Chapter 79: Paradise
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.
Impurity: Stage 1 (76%)
8 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%)
7 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]