His mind only had one thing to focus on. Cultivating.

After the day-long slog through the desert, sitting in one place, with a soft breeze blowing around him and the shade of the palm tree above him, William felt he could live like this forever.

Cultivation had become a relaxation activity. He supposed it was fitting.

William circulated his Qi through his pathways one last time before exhaling and slowly opening his eyes.

[Cultivate in Qi-dense environment for 27 Hours: +270 XP]

Even the picturesque view of the oasis in front of him couldn’t stop William from sighing in happiness after he read the alert.

He had thought the forest was overpowered in terms of being a cultivation environment. Still, it was nothing compared to the experience points practically being thrown to him by the oasis.

All William was thinking about was how many levels he could gain and how to best allocate his time so he could spend as much of it cultivating as possible.

At the rate the oasis allowed, it would take about nine days for him to increase his experience by two thousand points. That type of reward was only given when he had done something extraordinary, or more likely, bruised and bloodied by training or fighting for his life.

While William wished he could somehow find a way back to the forest and wipe out those Shadowpack Hunters for pushing him into such dire straits, that massive experience point gain for killing them only lasted a few levels before it drastically fell off when he was too strong.

Of course, this was assuming that he didn’t get ripped apart by the Hunters before any of his murderous fantasies were allowed to happen.

However, William allowed himself to imagine lording over the beasts. It wasn’t like they could growl at him to stop that.

He shook his head and stood up, leaving the spot he had occupied for the past day, and decided to explore the oasis to see if there were any other surprises. Of course, he hoped for surprises of a good kind, but that wasn’t really in his control.

Before William settled down to cultivate, he had done a cursory check to ensure he wouldn’t be killed by something while trying to refocus his mind. Still, he had to admit that it was nowhere close to being thorough.

Then again, while the oasis was a paradise for him, it wasn’t like there were countless spots that could be perfect hiding places. The only part of the oasis that William was still worried about was the crystal clear pond that took up most of the center of the oasis.

While he could barely remember the details of his readings in the past life, it was a common occurrence for such a body of water to be filled with death... or be some sort of treasure that empires would fight over.

Of course, William would be beyond happy if the water was just that, water. Anything more was a bonus.

As he stood near the edge, he was surprised that he could barely see the bottom when looking around twenty feet away, hinting that perhaps it would be better to call it a tiny lake.

William wasn’t sure why, but he was tempted to scoop some of the water and have a taste.

Well, that was a lie. He knew exactly why.

Even though William claimed he would be more than happy to know that the water was nothing special, he still hoped it would give him something extraordinary. William tried to pretend he was above all that, but he was endlessly greedy.

He would make an excellent, classic old monster. Act all grandfatherly, then randomly kill off an entire species because there’s a pretty stone they wouldn’t give him.

... Perhaps not so exaggeratedly ridiculous, but the point was made. The only thing missing is being the ‘old monster.’

William would get there in time. He couldn’t wait until he didn’t need to nod at what every powerful cultivator and, apparently, spirit beasts told him to do.

He shook his head and frowned at the odd tangent his thoughts veered off into. Then again, thinking of something frivolous after days of being focused on surviving felt nice.

William took out one of the many useless Lightning Berries stored in the spatial stone and held it above the clear water. While he wanted to see if drinking the water would benefit him, he still wanted to test if it was harmful, and the only way he could think to do that was to use a spirit fruit.

They were highly sensitive to harmful surroundings, and that included direct contact with something poisonous. It was likely the reason the snake wanted him to leave its domain.

If the Lightning Berry didn’t deteriorate, it wouldn’t necessarily mean the water would surely be safe to William, but the likelihood would be significantly higher.

The berry plopped into the water with a tiny splash, sinking quickly to the shallow bottom. He could still see it clearly and was glad for it since he wouldn’t have believed what had happened otherwise.

The Lightning Berry was a spirit fruit that was a snack to newborn spirit beasts, rich mortals, and low-level cultivators. It wasn’t that sects hadn’t tried to make the Lightning Berry more fit for consumption by higher realm cultivators, but all the attempts had resulted in failures. It had consistently evolved into a different spirit fruit, which erased the ease of growing the Lightning Berry, taking away the entire reason the attempt was made in the first place.

William crouched to get an unnecessarily closer look, trying to make sure what he saw was real. The Lightning Berry’s exterior didn’t look any different from usual, but that wasn’t the key indicator of a spirit fruit’s quality. It was a heartbeat-like pulse, like the one in the Dragonheart Plum.

A strong, yellow pulse came from the center of the Lightning Berry. Dropping it in the water had somehow aged the fruit by centuries like it had been carefully cared for while having access to a limitless amount of Qi in its environment.

William hesitantly prodded the water’s surface with a finger, then submerged his hand when nothing happened to grab the berry. He still tried to make it as quick as possible to avoid any unknown adverse effects, but that split second in the water was enough for something to happen.

Impurity: Stage 1 (76%)

Days Remaining

He glanced at his Impurity as he carefully placed the enhanced Lightning Berry on the soft grass. With his Impurity decreasing slowly over the past few days, William couldn’t be sure if it had changed after his hand was in the water, mostly because he hadn't been paying too much attention to that information.

However, the rapidly disappearing black streaks in the water suggested it did. William recognized it as the gunk that Ren Bo had taken out of his body to reduce the impurity.

It would be easy to find out the truth.

William tried to tell himself that it was a dumb idea and not to rush into it, but everything made far too much sense. The increased Qi in the oasis, the rapid evolution of the Lightning Berry, and the faint signs of his Impurity extracted.

The water was the source of it all.

Besides, he was already in his underwear, so it was another reason to take a dip in the mini lake.

William shed the last piece of fabric on his body and stored it in the spatial stone before walking slowly into the water. Thick, black sludge was immediately extracted from his body, left behind in the water as he waded deeper into the mini lake.

Impurity: Stage 1 (71%)

Days Remaining

That confirmed what William thought, and it only decreased at a greater rate the more his body was submerged in the water. It wouldn’t be long before he would be free of Impurity, and he hoped that his next guess was also correct.

With how rapidly the Lightning Berry absorbed Qi to evolve into its new form, William hoped the same would apply to him when he tried cultivating in the water. He would walk deep enough to sit crosslegged with only his head above the water, allowing the most amount of water to come in contact with his body while still being able to breathe.

Impurity: N/A

William found the perfect spot and took a seat when his Impurity was removed. Still, he got an unexpected alert that made him briefly forget about his hopes of a massive number of experience points from cultivating in the water… at least for a moment.

[Modified | Max Attribute]

[40 —> 45]