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 circulated his Qi, it traveled around his pathways with the same ease he was accustomed to. His meridians were either in a compact 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 circulated 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) —> Qi Gathering (7th Level)]

[Modified | Health Overall: 1500 —> 1600]

[Modified | Max Level: 69 —> 79]

[Modified | Max Attribute: 90 —> 100]

[New upgrade requirements available]

Upgrade Requirements (2):

. Spirit: 80

. Eligible for Level 80

[Impurity Reduced]

[Stage 3 (57%) —> Stage 3 (38%)]

He glanced 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% —> 0%]

[Modified | Spiritual Energy]

[Spiritual Energy Capacity | 440 —> 500]

The additional Qi added to his pathways was quickly directed to the Stomach meridian, which it accepted greedily. There was no sign of the thick fog of Qi inside the meridian collapsing 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 access 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 delay the advance was Sophia’s warning to stay weak. But it was already too late 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 age combined with high cultivation would make him more attractive to them.

He glanced 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 play. 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 stop comparing himself to freaks of nature and be satisfied with his small gains. Even if this whole thing turned out to be Princess Jin’s coming 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’t completely 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. Nonetheless, he circulated 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 flatter the new look since it mostly looked like black 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) —> Qi Gathering (8th Level)]

[Modified | Health Overall: 1600 —> 1700]

[Modified | Max Level: 79 —> 89]

[Modified | Max Attribute: 100 —> 110]

[New upgrade requirements available]

Upgrade Requirements (2):

. Spirit: 90

. Eligible for Level 90

[Impurity Reduced]

[Stage 3 (38%) —> Stage 3 (25%)]

He had no reason to save his unused stat points, and with so many available, 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 —> 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 placed 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):

. Soul Damage (Minor)

. 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. It landed 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 accompanied it.

William glanced at the princess in habit as he took a seat. He stumbled, mouth open in shock, before he ungracefully landed on his bottom.

“What the hell, princess?!”

[Name: ? | Level: ?]