It was strange, feeling regret about something he had completely 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):

. Daoist Chen has challenged you to become a Nascent Soul cultivator in ten years for a reward

. Return to Jade Healing Clinic and make Huang Jingyi kneel with your superior cultivation

. Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable)

. Mission: Investigating Strange Occurrences

. 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 be completed, 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 accepted, 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 accomplished 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 how large the giants actually were. What they had killed had been in the earliest stages of development, and he could only imagine how large 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 glanced 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 explain 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 accident.”

“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 rather large 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 glow coming 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 at comforting 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 accomplished his goal of getting a closer relationship with the princess by accident. 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 the landscape 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.