B3 - Chapters 1-4

AN: Sorry for the massive delay. I had to trash the previously written chapters since I wanted to take book 3 in a different direction. Anyway, onto the irregular chapter dumps.

William reread the passage to double-check that he understood. His last 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 success.

It was a simple light-emitting formation that all beginners first do, or so Mei Lingxi’s notes said. He believed them—they 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 similar. However, since William had nothing like that available 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 elaborately 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 successfully 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.

A proper, successful 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 blamed 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 would last for hours.

He made to break the formation by deforming the imprint when it flashed 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 plasma. It buzzed with energy and alternated randomly between flashing blue and orange.

Thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds before the Spiritual Energy powering the strange reaction emptied.

The room fell back to its usual quietness, to William’s relief.

“Congratulations, 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—different from his own. All the formations in the Abyss had tried—and failed—to 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 claim that he could beat the avatar after ‘leveling up’ on his way to it was hilariously 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 accompanying 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.”

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 island surrounded by water on all sides. A gate took us to another place—one 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 place 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 explain 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 minute later 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 glanced at the over-the-top robes—the overwhelming gold jewelry making it more so—when 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 becomes 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 plausible 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 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—just 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 blame 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’s companion went this far, then perhaps it was for a good reason.”

“That doesn’t stop the consequence we will—”

“Enough,” the Sect Master cut Elder Yu off. “We’ll speak of this later.”

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 collapsed a few minutes after the avatar was destroyed.”

“I see,” the Sect Master sighed before nodding. “It seems I have more work on my plate. 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 feels completely 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 accepted this quickly by your body unless the transplant 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, placing 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—if 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 regular evaporation when brought to reinforce a part of his body.

“Do I cut off the access 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 clamped 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.

“You activated it,” Elder Yu said incredulously, keeping her Qi in place to prevent it from happening again. “Why did you supply the eye your QI instead of cutting it off?”

“Ah… I lost the connection so I wanted to make it clearer,” William felt how dumb that reasoning was as he spoke. “Not the best idea in hindsight.”

“That's an understatement,” Elder Yu replied drily. “However, I didn’t expect that you would be able to activate it even if you tried. Did you notice any changes?”

William nodded and said, “It increased my perception exponentially, to the point where it felt like you were moving at a pace slower than most mortals.” The dim light he saw at the end wasn’t worth expanding on when he could barely see them.

“Fascinating,” Elder Yu looked impressed. “We know of the eye’s existence since there are records of the Empress’s guardians possessing it, but we are in the dark about its abilities.”

So the Magmaheart Goliath—the colossal humanoid beast he saw in the Shard—was called a guardian.

“It will be useful in the future, but the eye’s abilities are currently more harmful. It uses far too much Qi, and my speed can’t keep up with the increased perception. I need to be stronger,” William admitted as he tried to imprint where the connection to the eye was located. He would try to deal with it the next time, even though he was nearly blind to it.

“Hm, that’s a given. However, it is known that continued use of Qi-activated abilities improves its efficiency. This should be your goal—” Elder Yu paused before adding, “When you increase your Qi capacity.”

[Side Quest: Reduce the cost of using your transplanted eye]

[Information: The cost to use your transplanted eye is currently 2000 Spiritual Energy per second. Cut that cost in half]

[Reward: 25000 XP]

[Penalty: Decreased reputation with Elder Yu]

[Accept: Y/N]

No wonder it almost drained him. That cost per second was practically criminal. This quest was nearly mandatory.

[Side Quest Accepted | Reduce the cost to use your transplanted eye]

William nodded to Elder Yu in agreement. The eye had an ability that made him want to drool in desire, but he also knew the problem wasn’t just his body’s inability to handle it. “At what point will it be safe for me to use this in public? Of course, this assumes I have gained enough control over the ability.”

“That is not something I can answer yet, but the Sect Master will let us know.” Elder Yu looked at him approvingly as if it was a miracle he thought of this issue. It made William acknowledge just how low of an opinion Elder Yu had of his planning if this was given such a reaction.

