[-100 HP]

[Cultivation Technique Removed | A Beginner's Guide to Cultivation]

[Attribute Removed | Spirit]

[Stat Removed | Spiritual Energy]

William coughed up blood, though instead of pain, he had an incredulous look on his face as it splattered on the stone floor. He could barely see the red splatter through the thick, silvery wisps of Qi filling the room, but the fact that it happened wasn't computing in his mind.

He had always thought that cultivators throwing up blood was a hoax, malarkey, a cheap way to express a character's distress. However, he had to face his new reality when looking at a tenth of his health taken away.

Honestly, William thought he had gotten away with it cheaply. While the alerts he received suggested that he had lost his added Spirit point, he could feel the Qi in his Dantian, waiting for him to summon it. He felt it would be much easier than before since he knew how to go about it.

The lost health was a minor annoyance that could be fixed easily. He was in the Jade Healing Sect, after all.

The thing that worried him wasn't mentioned in the alerts, but he could see it, if that made sense. While meditating, he could easily feel the network of pathways that connected his entire body to facilitate the flow of Qi. While he had 'A Beginner's Guide to Cultivation' as his technique, the network was dimly lit with a minuscule amount of Qi flowing through it, while the twelve principal meridian points were slightly brighter.

All of that was now completely dry. William knew that it would only be temporary, but he couldn't help but feel highly uncomfortable at the empty pathways.

He settled his mind and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before focusing on his Dantian. The beginning was quite similar to the previous technique, but that was where the similarities stopped. While 'A Beginner's Guide to Cultivation' spread his Qi thinly throughout his meridians, 'Horizon's Seeker' seemed to go with quality instead of quantity.

Choosing which of the twelve principal meridians to focus on didn't seem particularly important. At least the cultivation manual imprinted into William's memory didn't mention it, so picking one was purely his preference.

Just in case it was beneficial somehow, he decided to pick the meridian connected to his lungs. Perhaps it might increase his low Stamina.

The Qi in his Dantian quickly moved under his command as he visualized it as a flowing river of energy. By the time it arrived at the intended destination, around half of the Qi had been lost. However, that was expected. Some Qi was required to activate the pathways to enable the easy flow of spiritual energy, while the remaining would be concentrated on the Lung Meridian.

Unlike the faint glow he 'saw' while using the previous cultivation technique, there was now a bright speck of light in his Lung Meridian as the remaining Qi compressed themselves into a single point.

[Cultivation Technique Added | Horizon's Seeker]

[Attribute Added | Spirit]

[Stat Added | Spiritual Energy]

[COMPLETED | Switch your cultivation technique to Horizon's Seeker: +1000 XP]

William ignored the alerts and focused on gathering all the Qi he could into his Lung Meridian until there was nothing to spare. Only when that was finished did he exhale slowly before opening his eyes.

He cleared the alerts and opened his HUD to ensure his Spirit hadn't been reduced.

Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)

Age: 13

Level: 12

Experience: 1241/1500

Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level)

Health: 900/1000

Spiritual Energy: 10/10 (20% per Hour)

Spirit: 2 (2)

Strength: 20 (16)

Stamina: 10 (8)

Agility: 20 (16)

Luck: 30 (24)

Points: 1

William nodded to himself in satisfaction about his assumption being right. The problem now was what to do for the next couple of hours. When Lan Yin suggested he use this room, it sounded like she didn't expect him to make any progress. Wouldn't that make his rapid switch of cultivation techniques outrageous? After all, it had only taken him less than three hours.

He eyed the silvery mist surrounding him and figured that he might as well try to cultivate. It would be a shame if he didn't take advantage of the abundant Qi and increase his Spiritual Energy. Besides, it seemed he was in a particular mood at the moment.

A mood to be a shut-in and cultivate like a true native. How would he have fully immersed himself in activating a principal meridian if he wasn't?

William closed his eyes again and slowly circulated his Qi, from his Dantian to the Lung Meridian, over and over, for what seemed like hours until he finally noticed something changing with his Qi. He continued the circulation until the change in his Qi suddenly reverted back to the original state at the start. Before he could think about what had happened, his trance was broken by multiple alerts.

[Cultivate for the first time: +500 XP]

[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]

[Cultivate for 1 Hour in a sparse Qi environment: +1 XP]

He ignored the first two alerts and stared at the last one. The first thing he thought was that it must be wrong. There was no way the time he just spent was only an hour. The second was shock when realizing why his Qi acted so oddly.

It seemed that right when he was about to gain the benefits of his cultivation, it was taken away and converted into experience points. While that would be a better choice, it certainly wasn't when an hour of his time was valued at one experience point. It would be better spent stomping on the damned bunnies at the Garden.

As for his third thought, what did the system mean by 'sparse Qi environment?' William looked around the room to confirm that plentiful Qi had filled the room. If this wasn't enough, what qualified as a dense Qi environment?

Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)

Age: 13

Level: 13

Experience: 242/1625

Cultivation: Qi Gathering (1st Level)

Health: 900/1000

Spiritual Energy: 10/10 (20% per Hour)

Spirit: 2 (2)

Strength: 20 (16)

Stamina: 10 (8)

Agility: 20 (16)

Luck: 30 (24)

Points: 6

With the experience points William needed for level fourteen, it would be nearly two months of continuous closed-door cultivation. The problem with that was that he was sure he would go insane if he actually attempted that, and before the insanity could affect him, he would die of thirst or hunger.

He sighed and pushed himself off the floor to stand up. There was no point in thinking of cultivating like that at this point. And since cultivation only gave him experience points instead of raising his Spirit attribute, he might as well not bother with it.

That meant he would have to rely on his unused stat points to raise his Spirit, something he might as well do now. He'd save three points if he needed more Stamina for an emergency.

[+3 Spirit]

[Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction]

William blinked to make sure he didn't see things. To double-check, he pulled up his traits.

Traits:

Soul Damage (Minor) - 19% Attribute Reduction

Increasing his Spirit attribute resulted in a lowering of the attribute reduction. Although the decrease was a mere one percent, allocating points to Spirit became a top priority.

[+3 Spirit]

Although William was disappointed that the soul damage's effect hadn't decreased further, he was able to determine the amount of Spirit points necessary for a change. With a current total of eight Spirit points, he ruled out changes for every three or four points, leaving only increments of five.

That meant that his soul damage would no longer affect his attributes when he had a hundred Spirit points.

William laughed gleefully for a few seconds before suddenly coughing like he was trying to expel his lung.

[-100 HP]

William left yet another bloody mark on the floor before hastily sitting on the mat. He focused on regulating his breathing and reining in his wild Qi. This resulted from the little thought he gave to the potential consequences of significantly increasing his Spirit attribute.

After he had managed to successfully rein in the Qi nearly overflowing from his Dantian and channel it into his Lung Meridian, he intended to request Lan Yin send him to Xuanjing City.

Since William's approach to cultivation differed wildly from that of his fellow disciples, it wouldn't be ideal for him to live in the Outer Court. The Mission Hall and the Library were resources he would miss, but he could travel for them if needed.