William wasn’t happy.

That was understating it, but without making himself sound like the largest coward to ever exist, the best way he could describe his feelings was ‘unhappy.’

“How about a compromise? I’ll stay on this branch and won’t move an inch.”

The growls that started immediately told William that this wouldn’t be an option he could consider. He supposed he could always do as the Hunters wanted and head out into the desert. While his Stamina had recovered and he was at his peak state, the insistence of these things with him leaving the forest was highly suspicious.

William was thinking of the Shadowpack Hunter he had killed. If they were as intelligent as he suspected, he wouldn’t put it beyond them to decide that a fate worse than death would be the price for the killing. After all, it wasn’t like the whole pack could feast on his body like they did with the Draebern. He was far too small for them to get any satisfaction from his flesh. At least, that was his thinking.

In all of the previous times that William had encountered some type of decision he had to make, he had always chosen the path that would give him the best option of living, or if his life wasn’t at stake, try to side with whichever would make his life easier.

It wasn’t so easy this time around. If William tried to stay, then it would result in death by Shadowpack Hunter. If he headed off into the desert, there was a chance for continued life, but he still didn’t have much hope.

He eyed the yellow eyes again and realized something. They refused to move any closer to him. It could be possible that this was another situation where they were waiting for a perfect moment to attack him, but with how opposed they were to his presence in the forest, that patience should have been exhausted when it seemed like he was about to escape into the snake’s domain.

“I’m going to stay right here,” William said with a shrug, trying to seem relaxed with his decision. Though with spirit beasts known to have better senses, it wouldn’t surprise him if they could hear his heart beating rapidly in his chest.

William finally saw the Shadowpack Hunters do something other than simply stare at him. However, this somehow made him even more nervous. They turned to stare at each other for a few seconds before seeming to come to an agreement.

He stiffened when the eyes were back on him.

Almost by instinct, William jumped, just in time to see sharp teeth snap shut where his legs previously were. It was a testament to the harsh training he was put through that his following reaction was not to gape in shock but to try and turn the Shadowpack Hunter into meat paste.

A pained yip was heard from the spirit beast’s mouth when William’s foot smashed into its back. He could feel the bones crack from his attack, but with the beast still not dead, William didn’t hesitate to use his other foot to finish the job.

[+450 XP]

[Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added]

William’s attacks launched the Shadowpack Hunter off the branch, its limp body flying far enough to land in the desert. That was until he saw something that might be why the pack seemed reluctant to come close to him.

The dead body of the Hunter disintegrated into nothingness under William’s astonished gaze. He quickly glanced at the ground and saw it was around the same place where the forest turned into a desert.

William turned his attention back to the pack as his feet landed on the branch. Now he was beyond confused about what their intentions were.

Since none of them followed their recently slain brethren to attack him, they had just sacrificed one of their members to tell him why they wouldn’t come closer. Or at least, that was the reasoning William could come up with.

There was also the chance that the whole chase through the forest for this purpose. Simply to get him out of here.

Of course, William still considered ignoring what the Hunters wanted from him and letting them come at him individually. If he could get himself easy experience points just like he did with the Sky Hares, that would be perfectly fine with him.

Since he apparently shouldn’t ever get his wish, the Shadowpack Hunters bared their teeth at him. They seemed ready to attack in unison as if they saw through his intention.

The first thing William intended to do if he ever got out of this place was to find out what the hell made him an open book. He could accept higher realm cultivators seeing through him, but spirit beasts that were basically at the same level? That was too much.

“Alright, fine,” William gave up with a raise of his hands, “I’ll leave.”

Under the watch of countless glowing yellow eyes, William made quick work of getting to the forest floor. He stood right at the line and glanced up again, seeing that they were waiting patiently for him to step over into the desert.

William just hoped he wouldn’t disintegrate like the dead Hunters he had kicked over the line. It would all depend on his luck, he supposed. Speaking of luck, he remembered that he had unused stat points.

[+5 Luck]

That took William’s Luck attribute to thirty-eight, close to the max it could be until he reached the third level of Qi Gathering. He dearly wished that something could break through his attribute limits, or else he would be left with a truly ridiculous amount of unused stat points, and nothing to use them on.

William stopped delaying when he saw that a few of the Hunters had moved closer to his position with their teeth bared. After taking a deep breath, he stepped over the boundary with a wince, fully prepared to lose his foot.

Thankfully, he could sigh in relief when his foot sank slightly into the sand.

William was able to instantly feel a drastic change in the weather. Instead of the comfortable warmth he felt less than a few feet behind him, he was blasted with the full force of everything that made the desert a terrible place.

Even with his cultivation, William felt the insanely high temperature combined with the utter lack of humidity. It shouldn’t have felt as terrible as it did. Still, there was something unnatural with the desert besides the fact that it was inside a separate dimension.

William instinctively turned around to head back into the forest, no matter what those spirit beasts thought of it. However, his jaw almost dropped in shock when all he saw was more desert. It was like the forest had been a figment of his imagination, which he knew couldn’t be true.

After all, he still had all the benefits gained from eating the Dragonheart Plum.

William looked around, trying to see if anything hinted at him to head in the correct direction, but other than the sand that he could see close by, all he could see was more sand, except in the form of massive dunes in the distance on all sides.

No matter where he looked, it was all the same.

His throat felt strangely dry when he realized that he would need to rely on his Luck to guide him, and that was something he wasn’t keen on. He was no Li Xinyue to be favored by the heavens.

William quickly checked his spatial stone, reassuring himself that there was plenty of sustenance that would keep him alive even in this inhospitable environment. That meant all he had to worry about was whatever dangers lived within the sand.

He hoped there would be none, but in all likelihood, what would a dimension like this be without dangers everywhere?

Since William would need to rely on his Luck, he decided to just use the wind to make his decision and walked toward the direction it was blowing.