He supposed it was deserved, yet not at the same time. It wasn’t his fault he was being dragged into ridiculous situations one after another.

“Let’s give this a try again,” Elder Yu pulled back her hand, removing her Qi from providing assistance. “And do try to avoid activating the eye again. I would rather not have to deal with you having Qi exhaustion at the moment.”

William nodded, closing his eyes and doing the opposite of what he had tried before. He avoided sending any Qi toward where he knew the eye’s connection to his spiritual pathways existed. Instead, he pulled until it was devoid of any flowing Qi.

He opened his eyes after confirming there was nothing left to remove, immediately blanching at the impaired vision he now possessed.

“You succeeded—What’s the problem?” Elder Yu started with congratulations before her tone changed at his state. She returned her hand to his face, prepared to help again.

“I can’t see out of my right eye!” William couldn’t help but push some Qi back to his eye, calming down quickly as the blindness reversed. “... It’s back to normal. Cutting the flow of Qi removes my sight.”

“… I didn’t foresee that,” Elder Yu frowned. “This means you no longer possess any part of your original eye.”

“Is there any other way to deal with this? I can’t walk around half blind.”

“You certainly can deal with this,” Elder Yu retorted, “and you will. It won’t be for too long… hopefully. But you cannot be seen with the eye active in public before the Sect Master says it’s safe. It will spread to forces outside the sect, drawing attention we can’t hope to deflect.”

William pressed his lips into a thin line. “Isn’t there any spiritual artifact that will let me cover the eye to make it look normal?”

“There are a few, but it won’t fool anyone at my cultivation realm. That makes them less than effective for our purpose.”

“… Alright,” William reluctantly agreed, pulling his Qi away from the eye’s connection to his spiritual pathway. The blindness of his right eye would take some getting used to, especially the fact that he had to deal with inferior depth perception.

“Good,” Elder Yu said after leaning closer, studying his right eye intently. “I can’t sense anything off with the eye in this state. Before you can leave the room, I want to make sure you have decent control over this. Keep the eye deactivated for a few days with no mishap.”

“A few days?!” William focused on that, thinking of the several he had already spent here.

“Be thankful that it’s only that. I would prefer you to stay here for a month, but the Sect Master persuaded me otherwise.”

“Oh,” he uttered dumbly and changed his mind. “A few days sounds great!”

“I assumed you would prefer that,” Elder Yu smirked. “Work on formations as you were. It would be best if you could keep your eye deactivated with your focus elsewhere. Do you need more text for study?”

That brought an issue to the forefront of his mind—one that he hadn’t been able to do anything about stuck in the room. “I have plenty to keep me occupied for a few more days, though I do have another issue. I have some overdue books I took from the library before I got stuck in the Abyss. Is there a way I can get the fine waived?”

“That’s a question that needs to be directed at the librarians, though I can say that they seldom do so,” Elder Yu paused before narrowing her eyes. "How many books are overdue?”

 There were two in his ring. The Art of Cooking Spirit Beast Eggs: A Delicious and Nutritious Way to Boost Your Cultivation and How I Accidentally Hatched a High-Tier Spirit Beast Egg and Became the Strongest Cultivator.

It was good that he didn’t overextend and take all the books he had pulled from the shelves. Instead of answering with words, William pulled the books out of his rings and showed them to Elder Yu.

“The cookbook is a common text that won’t carry a large fine, making it a nonissue, but the journal is different,” Elder Yu grazed the cover of Lin Lin’s journal. “This should have never been handed out in the first place. The first thing you should do after leaving the room is return to the library. Every minute after the week deadline adds to the penalty.”

William’s heart skipped a beat in terror. Elder Yu’s reaction to the journal said nothing good about the fine he would face. He wanted to return it to the library as soon as possible, but asking Elder Yu wasn’t an option.

Even with her disregard for formality, he hadn’t forgotten that she was a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. It would be below her to do errands for a disciple unless she offered in the first place.

