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 unwelcome 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 in combination 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 unsuccessful attacks and more bruises added to his body.

William wanted to land 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 glared 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 trash compactor.

[-200 HP]

William’s pain tolerance level had become so high that even the feeling of his body, organs and all, being compressed to cause an excruciating level of pain did nothing to break his concentration. The sheer speed he launched 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 was laser focused on his goal. Landing a strike on Li Xinyue.

The initial plan 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 incoming palm, and best of all, he knew she wouldn’t be able to block him.

However, he was still mindful of where he landed his attack. It would be tragic if Li Xinyue reacted in anger and accidentally 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 was launched away from Li Xinyue. She seemed to have involuntarily kicked him away from her but thankfully held back her strength at the last moment.

William’s body landed 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 was completely 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! Congratulations, Wei Liang!”

The stupidly cheery tone Li Xinyue used when she replied to William killed all the sense of accomplishment he felt. Luckily, his mood was saved just in time, making him remember just why he went to such lengths to land 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 for landing multiple hits on Li Xinyue, this wasn’t so bad. Besides, he didn’t think it would be this hard to complete when he accepted 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 him landing a hit, William imagined the horrid RNG making a comeback, displaying 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’t land 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 and commented, “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 relationship 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 was laid 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 glanced 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 gladly switched places 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.