William groaned as he shifted, trying to move away from the thing poking into his spine. But that was the least of his concerns at the moment. His head felt like someone was slowly driving hot nails into every part of his skull.

Even though William wanted to bash his head into a wall so he would fall unconscious, he was beyond glad to be in the worst pain he had felt in either of his lives. It meant that he wasn’t floating endlessly in the void. The worst torture was better than that hell.

William gritted his teeth and cracked open his eyes before yelping at the blinding light. He didn’t know how long he struggled to see, but it was far too long to be reasonable. It was good that he seemed to be in a place that didn’t have anything that wanted to hurt… or eat him.

With a still throbbing headache, William stared at the thick branches above him, slowly looking down to see that he was lying on an even thicker branch. He sat up carefully, wondering how long he had been here as he looked past the edge, eyes widening at the distance to the ground from where he was. While it might not kill him with his strengthened body, it would bring him close to it.

Speaking of which, the damage he had taken getting to wherever he was might have reduced his health significantly, so the jump might actually kill him.

Health: 1000/1000

William frowned after checking his health. He shouldn’t be unhappy that he was in his peak state, but what the system said didn’t make much sense. It felt like his body had been through the blender, making him suspect that the system was being fooled somehow. If it happened with Prince Yuan, why not with this?

Before thinking too far, he checked for any alerts he might have gotten while unconscious.

[User entering spatial storm]

[System Error | Attempting to Reboot]

[System Online | Reboot Successful]

William wasn’t sure what to think of that. A spatial storm sounded like something he should only encounter if he was fighting a god-level being. Not something that a useless cultivator like him should experience. He could barely fight an upgraded Sky Hare, let alone a damned spatial storm.

He froze, pausing the internal cursing when a deep growl rumbled from below. He moved as quietly as he could to peek over the edge to see a small black animal he hadn’t noticed with his first look at the ground.

William felt he should have gotten a pass for his distraction since the distance was far higher than a ten-story building. No matter. He was definitely paying attention now. That small black animal was only that size because of how far it was from him. If William was right next to it, there was no doubt that it would dwarf him.

[Name: Draebern | Level: 54]

It took William far longer to read that than he would have liked due to the distance. Still, his mood didn't improve once he understood the blue text.

Ignoring that this spirit beast's name had the word Drae in it, which he was pretty sure was related to Dragons, and Bern, which was clearly related to bears, the level of the creature guaranteed a swift death at best and a gruesome one at worst.

William quickly backed away from the edge with his heart racing in fear. One thing he knew about bears from his past life was that they could climb trees. And since this thing was some sort of abomination between a dragon and a bear, if the name was anything to go by, it might even be able to fly like that Sky Hare.

He could hear it growling once in a while as he frantically looked around to see if there could be something that could be of help close by.

There wasn’t.

William's only other choice was to hope that throwing his low-level spirit fruits would distract the Draebern long enough to escape. Again, not a great idea, and one that will likely end up with him dead.

He stayed frozen like a statue, hoping that would somehow help with his current predicament. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait too long until the Draebern’s growls faded. He didn’t know if it was still there or if it had walked away.

William peeked over the edge and sighed in relief when he didn’t see the spirit beast. He pulled back and sat upright against the trunk as he touched his necklace, happy to feel that the spatial stone was still with him. It stored enough spirit fruits and pills to get him through weeks of sustenance or catastrophic injuries.

With monsters like that Draebern walking around casually, those spirit fruits might be better used to increase his attributes instead of treating it like food. He could forage, hunt, or, if absolutely necessary, act like a vulture and eat leftover kills to feed himself.

Besides, he needed to figure out how to get to the second level of Qi Gathering as soon as possible. However, it was unfortunate that his Impurity levels would be raised to stage two. Still manageable, but that was the limit he could accept. At stage three, William’s cultivation would be halted for months, even with the help of healers from the Sect. He glanced at the system to see exactly where his impurity level was, and his jaw dropped.

Impurity: None

William clearly remembered that it had previously shown that he needed nine days to get rid of the impurity naturally. He didn’t even know how it was possible for him to be unconscious for that long without dying. Just because he was a cultivator didn’t mean the need for food had been reduced. That wouldn’t be a benefit till the next realm.

He didn’t even feel a pang of hunger.

William’s pulled a Blood orange from the spatial stone and looked at it. This could either give him a ‘Spirit Plant Addict’ trait along with a point added to his Strength attribute, or just the latter with no negatives.

[+1 Strength]

He absentmindedly licked his fingers while waiting for another alert that never came. Hell, at this point, did it even matter? Going from stage two impurity to stage three needed a prodigious amount of spirit fruit or a fistful of constantly popping pills. The ten or so spirit fruits he would force down needed no concern.

Or so William told himself.

[+1 Strength]

[+1 Strength]

[Max Strength Reached]

That went as expected. However, he had more doubts about the next spirit fruit. The Lightning Berries which should stop being effective at any moment.

[+1 Stamina]

[+1 Agility]

[+1 Stamina]

[+1 Agility]

[+1 Stamina]

[+1 Agility]

[+1 Stamina]

[Max Stamina Reached]

[+1 Agility]

[Max Agility Reached]

William shook his head after he easily scarfed down eleven spirit fruits with no issue. A far cry from his reluctance after feeling slightly bloated in that cozy hotel room. Being put in a spot where comfort was worth less than nothing did marvelous things to someone’s determination.

More important than that, he was able to max his attributes with little issue. All that needed to happen was a spatial storm that would take him to a place he couldn’t recognize while also knocking him out for nine days or more, conveniently allowing him to gobble up all the spirit fruits.

… William didn’t think the spatial storm was worth these benefits. Especially since there were things called fucking Draeberns strolling around.

Impurity: Stage 1 (55%)

days remaining

He nodded after glancing at the impurity level. It would let him take two Vitality Restoration Pills without taking him to the next stage. At least that was some sort of backup.

William looked around before peeking at the ground again to ensure there weren’t random spirit beasts waiting to ambush him. Since he had apparently been on this branch for more than a week while unconscious, and had come out of it uneaten, a few more hours while he figured out how to get to the second level of Qi Gathering would be fine.

He took deep breaths, getting into the correct state of mind before closing his eyes and turning his senses inward to his Qi pathways. The first thing he would try is to simply cultivate.

William felt that would do the trick since that was all normal cultivators needed to do. Sure, there could be bottlenecks, but he could clearly see the two requirements to break through.

Requirements that he already met.