“Can Mei Lingxi visit me early? I want to send the books with her to avoid getting fined more.”

“Unfortunately, you’ll have to go in person if your presence is within the sect. Otherwise, the librarians will take it as an insult.” Elder Yu seemed to actually be apologetic, making him worry even more.

In the end, he could do nothing if that was the case. There was no point in worrying until he actually arrived at the library. Not that it stopped him from thinking of the even more significant debt he would be in with the sect as he returned the books to his ring.

… That brought up another issue that had been shoved aside.

“What about the mission? Surely Kae and I didn’t fail that, right? It wasn’t in our control,” William’s eyes widened in shock. He was barely able to believe this was forgotten since he had been worrying about it since he was locked in the room. "And Kae! Is he alright?”

“Disciple Kae is in stable condition and expected to fully recover. As for the mission, the Sect Master will void it. Really, those should be the least of your worries,” Elder Yu calmed him.

[Side Quest Removed | Mission: Clear 6 beast waves at Level 2]

William felt some tension leave his body. At least there was some good news to feel happy about.

“Is there anything else, Wei Liang?” Elder Yu questioned patiently.

“That’s all, Elder Yu,” William dipped his head in thanks.

“Then I’ll leave you to your studies. I wish you luck, and if anything goes wrong, tap on the door, and I will be informed.”

A few seconds later, William was alone in the room. He stared at the burnt area of the floor and resolved to try to fix the issue with his Qi… which Elder Yu should have been informed of. 

He glanced at the door and shook his head. He couldn’t call her back this early.

William dragged his finger across the floor, shuffling on his knees to the side when his arms didn’t have enough reach to complete the formation. It was a position that no self-respecting cultivator would put himself in, but as he had leaned on the ‘Wheel of Death’ in the Abyss, he had no pride.

He honestly didn’t care since he was too engrossed in successfully completing the lightning barrier formation for the first time after nearly fifty tries. Each failure needed an even stomping on the floor to remove the depressions of the failed formation before a retry could be attempted.

It was a tedious issue that could be easily fixed by calling Elder Yu and asking for paper and ink. However, William didn’t want to make it easier.

He was self-aware that while he was ‘lucky,’ that didn’t always mean good luck. He was pulled into situations without warning and understocked of supplies. It had worked out so far, but he feared this would worsen as his Luck attribute increased.

Eventually, William would encounter something from which he could not escape if this continued, which is why he preferred indenting formations into the floor with his finger.

If he could successfully make formations in such a crude manner, he could use the environment in the future instead of relying on a controlled method like paper and ink.

William connected the depression he was making on the floor with another he made near the start. He smiled widely at his accomplishment and slowly backed away from the completed formation covering over half the floor space.

It would have been far easier to pick a simpler formation to draw, but his Qi prevented all those from being an option. He had tried for hours to return his Qi to a neutral state to no avail, leaving him with a mix of Lightning and Thunder Qi.

William eventually decided to go with the flow and simple with a formation that would be compatible with his Qi after that, even if the formation was more advanced than it should be for his novice level.

The lightning barrier formation was never meant to be used for such a large surface area. Its purpose was to protect small valuables and such due to the high intensity of power required to activate it.

However, William had no choice in the matter since he was working with his fingers and the floors. It’s not like he could miniaturize the formation, which would have required smaller fingers.

He knelt to touch the edge of the formation, circulating his Qi while asserting his control over it for what was to come. An array over five times smaller than this required a hundred and fifty Spiritual Energy to fill, and this array would need exponentially more.

William pressed his lips together when the formation tried to empty his spiritual pathways. He kept tight control over it and monitored precisely how much was leaving his body and, more importantly, whether it would take all his Qi.

His eye twitched in irritation when there seemed to be no sign of stopping when well over fifty percent of his Qi capacity was emptied. He observed the formation and estimated it would get dangerously close to emptying him.

William kept supplying Qi for a few more seconds—fully prepared to break the connection. Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary.

The formation pulsed a bright gold, making him back away immediately.

