Transcending Dreams
B2 - Chapter 105

William had several thoughts when Corrupted Sophia brought down the sky.

The first was obvious—he would die. The second was more of the same—no soul means no reincarnation. The third was a wild hope—convert as much Qi as possible into Lightning Qi.

[Force Multiplier] was still active—two seconds left—meaning all the Qi in his body was being used. He forced the conversion anyway. He would meet a fate worse than death if he didn’t try.

It worked… technically.

Only the smallest percentage of his Qi was able to be converted, less than one percent. That was all the time William had before he froze, unable to move anything, but his thoughts were running at full speed.

Not that it did any good.

All he could think of was pain. He had never felt anything like it. It was literal torture that he could feel breaking his mind, and he wasn’t sure if he could hold on… if there was anything to hold on for.

William could feel something moving inside him, searching for something important. He needed a distraction, so he eagerly tried to shift his focus there.

PAIN.

He blacked out.

***

William shuddered back to consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes to see black clouds gradually disappear from the sky above him, which he was staring at on his back.

It seemed like he had… fainted?

“Every time I decide to take your life, you prove how much of a waste that would be.”

He winced and tried to push himself off the ground to sit up, but it was a struggle to move even a finger. He had run out of Stamina.

“I suppose that had to be the weakest Heavenly Punishment I had summoned. Perhaps if I allowed you to continue your strikes,” Corrupted Sophia continued to speak to herself. “My power is still too diminished.”

William didn’t think much time had passed, but the only thing that mattered was that he was alive.

The first thing he needed to do was add Stamina so he could move. He mentally called for the system and was shown the missed alerts.

[Showing consolidated alerts]

[-5 HP] x43

[Force Multiplier Overuse Penalty]

[-1200 HP]

[Trait Added | Attribute Penalty - 25% reduction of Strength, Stamina, and Agility]

[Heavenly Punishment Detected]

[Single wave of Heavenly Punishment too weak to damage Perfected Soul]

[Modified | Martial Skill Compatibility]

Stolen story; please report.

[Heavenly Thunder Infusion | 27% —> 100%]

[Trait Modified | Heavenly Thunder Infusion Passive effect]

[(+20 Agility) —> (+40 Agility, +40 Strength)]

[Earth-Tier marital skill unlocked]

[Heavenly Thunder Scripture (0% Compatibility)]

The multiple small losses of health were from the ice spears he punched out of existence. The rest of the alerts were self-explanatory.

The overuse penalty was expected, but the fact that he was attacked by Heavenly Punishment was definitely not. Perfecting his soul had saved him from erasure from the reincarnation cycle.

If he could get out of this dimension with his life, he swore to find a way to upgrade his soul again.

With all the trouble attracted to him, he was unfortunately sure this wouldn’t be the last time he experienced Heavenly Punishment.

Thought it would be more fitting to call it ‘Heavenly Reward’ instead. As long as the unimaginable pain was ignored, it was a gift bestowed on him.

William still couldn’t move his body, but he could feel the pure Lightning Qi and Thunder Qi just waiting to be summoned in his body. The Heavenly Punishment’s lightning forced his body to learn what he had been struggling so much with, automatically giving him access to the earth-tier martial skill he won in the auction.

“I’m not even angry,” Corrupted Sophia laughed heartily. “Instead of having your soul erased, you use the heavens to benefit. We have far too much in common!”

He quickly made the system screen disappear. Of all the idiotic things he could have done, forgetting that Corrupted Sophia, even if she was a corrupted avatar, could see his system messages was near inexcusable.

William knew he had thirty unused attribute points. He ensured no alerts would show and added all those points to Stamina.

It still felt like his body had a million-ton weight holding it down, but he was able to access his Qi, though with a struggle.

He wasn’t sure how that would help. If Corrupted Sophia was able to casually take every strike when he was giving maximum effort, there was nothing he could do in his state.

… Unless.

He saw Corrupted Sophia standing over him with an interested look in her eyes. He wasn’t sure what she was planning for him now, but he wanted no part of it.

There were some things he hadn’t attempted, mainly because he had no idea what would happen even if he did, but there were no other options.

First, he needed an excuse to use his Qi to check the spatial stone without Corrupted Sophia stopping him, or worse.

“Wait,” William winced at his dry, cracked voice. “I’ll return all the elixirs if you let me live.”

“Not a bad deal, but what’s stopping me from taking it myself?” Corrupted Sophia asked with amusement.

“Try it.” William hoped Elder Yu's words about the spatial stone were true. If a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator couldn’t do anything to it, neither could a cultivator whose cultivation was lower by a major realm.

However, his concern wasn’t about the corrupted avatar’s Core Formation Realm cultivation. It was the fact that Sophia had created this spatial tone for him in the Shard.

The corrupted avatar might have had some type of backdoor to access the spatial stone since she technically was the one who created it. He desperately hoped that wasn’t the case.

“Confident,” Corrupted Sophia said with raised brows. “Let’s see if your words match reality.”

William felt himself suffocate when her Qi surrounded him briefly before focusing on his chest. She was targeting his spatial stone, but it felt like an additional million-ton weight was placed on his body.

Thankfully, it didn’t last long.

“It seems you’re right,” Corrupted Sophia frowned. “That spatial artifact was created by someone with skill that might have matched mine when I was at my peak.”

The corrupted avatar of Sophia was praising her ascended self. William wanted to laugh, but it was exhausting to make unnecessary movements, so he kept quiet.

“We have a deal. Give me the elixirs.”

William gave her a slight nod and mustered all his will to send the barest amount of Qi into the spatial stone.

He immediately saw that every single elixir was gone, consumed by the spirit beast egg that seemed to be in a slumber. He didn’t care.

William never intended to return the elixirs. He didn’t suddenly trust the words coming out of the corrupted avatar. He distrusted it even more.

After all, this was someone who smiled while casually announcing that she would be erasing his soul.

No, he was under the firm belief that he would die today. Since that was the case, he would do everything he could to take her out with him.

That involved the three treasures he had received in the Shard. Treasures that were meant for Spirit Severing Realm cultivators.

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