William wasn’t sure what his hopes were.

Well, that was false. He was hoping for a lifesaving miracle, which obviously didn’t materialize.

“Any ideas, Princess?” William asked, eyes darting everywhere to ensure there wasn’t an ambush in front of them. Thankfully, it seemed to be deserted… for now.

“… I might have one, but it will leave us without any lifesaving measures.”

William’s eyes darted to Princess Jin briefly, about to explode in anger before seeing her tense expression. It came to mind that what she mentioned might genuinely be a choice of last resort.

He snapped out of his moment of distraction when he heard the angry howl of a spirit beast right on his heel.

“Why did you slow down!” Princess Jin yelped in fright.

William cursed and sped up, reinforcing his legs with Qi to give himself a little boost. The only issue now was that he was covering ground far too quickly.

“Choose another tunnel,” William ordered when more forks in the road were seen in the distance.

He was satisfied when he saw Princess Jin carefully study the choices ahead and ignored the pressure he put on her. Instead, he used the time to figure out how to get out of this mess.

William might be overestimating himself, but he imagined using his martial skills to collapse the tunnel behind them to bury most of the spirit beasts. Not only would that take them out of the immediate danger, but it might also give him a massive amount of experience points.

When Princess Jin started speaking, he forcefully snapped himself out of his irrelevant thoughts.

“Second from the right,” Princess Jin said unsurely, “Wei Liang, we can’t keep running.”

“I know,” He said tensely, “You don’t happen to have something that will give me a few minutes to cultivate, do you?”

It could be possible to kill enough spirit beasts and then advance to the next minor realm, increasing his attribute limits. Getting out of this situation would likely be a breeze at that point.

“Minutes?” Princess Jin repeated incredulously, “Maybe a few seconds, but that will be it.”

William knew that wouldn’t be enough, but he would have to try to make something of it before their situation worsened.

“Alright,” William grunted, shifting how he carried her, “Here’s the plan. I will try to collapse the tunnel, and if that doesn’t work, I'll try to take down as many of the beasts as possible.”

Princess Jin looked even more incredulous at his so-called plan, but what else was he to do? There was nothing else coming to mind.

“Keep yourself safe while I’m busy. If necessary, use this lifesaving measure you spoke of.”

“This is the stupidest idea I’ve heard,” Princess Jin declared.

“Yeah?” William was unamused, “Do you have anything better?”

The near minute of silence from Princess Jin was an answer in itself. And that time was enough for William to reach the entrance of the next tunnel that they planned to enter.

“Then we go with my plan,” William ignored the yelp from her when he tightened his grip around her body. It wasn’t going to be the thing that surprised her the most.

William twisted his body to throw Princess Jin a few hundred feet away, treating her like a human-shaped javelin. Far enough that he was confident she would be out of the range of the spirit beasts chasing them, but close enough where he could get to her if she somehow came to be in danger.

“Wei Liang!”

He ignored her and turned around, blinking when he noticed an oddity in the information the system told him about the beasts.

While the spirit beasts in the front always had the name and level displayed, the information for the ones in the back didn’t exist. William also noticed that the light emitted from Princess Jin’s lantern had almost faded to the point that he could barely make out the figures of the beasts in the back.

Throwing her away from him at least had some immediate gain in the form of a mystery likely solved.

The darkness in this place must have some unique property to cause it to create blindness in the system.

To support that theory, William saw the information reappear when the spirit beasts in the back continued their mad dash toward him. It seemed that a certain amount of light was needed for the system to warn him of a spirit beast nearby in this place.

He made a note of that as he quickly looked around to find the general strength of the mob about to fall on him. He ignored the different species names, not meaning anything to him, and tried to find any beasts with levels in the seventies or higher.

William hoped there would be none, but one was right at the front.

[Name: Lingzhi Viper | Level: 74]

It was a brown snake-like creature with a mushroom-shaped head. He wished he had the Spiritual Energy to spare to check its attributes, but he was terrified that he would run out, so it needed to be conserved.

The poor light in the tunnel suddenly became a non-factor. Blazing Qi surrounded William’s fists and legs as he prepared to jump into what might be the most perilous fight of his life.

Right as he jumped, it came to mind that he was still scatterbrained.

William should have been focusing on the best spot to land his stomp, where it would damage the Lingzhi Viper while taking out most of the lower-leveled spirit beasts around it, but instead, he pulled out a Vitality Restoration Pill at the peak of his jump.

[+229 HP]

[Health: 1171 —> 1400/1400

[Impurity Increased]

[Stage 1 (99%) —> Stage 2 (16%)]

[Trait Added | Impurity Poisoning (Stage 1) - 10% XP Reduction]

It was regrettable that William had to increase his Impurity, but safety was to be prioritized above all else.

The Lingzhi Viper was staring right at him and let out an odd hissing roar, which made the weaker beasts around it seem to get riled up.

Since they wanted to help him by staying in one place instead of moving around, who was he to pass the opportunity they gave him? If they want to be a better target, then so be it.

William’s fists lost the blazing Qi surrounding them right as the haze around his legs strengthened to an almost seemingly tangible layer of Qi.

His eyes sharpened when the Lingzhi Viper shot toward him like a coiled spring. It seemed it knew he wanted to wipe out many of its brethren at once and decided to meet him in the air.

Right before his Qi-covered feet met the Lingzhi Viper’s head, it moved with a quickness that matched his speed and twisted to clamp its fangs into his calf.

[-100 HP]

William ignored the sting, happy it had no venomous side effect. His original target might have been missed, but his feet still dug a deep groove into the area right below its skull.

The Lingzhi Viper hissed loudly in pain and released his calf, and he took that as a chance to slam his fist right into its eyes with every ounce of power in his body.

[-50 HP]

William grunted when its tail slammed into the side of his body as it trashed around in pain. But he had a bloody grin through it all.

The Lingzhi Viper’s thrashing about killed plenty of the lower-leveled spirit beasts. He glanced at Princess Jin, ensuring she was still safe as he landed softly on the ground. Of course, he didn't get to have his attention away from the fight for long. It was immediately brought back by a spirit beast that rushed at him.

[Name: Rootbound Spirit | Level: 68]

William’s palm split the beast down the middle before it could even make a sound.

[+6016 XP]

[Trait Activated | -602 XP]

[Level Up! | 5 Stat Points Added]

He eyes the Lingzhi Viper, satisfied that it was still inadvertently helping him kill some of the beasts.

William wanted in on the fun and threw himself into an area of the mob with mainly low-level beasts. He wanted to save as much of his Spiritual Energy as possible, and ‘wasting time’ on the spirit beasts below level fifty was the answer. It also gave him some time to recover the Qi that he spent.

[+1 XP] x 68

[Trait Activated | -7 XP]

His breathing was a little heavier after mowing through beasts that couldn’t even damage him. Not from the difficulty of it but from throwing punches repeatedly with most of his strength behind them even though they had no Qi infused in them.

“WEI LIANG!”

William snapped his head to Princess Jin in fear, afraid that she was being attacked in his distraction, but saw that she was pointing at the ceiling above him.

He dodged an attack by one of the stronger beasts in the mob as he looked up.

[Name: Corrupted Lifeform | Level: 88]