Transcending Dreams

William half expected that he would be blocked again, but to his relief, that didn’t happen.

His first thought as he pulled himself up was being thankful that there wasn’t another ceiling made of leaves. The second was that the sky was white. Not that it was covered in white clouds, but the entire sky was just a blank, plain white.

William couldn’t see a sun anywhere as a light source, which was likely why he could stare directly at the white sky without straining his eyes. That didn’t mean he wanted to continue looking. There was something unnerving about the blankness above him for someone used to a soft blue. Even a leaf ceiling might be preferred over it.

On the bright side, the trees on this level finally looked normal. They were no longer pillars of wood shooting upward into a layer of thick leaves but actual trees that existed in the typical sizes he had seen in the Tianxia Empire. Some even had something that looked like spirit fruits hanging off the branches. Of course, William had to remind himself that what he saw was like the tip of an iceberg. This was only a fraction of the actual size of these trees.

It was apparent that he was no longer in the Tianxia Empire and that the spatial storm had brought him to another dimension, or so William hoped. These places generally had some sort of time limit before the people inside were kicked out. Of course, this was going by his ‘expert’ knowledge from his past life.

It would be fantastic if he could find Princess Jin since she likely knew something with the way she readily gave into the vortex. Still, considering how large this place seemed to be, finding her would be a miracle.

As for Ren Bo… the less said about him, the better. Besides, while the kid wasn’t as strong as him, William knew he had a far greater chance of surviving this place if his storage pouch survived the journey. In fact, William could see the annoying brat relaxing in luxury while waiting for this place to kick them out. Or it could also be possible that the girl-crazy kid would be killed by Princess Jin.

It was a coin flip in his mind.

William smiled as the wind blew softly, taking his mind off the irritant. It only added to his liking of the place. It seemed safe at first glance and wasn’t dead like the level below. Besides, the floor was made of green leaves. He could almost trick himself into believing it was simply grass.

As for why William thought it was safe, the system came into play with that. Even if he couldn’t see a spirit beast hiding from him, the blue text identifying it would be hard to miss. It wouldn’t have mattered if he could read what it said, but the simple fact it was there signified a spirit beast existed.

William scanned the closest tree with spirit fruits again for any sign of blue text as he carefully made his way over, more than ready to activate his boots to run away at full speed… unless the spirit beast was near his level. Then it would be fighting time.

Fortunately, there was no need for that paranoia as nothing happened. William was staring at the shimmering, emerald-green fruits casually hanging off the branches like they were common apples.

He had read about these in the books Li Xinyue provided him. Dragonheart Plums, they were called. Something that could only be nurtured with the resources of a sect the size of the Jade Healing Sect, but even then, it would number in the low double digits every few years.

This single tree seemed to have more than that ready for the picking. However, that wasn’t what William was shocked about. He looked away from the fruits above his head and peered at the trees surrounding him as far as his eyes could see.

While every tree didn’t have Dragonheart Plums hanging off its branches, there were plenty that did. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a conservative estimate of the number of fruits would be in the thousands.

It was… convenient. And at the same time, terrifying.

Someone owned this realm. Everything was set up like a private garden, just like The Garden owned by the Jade Healing Sect, except on a much more massive scale and with ridiculously rare spirit plants, if the Dragonheart Plum was anything to go by.

Something even seemed to block the spirit beasts from the forest floor from entering this area. If someone was trying to protect their harvest, it certainly made sense why it was set up like this. Though that did bring up questions about why he was let through.

Perhaps William got insanely lucky with finding one of the few entrances, and then finding another to reach the top level.

He chuckled to himself at that thought. His Luck wasn’t high enough for something so fortunate to happen. Maybe when it was at Li Xinyue’s level, it might be possible.

William licked his lips as he looked back to the Dragonheart Plums hanging above him. He wasn’t very hungry with all the fruits he had stuffed himself with, but he would gladly bloat himself to eat one of the Plums.

They were each the size of William’s head, and the soft pulse emanating from the center indicated how ripe it was. If he remembered correctly, the pulse came from the golden core of the Plum, and it was usually visible when the fruit was cut.

The fact that he could see it at this distance told of the centuries that had passed without anything in this realm being harvested, or at least the Plums on this specific tree. William wasn’t worried whether the Dragonheart Plum would be effective enough to improve his attributes. He was worried about how much his Impurity would increase.

Impurity: Stage 1 (33%)

3 days remaining

While it seemed low, there was no doubt that eating just one of the Dragonheart Plums would make the Impurity shoot well into stage two. In fact, it would be overkill for his current level, though it would instantly max all his attributes except for Luck.

The convenience factor was high, but the consequence would be reduced experience points for weeks at minimum. Without knowing how long he would stay in this dimension, he risked it possibly lasting for the entire duration.

William supposed that was something to worry about after getting some Dragonheart Plums. He would rather have it just in case.

He looked around, once again checking if he was the only living thing in the area before hopping lightly. The next second, he jumped high enough to reach a deep groove on the trunk a few meters above the ground.

It was still incredible to William that he could do this purely with his physical power. With a silly smile, he quickly climbed the tree to reach the branches within a few seconds. Not long after, he crawled on a branch to reach the Dragonheart Plums.

However, when William tried to pluck them, he discovered a problem.

It refused to be plucked, no matter how hard William pulled. He hesitated for a moment before pointing his palm at the stem. If he couldn't pluck it, he would attack it until it broke off.

William thrust his palm with wisps of Qi flowing off it, fully expecting to lose some health when his attack was stopped by the stubborn stem.

However, his palm sliced through the stem cleanly. William was lucky he didn’t let his surprise distract him from catching the Dragonheart Plum. His free hand quickly grabbed it, and the fruit was immediately pulled into his spatial stone, storing it securely before his attention moved to the other Dragonheart Plums on the branch.

William wouldn’t be greedy. He would only take all the spirit fruits on this individual tree. That alone would be more than twenty treasure-quality fruits that would make any cultivator salivate. A small cultivator like William himself would be more than satisfied.

Besides, it would hopefully show his non-greediness if the owners of this dimension were keeping an eye on it.

… Who was he kidding? William knew it likely wouldn’t matter if he took one tree’s worth or the entire dimension’s. If Lan Yin, a cultivator from a kind sect, killed a mortal like an ant for being presumptuous, whoever owned this dimension would do the same to him.

The only hope was that this little thievery went unnoticed.

William spent the next few minutes quickly harvesting all the Dragonheart Plums he could see on the tree, storing each one into his spatial stone with a growing smile. He should have known things were too easy. When the last one was about to be sliced off, a problem revealed itself.

“Leave the last one on the tree.”

William’s heart sank as he realized how fucked he was if the one who spoke was hostile.

Spiritual Energy: 15/175 (20% per Hour)

He had plucked thirty-two Dragonheart Plums, making him use up five Spiritual Energy with each fruit. He didn’t even have enough to activate his Impact Boots for a possible escape if necessary.