. ¡°I was able to cause some damage, but the spirit beast that led us there was the one that finished it.¡± ¡°I might have been mistaken,¡± Elder Yu muttered before speaking louder. ¡°This beast, it was in the shape of a turtle, right?¡± ¡°Er, yes,¡± William confirmed hesitantly. There was a moment of uneasy silence before the Sect Master broke it. ¡°If the Empress¡¯spanion went this far, then perhaps it was for a good reason.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t stop the consequence we will¡ª¡± ¡°Enough,¡± the Sect Master cut Elder Yu off. ¡°We¡¯ll speak of thister.¡± William got the idea that this was more troublesome than the Sect Master admitted. ¡°Before I leave you, the dimension that the avatar was in¡­ does it still exist?¡± The Sect Master stared a hole into William. ¡°It copsed a few minutes after the avatar was destroyed.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the Sect Master sighed before nodding. ¡°It seems I have more work on my te. Elder Yu, Disciple Wei, I¡¯ll take my leave. Do fix your eye issue quickly. Some people are asking after you.¡± He swiftly left the room after that. William turned to face Elder Yu as the door closed. She looked lost in thought, a rarity since that was usually his role. ¡°Elder Yu?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± She snapped out of her state and focused on him. ¡°Right, let¡¯s deal with your eye. Does it feel like a foreign object?¡± ¡°Uh, no. It feelspletely natural. I wasn¡¯t even aware my eye had changed until I was told.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ concerning,¡± Elder Yu narrowed her eyes. ¡°Something like this shouldn¡¯t be epted this quickly by your body unless the transnt was done by someone near the Dao Seeking Realm.¡± That wasn¡¯t far off the mark. All William knew was that the treasure that did this was for cultivators in the Spirit Severing Realm. If it happened to be powerful enough, what Elder Yu suggested might be true. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s irrelevant now,¡± Elder Yu said, cing two fingers near his right eye. "This might feel odd, but it will highlight the eye''s connection to your spiritual pathways. You could find it yourself, but I would rather not have any mishaps happen under my watch.¡± He resisted moving away. The thought of a ¡®mishap¡¯ involving his sight was undesirable, to say the least. ¡°Prepare yourself,¡± Elder Yu warned. William immediately felt thrumming heat, highlighting the connection of his new eye to his spiritual pathway. He closed his eyes to block out the view of Elder Yu¡¯s face covering most of his vision and focused on the new discovery. He sensed why he couldn¡¯t detect the eye¡ªif spiritual energy was the main factor. The eye drew so little Qi from his pathways that it might as well be nonexistent. He was sure that more Qi would be lost through regr evaporation when brought to reinforce a part of his body. ¡°Do I cut off the ess to Qi?¡± William asked with his eyes still closed. ¡°That¡¯s the simplest way,¡± Elder Yu¡¯s confirmed. ¡°I¡¯ll be withdrawing my Qi. Tell me if you lose sense of the connection.¡± He frowned when locating the tiny sips of Qi suddenly became exponentially harder. However, he now had the benefit of knowing the general area where it was. He concentrated his Qi to try and replicate what Elder Yu had done. That was a mistake. ¡°AHH!¡± William screamed in pain as his eyes flew open. He could feel his right eye drinking up all of his Qi as the world gained a blood-red tint. Elder Yu was reaching out to him, but at a pace that made it seem like she was slower than a weak mortal. He tried to fight through the pain and ask what was happening, but it felt like his jaw was mped tight. His lips were moving near the same rate as Elder Yu. He felt like several seconds had passed before Elder Yu¡¯s fingers finally touched his cheek. Not much had changed while he was stuck in that hellish state other than some dim lights appearing in parts of Elder Yu¡¯s body. William gasped in relief when the connection was forcibly cut off by Elder Yu¡¯s Qi. The world returned to its standard color, and the eye was no longer sucking up all of his Qi. [-1740 Spiritual Energy] That was a terrifying amount for what he suspected was a few seconds of use. New Story Announcement: Spearbound New Story Announcement: Spearbound I forgot to announce this here, but betterte than never. Transcending Dreams update: In recognition of the massive gap in posts, I''m making an event list of B1 and B2, along with a character list, so you all know what tf is happening. I bet you need it, and I definitely need it. TD B3 is set to returnter this year. You might notice that the earlier chapters for B3 were deleted. I didn''t like how it started (again), so B3 is getting a different start. In the meantime, check out my new story if you are interested. It''s a SysApoc with xianxia elements (because I can''t help myself, and I love the genre). This novel''s true home is a different tform. Support the author by finding it there. Spearbound
Kade thought his life was... fine. After the sky fell, he knew his life was perfect. Earth was the newest selected to join the fight to halt the encroaching decay. But first, humans needed to have the capability to help. Rift Zones¡ªanomalies containing monsters and corrupted lifeforms¡ªput humanity¡¯s survival to the test.Millions had perished trying to clear the Rift Zones that littered Earth, and there was no doubt countless more would follow. To most, it was a nightmare. To Kade, it was a dreame true. In the chaos, he had finally found his calling.
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!