“Brother, I think we might need to give him some motivation,” Zhou Chao commented as he tried to bruise William’s shoulder. Once again, it did nothing to hurt him.

However, it did give him an opening. Zhou Chao wasn’t paying much attention to William at the moment.

“Looks like you’re right. Maybe we- ZHOU CHAO!“

William interrupted Zhang Biao’s speech with a sudden punch into Zhou Chao’s ribs.

Zhou Chao wheezed in pain as his grip on William’s shoulder slipped off when he fell to his knees and curled into himself. The rush of being in a fight for the first time in his life made William almost light-headed, but that didn’t stop him from making sure Zhou Chao wouldn’t be able to return to help in the coming fight.

Well aware that Zhang Biao had pulled a knife out and looked like he was about to charge at him, William swung his elbow as hard as he could at the back of Zhou Chao’s head.

[+180 XP]

[Level Up! | 5 Stat points added]

Getting such a quick level-up would have made William ecstatic if not for the threat of getting skewered by a knife if he wasn’t careful.

“YOU’RE DEAD!” Zhang Biao roared when he saw Zhou Chou collapse to the ground awkwardly.

William’s eyes widened in shock when the muscular man moved deceptively quickly. He had assigned his stat points based on the assumption that others would also have the same number of attribute point increases between levels. The only difference was that he could pick which attribute to increase due to the system.

“DIE!” Zhang Biao stabbed into William’s chest.

He had never been so thankful that he didn’t try to act smart and try to save his stat points. He wouldn’t have even been able to regret it since he would be deader than dead.

[-2 HP]

William grunted in pain when the knife pierced his body, even though he had tried to move as fast as he could to avoid it. It wasn’t anything serious since the blade didn’t get deep enough to cause real damage.

He had to get that knife out of Zhang Biao’s hands if he wanted a decent chance to win this without taking the risk of assigning more stat points. If his soul damage trait activated at this point, it was a surefire way of losing his life.

William lunged to the right to dodge another attack and sprinted to Zhou Chou’s body before stepping on his head.

“Don’t move!” William warned, “Drop the knife, and I won’t stomp on his head!”

He expected some sort of hesitation with how close they seemed to each other, but that was a mistake.

“You dare to mock me!” Zhang Biao hissed as his fist tightened around the knife.

William yelped as he tripped over Zhou Chou’s body and fell to the ground when Zhang Biao slashed at his neck. That probably saved his life, but there was no time to appreciate his luck when Zhang Biao choked him by stepping on his neck and glaring down at him.

[-5 HP]

William tried to struggle free and used all his strength to punch Zhang Biao’s leg multiple times, but to his shock and fear, it was like hitting a rock. It seemed like he had dangerously underestimated how strong Zhang Biao was.

“I’m going to enjoy making you scream, brat,” Zhang Biao’s chest heaved from his anger, “Death won’t come quickly for you.”

“Sister Xiaoling won’t let you go!” He choked past the foot on his neck, “And I’m friends with the immortals from the Jade Healing Clinic! If you don’t let me go, they’ll kill you!”

William was ready to dump his points into Strength if necessary at a moment’s notice. Before that, he would try anything and everything to avoid doing it.

“So what? Zhou Chou is the reason I’m alive today! So be it if I must trade my life to avenge him!”

[-5 HP]

William’s eyes bulged as he flopped like a fish when the foot on his neck became heavier. Just as he resigned himself to using his stat points, he noticed a bulge in the collapsed Zhou Chou’s pocket.

“All you had to do was tell us what that bitch was going to do, you little-ARGH!”

William wheezed in air with his freshly unblocked airway but didn’t let up on his attack. He pulled the knife he had found in Zhou Chou’s pocket out of Zhang Biao’s calf before stabbing it back into the other, hopefully disabling the higher leveled man.

William scrambled back on the ground to escape Zhang Biao and struggled to his feet while rubbing his bruised neck.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

William would have been terrified of that declaration if Zhang Biao wasn’t on the ground and trying to murder him with his eyes. Still, he wanted nothing more than to get away from this situation and into safety. Still, before that, he wanted to vent his anger a little bit.

