[-50 HP]

“Fuck!” William cursed loudly as he failed for the third time, but it was more in surprise than the pain of having his fingers broken. He really thought he had the process down after testing it beforehand.

“You have quite a crass mouth, Junior Brother. Were you one of those pitiful street urchins that wander mortal cities?”

William ignored Qin Yu and hopped gingerly on his foot before realizing it was just a phantom pain from when he sprained it during his second attempt. He sheepishly walked to an increasingly irritated Ren Bo and showed him the mangled fingers, looking inward at his Qi while the fingers were set back in place correctly.

He had been able to use the Impact Boots without feeling like he was destroying his own body from the sheer speed that it allowed him to access. However, the issue now was using martial skills. William was annoyed at himself that something he had done in the heat of battle with Li Xinyue was now impossible for some incomprehensible reason.

[+50 HP]

“Thank you, Brother Ren,” William said gratefully, getting a grunt in return. He counted that as a win since it looked like Ren Bo wanted to cause more damage to him instead.

“You almost have it, Junior Brother. Why not give it a try again?”

“Try again? Is there no other advice you can give me?” William asked as he turned toward Qin Yu. To be fair, the guy did help significantly with the basics at the start, but since then, the only thing said was, 'Try again.'

It wasn’t what William wanted to hear after he had practically snapped his leg in two when he tried to kick the tree the first time. He had been too confident with his success when he had easily activated the boots without all the detriments. William's speed when he attacked the tree with his right foot caused a catastrophe.

Even though he was almost desensitized to pain at this point, the bone that stuck out of his thigh almost made him faint in shock purely at the gruesome sight. Luckily, Ren Bo was around to fix him up in less than thirty minutes. The second try involved no broken bones, but there were plenty of muscle tears and a sprained ankle. As for the third try, the fingers had just been fixed.

“What else did you expect?” Qin Yu shrugged, “It’s not like I can control your Qi for you. The only thing that can help you now is repetition.”

William grumbled as he moved to stand around five meters away from the tree, which was still in pristine condition. He remembered the tree he punched in the forbidden area of The Garden and how that formed an imprint of his fist in the tree when he was a mere mortal. What did this tree feed on to be so much stronger? It was in the middle of nowhere, making it all the more unbelievable.

He supposed it didn’t matter since he would murder it to bits. He got into the horse stance, or some variation of it since he didn’t exactly know what a horse stance was exactly, and took a slow breath.

William had no idea what he was doing wrong, but Qin Yu repeatedly telling him to try again with no other suggestions surely meant he was on the right track. In all fairness, every try did end in less severe injuries to himself.

When William started to exhale, he pushed off the ground and activated the boots. His Qi was spread evenly throughout his body, with just enough concentrated at his feet to keep the Impact Boots active as he rocketed toward the tree.

A crater was left behind on the ground as William suddenly found himself inches from the tree. Thankfully, the past three failures helped. He had to keep the Qi evenly spread while concentrating enough at his feet for the boots, and now, a third point needed some concentrated Qi.

William grunted as his palm made contact with the tree’s trunk, half expecting to break another bone. Instead, he heard the delightful sound of thunder exploding out of his hand, shockwaves rippling into the trunk and instantly turning it into mulch. He had a wide grin as splinters exploded out the opposite side of the trunk, and the tree started to wobble unsteadily.

“Finally! I thought we’d have to wait here forever!”

William ignored Ren Bo’s happy shouts and jumped away, this time without wasting Spiritual Energy on the boots.

“Not bad, Junior Brother,” Qin Yu said with approval as the tree finally crashed to the ground with a crash almost as loud as the thunder emitted from William’s attack, “Let me see you do that a few more times, and we can call this a success.”

Spiritual Energy: 56/130 (20% per Hour)

William glanced at the amount of Spiritual Energy he had remaining and nodded. Each attack, combined with the Impact Boots, would take twenty-five Spiritual Energy. He had just enough for two more.

“I want you to try different distances. One close and one further compared to where you stood from that tree. And I will be your target. Let’s start!”

“Ah, you won’t try to attack me, will you?”

“Attack you?” Qin Yu repeated with a laugh, “I would rather not kill you by sacrament.”

This time, William couldn’t understand which word Qin Yu meant to use. “Sacrament?”

“You know, by mistake. Junior Brother, don’t stoop to the level of the others. You’re one of the few people intelligent enough to understand me.”

Accident, that was the word Qin Yu meant to use. William sighed and said, “So distance. Where should I start first, Senior Brother?”

“Whichever you want.”

Then further it was. William figured he would have an easier time with it since he would have even more time to focus his Qi, though that extra time could be measured in fractions of a second.

He got in the same stance before repeating the same actions he had made against the tree. There was the briefest moment of uncertainty since this was an actual person he was attacking instead of a random tree. However, it was quickly erased from his mind. Qin Yu was a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

This wouldn’t even tickle him.

William’s foot connected with Qin Yu’s outstretched forearm. The following clap of thunder and ripples that shredded the tree trunk did nothing other than make Qin Yu’s robes flutter slightly.

“Excellent! Though, I suggest you leap higher to stomp on your target from above if they are significantly stronger than you. The chance of you dying is still high, but you will at least leave a scratch as evidence of your existence.”

William grunted when he landed heavily on his feet and sarcastically said, “Thank you for the advice, Senior Brother.”

“It’s only what I should do,” Qin Yu replied brightly, “Now, the next attack!”

This one he was more nervous about. Using the Impact Boots at this range was nonsensical, but perhaps a sudden burst of quickness would be enough to let him catch a stronger cultivator by surprise.

William propelled off the ground again with confidence, causing a depression to appear less than a meter away from Qin Yu, and thrust his palm at him fiercely.

[-50 HP]

“Gah!” William yelled when the bones in his hand broke in multiple places. He dropped to the ground at Qin Yu’s feet and grimaced before quickly pushing the pain back to see his so-called Senior Brother chortling happily.

“You’re a funny one, Junior Brother! I can’t believe you just tried that!”

William used his unbroken hand to push himself back to his feet and glare at Qin Yu. “I did it because you told me to!”

“So? Those boots aren’t meant to be used at such close range. Let it be a lesson so you won’t make such a ridiculous mistake in a real fight. On the bright side, you didn’t break your arm like I expected.”

“Great,” William grimaced, “Are we done?”

Ren Bo was already beside him, quickly working to heal the hand, likely so they could leave the place and head back to the Clinic.

“We are,” Qin Yu nodded, smiling, “You’re a fast learner, Junior Brother.”

William murmured a quiet thanks for his compliment and for the fact that they would be returning.

He didn’t mind experiencing pain, but even he had a point where enough was enough. Qin Yu’s training style seemed to be based on the belief that pain was the best motivator to succeed, and William couldn’t disagree due to how quickly he had gotten used to the Qi-attacks. Still, he wanted a nice bed to sleep off the mental exhaustion instead of dealing with more suffering.

[+50 HP]

After Ren Bo quickly packed his makeshift luxury hotel room, they ran back to Xuanjing City at full speed.

Overall, it was a good day, but William was disappointed that he didn’t receive any side quest for the training session as he did for the spar with Li Xinyue. There was a chance it might have been lumped into the side quest for visiting the Clinic, so some hope remained for the sweet, sweet experience points.