[-1750 Spiritual Energy]

After nearly two days of failures and restarts, he finally created a complex formation and activated it—all from scratch.

William couldn’t stop a smile from spreading cheek to cheek as he stared at the glowing formation. It didn’t look special right now, but its defense capability only showed when something was trying to breach the formation.

He looked around the sparse room, devoid of almost everything except a table and a desk. There was no way he would test the formation with his body or anything in his spatial stones, so the chair would have to do.

It didn’t seem too expensive, so Elder Yu shouldn’t care much… shouldn’t.

William picked up the chair, studying it closely to ensure he didn’t miss any detail that might change it from disposable to invaluable. It didn’t seem like it.

“Young Master!” The door swung open to reveal Mei Lingxi. “I came with gifts! I heard you had a tough—” She paused, staring at the chair he had cocked back in his hand. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, testing something,” William slowly lowered the chair and changed the subject. “What brings you here, Sister Lingxi?”

“What’s this?” Mei Lingxi ignored him and pointed at the glowing formation. However, her following sentence made her question redundant. “A lightning barrier formation? Young Master, you already finished studying the notes I gave you on formations?!?”

“I did read all of it, though my practical knowledge is still lacking,” William admitted sheepishly.

“If you could create this, I’m sure the other formations would be a breeze,” Mei Lingxi praised with a smile, though it dimmed a bit as she continued. “I do have to ask why you did this on the floor… and at such an exaggerated size.”

“It’s better practice,” William shrugged. “If I can create it like this, I will be able to repeat it in most other situations.”

Mei Lingxi looked at him with gleaming eyes. “An admirable attitude, Young Master! The gifts I brought are even more fitting than they were before!”

He looked at the neatly packed boxes in Mei Lingxi’s hands for the first time. His nose caught a familiar scent that made him swallow audibly. “Is that Brother Xu’s cooking?”

“An apology from your Sister Wang,” Mei Lingxi smiled brightly. “She was worried sick when we got news that you were lost on your mission. Sister Wang wanted to come with me, but Elder Yu said otherwise, so she sent these with me instead.”

“Sister Xiaoling is forgiven,” William blurted out, barely able to stop himself from licking his lips. “Let’s eat first!”

Mei Lingxi snickered as she placed the boxes on the lone table in the room. “I think you’ll like the dish you choose, Young Master. I tasted the Azure Dragon’s Breath Rice yesterday, and it was exquisite both in taste and benefit.”

William opened the boxes one by one, revealing five dishes that begged to be eaten. Mei Lingxi’s words broke through his fantasy of gobbling all of it simultaneously. “Wait, the dish I choose? As in, I can’t eat all of them?”

“Chef Xu gave clear instructions that would mean death,” Mei Lingxi said apologetically.

“… I don’t think I have ever been more disappointed,” he muttered as he stared blankly at the offered dishes. “This Dragon’s Breath Rice, what benefit did it give you?”

“I felt a significant increase in my Qi, and my bottleneck disappeared. I can enter the Core Formation Realm anytime I wish.”

William blinked in shock and turned to face Mei Lingxi, activating the system’s basic status at the same time—something he kept turned off with people he was friendly with.

[Name: Mei Lingxi | Level: 199]

“Congratulations, Sister Lingxi!” He was ecstatic that she was going to become stronger.

“Thank you,” Mei Lingxi smirked. “Though I feel you’re more happy that you will have a subordinate in the Core Formation Realm.”

“… Anyway, why not advance right now?” William deflected the teasing accusation.

“I don’t feel it’s the right time.”

Mei Lingxi looked so confident in her reply that he could only nod in agreement. He reminded himself that she did what felt best, and it always worked for her. Maybe that would be helpful to him, too.

If something like the Azure Dragon’s Breath Rice was a choice, surely the other dishes were equivalents.

“Sister Lingxi, do you happen to know what the other dishes are?”

“Unfortunately, no, Young Master.”

“I see… which one do you think I should choose?”