“You can’t even walk,” William taunted hoarsely, “What are you going to do? Crawl after me? And thanks for the fight. Zhou Chou helped me more than you know.”

He ignored the roar of helpless rage Zhang Biao let out as he backed away slowly while keeping an eye on the man on the ground. Even if it seemed like Zhang Biao was helpless, William heard plenty of stories where humans did incredible things out of desperation, and that was in his old world. Who knew how it would be here.

Still, William was comfortable enough to check the alerts he had gotten during the fight.

[Kill Zhou Chou: +180 XP]

It felt to William that the world consisted of the blue text that coldly informed him of how a hundred and eighty experience points quantified a life. It suddenly made sense why Zhang Biao flew into such a rage and somehow grew even angrier when William threatened to crush Zhou Chou’s head.

Zhang Biao didn’t get angry because of his pride. He was angry that his dead friend’s body would be desecrated.

William felt like he was going to be sick. He understood that in the cultivation world, the main character generally grew in power over mountains of dead bodies. Still, it never really hit what that meant until now.

William dry heaved when he took a closer look at Zhou Chou’s head. He must not have seen it due to his life being in danger, but there was a significant dent on the skull where William’s elbow landed. It left no doubt on what had taken Zhou Chou’s life.

[-25 HP]

[Trait Added | Stab Wound (-1 HP per 5 minutes)]

William stumbled in shock and looked down to see a knife buried in his stomach. He would have thought that it would hurt much more than a particularly hard punch with how deep the blade reached. He looked up to see Zhang Biao baring his teeth at him with his hand empty.

The man had thrown his knife at him.

“Even if you live past today, I won’t rest until I find you and put you down like you deserve.”

Zhang Biao’s voice had lost the hot rage it previously possessed. However, William could still feel Zhang Biao’s determination to take his life, no matter what it cost him.

William stared at him numbly as he eventually came to a realization.

Zhang Biao had to die.

If he was left alive, the next time William was attacked, the result likely wouldn’t be the same. There would be no possibility of catching them by surprise when the goal was to kill him instead of asking questions.

[-1 HP]

William gritted his teeth and pulled up his status screen to see how much damage he had taken.

Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)

Age: 13

Level: 4

Experience: 80/500

Cultivation: N/A

Health: 7/45

Strength: 6

Stamina: 1

Agility: 3

Luck: 3

Points: 11

Traits (2):

. Soul Damage (Major) - Chance of all base attributes to reset to 1 with every point added

. Stab Wound (-1 HP per 5 minutes)

William would be dead in thirty-five minutes at the current bleed rate. More than enough time to get to the clinic, even at the slowest walking pace. Which might be what he had to do since he would feel the exhaustion taking over. It was already a miracle he could last this long with his low Stamina.

William stepped toward Zhang Biao and winced at the dull ache before realizing something. His movements weren’t hindered or affected in any way as long as he put the fact that there was a knife buried in his gut out of his mind. That definitely didn’t seem normal and was something to be investigated later.

“That’s right!” Zhang Biao snarled, “Come closer so I can get my hands on you!”

William ignored his bluster and clenched his jaw as he gripped the knife.

“Just wait! Do you think you are the only one with people protecting you? My family will overturn the city to find my killer! Do it! I dare-URKH”

William could taste bile as he stared at Zhang Biao’s dimming eyes. He could hear the wet gurgle as the man tried to breathe around the knife piercing his throat but was drowned by his own blood instead. He couldn’t watch the futile struggle continue.

William was mindful of not getting too close to the dying man, wary of desperate last attempts. Like a fool, he gripped the handle of the knife buried in his stomach, pulled it out, and threw it as hard as he could at Zhang Biao’s forehead.

[Trait Modified | Stab Wound (-2 HP per 5 minutes)]

[+310 XP]

William cursed loudly, forgetting that pulling a knife out would cause even more damage. The thirty-five minutes of life he had left suddenly became less than twenty. There was still plenty of time to get to the clinic, but no time could be wasted.

He shoved the fact that he had just killed two people to the depths of his mind and turned to walk back to the Jade Healing Clinic as quickly as his exhaustion would allow.