“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 the netherworld.

He knew very well that his martial skills and actual experience in fighting were severely lacking.

“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 noncommittal 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,” William commented, 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 glanced 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—”

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’t launch 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 slammed his fist into the incoming 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 frequently commented on as subpar. Of course, that self-congratulations only lasted 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 become a true cultivating monster.

William couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Princess Jin to her death.

“Use your lantern,” William barked as it started to become 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 was compounded by the split in the pathways ahead.

While he had referred to this place as a root maze, that wasn’t quite the correct name. There had been similar 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.