"I'll wait here for the news, uncle," and from behind, William cupped his hands and shouted these words, making Berry's father stop for a brief second before continuing to walk once more.
"Kiddo, if you really do care about your head staying intact on your little shoulders, then you have to avoid doing two things…"
And when Berry's father vanished from their sight inside the big mansion, Gran turned and spoke in such a serious way.
"First, never try to draw a nerve out of this crazy brother of mine," he pointed at the direction where Berry's father vanished into, "I love him, and he is a great man and formidable spirit master. But he is too strict, too much over the border of logic can reach! And he is a fight maniac, and you… You are still a bronze spirit master. Got it?"
"Thanks, uncle, for such kind words," William didn't place any of what Gran said in his mind. And surely, he'd never place what Gran would add next into his heart.
"And second, stay away from our clan's prettiest rose, or else… You won't have to deal with my brother's wrath alone."
Gran pointed at Berry, whose face turned all red at this moment.
She felt shyness from her uncle's words, without truly knowing about the hidden reason in her heart. In addition to that, she felt little guilt as well.
All this happened because William helped her back to the forest. All of this mess was caused by the kind heart and intentions of William.
"Sorry uncle, I can promise to try and consider the first thing. But for the second… Berry is a dear friend to me," yet unlike what Berry and everyone else, including Gran, expected, William said these words in such a straightforward manner.
"Are you this tired of life or what? Don't you understand? You need tens of years to reach close to the level of ours! And many ended up dreaming about just touching our realm."
"Thanks senior, but what others take tens of years to achieve I'll reach in few."
"S… Senior! How rude and daring of you! Do you think rising up from your rank to mine is an easy task? Do you believe the higher you climb the easier it'll get?"
What William said got on the nerves of Gran, making him shout uncontrollably on William's face.
"Senior was advising me about cultivation and so I had to show him respect," William didn't feel any pressure, even if such a dark gold spirit master was shouting at his face.
He already faced a much deadlier dark gold spirit master in a far riskier situation than here, "and mark my words, senior, I'll achieve what I said, and you'll see by yourself."
"Humph, kids… I hate kids…" Gran blinked twice before scoffing. In his eyes, William was acting delusional as any kid would do.
Gran didn't lie. The higher a spirit master climbed in the long path of cultivation, the harder it became to ascend to the higher level.
Just thinking about the growing gap in spirit power needed form any spirit master to climb in ranks from a white grade to a bronze, and from a bronze to a silver was enough evidence on that.
To become a bronze spirit master, one had to cross the one hundred spirit power mark. And to reach silver grade, one had to cross the one thousand and five hundred mark.
This gap kept growing the higher any spirit master climbed.
Least he knew that William meant and intended every single word he just said.
"How are you doing now?" As Gran took a few steps to the side, distancing him from William to not lose his calm, William took the chance to finally check on Berry.
"You… You do know that you gave me a heart attack just minutes ago?"
"Hahahaha!" William couldn't help but laugh, "get used to this from now on. I'm not someone who meets challenges without embracing them."
"What's wrong in here, huh?" Berry knocked over his head. At this moment, even if the two were of the same age, she was still taller and could poke him with just stretching out her arm.
"Ouch, easy on me, I'm fragile and might break."
"Then knock knock, what's in there? A jelly? A chocolate?"
"Hahahah, it's ice cream," William laughed, and Berry couldn't help but shake her head and laugh as well.
From the side, Gran looked at the two while feeling danger rising up.
The relationship between these two seemed to grow much faster than he ever thought. He never saw his niece acting this friendly before towards anyone, even from the clan.
Berry used to distance herself from most if not all the clansmen around her age. She wasn't trying to be cold, but she was burdened by her illness to the extent of making her prefer to be away rather than getting embarrassed or insulted by anyone.
To him, to everyone in the clan, they knew how fragile her heart was. And so seeing her act in such a way made him feel quite surprised and also alarmed.
"Tell me, have you trained as I instructed? How are the results?" William ended this session of joking as he turned towards what really mattered.
"I got to the bronze rank already," and when he asked, she raised her head in such a showy manner, giving even her uncle a fright.
"What? Is that for real? Is this true?" Gran couldn't control himself and jumped over, held Berry from her arms and kept asking in such a nervous and disbelieving way.
He knew she got cured, but never got to know about her breakthrough yet.
"Yes, I broke through and that's all thanks to him," Berry motioned in her head, as her two arms were held hostage to the brute force of her uncle.
"This… That…" Gran moved his eyes between her and William, not daring to believe what he just heard, "is this… Real? Show me, hurry, take out a crystal and show your uncle now!"