As William approached closer to Yu Clan property, he no longer staggered as much. Not that he was uninjured, but just because he had found a better way to walk with his wounds. Most of them weren’t important, and the stab wound in his stomach was being stopped from bleeding. William had examined it as well as he could using ki, but he didn’t really have any practice examining his physical body that way, so he wasn’t sure of the results. He thought it was less than an inch deep, and hadn’t hit anything important, but he didn’t know that for sure.

All William knew for sure was that he hadn’t been cautious enough in that fight. Although Iron Mountain Defense had been seemingly quite effective, he shouldn’t have taken the stab head on in any case. On the other hand, perhaps he wouldn’t have gotten another opportunity to attack. Still, now he knew that his defense could most certainly be penetrated, though it was obviously somewhat effective since he wasn’t stabbed all the way through. Still, it would have been better to dodge and also prepare a solid defense. Not that it had been that easy to think tactically while he was in the battle. Perhaps that just meant he needed more training.

When William approached the clans, one of the guards at the gate saw him, and took off running, returning quickly with a doctor. William thought it was rather nice that his health was actually cared about now. Though, most members of the family hadn’t particularly wanted to cause him harm, at least not as the end goal. The exception would be Yu Chao and Yu Mu, though of course they had probably cared about status and honor and face and such as well as wanting William hurt.

After his injury was seen to, William found himself surrounded by various people asking about the situation. He would have needed to go seek someone out anyway, since the situation wasn’t something that could have just been glossed over. He explained the story, that a fight had been picked by members of the Song clan, that there was one death of a bodyguard, or perhaps bodyguard-in-training, and the possible future infertility of what looked like a very fat possible young master of the Song clan. He was slightly deceptive in that he didn’t say that he and Yu Li technically attacked first, but he also realized that nobody in this society seemed to care about that. William did tell his grandfather all the details, however.

There were various reactions. Frown, smiles, nods, and shoulders shrugged, as if this was just an inevitable event. However, because William couldn’t be faulted for losing the family face, it was harder for anyone to say anything. Everyone had to admit that the conflict with the Song clan had been escalating, and he just happened to be involved in the conflict that would bring it up to the next level. William thought some people would have attempted to get him in trouble for this even though it was inevitable, but it was not popular to even slightly sound like a supporter of the Song clan. Plus, William’s grandfather stood around looking menacing, which didn’t hurt in the slightest. Yu Jian’s support was a strange thing, since William knew it was partly because William himself was a valuable asset, or at least potentially valuable. However, he was also starting to develop an actual family bond, and thinking of him like a real grandfather… though William was older, in a way.

The end result was that there would be no more shopping trips, at least nothing with a small number of people. This would mean that Yu Li wouldn’t be able to get a better staff for some time. However, more importantly, her ability to use magic might have been revealed. It was possible people wouldn’t recognize it for what it was, but William thought it wouldn’t be too long before people figured it out.

-----

A delegation from the Song clan showed up. William was not invited to participate in the “discussion”. However, William heard that the Song clan had asked for reparations, and Yu Jian had responded by offering to castrate the rest of their family for having designs on his granddaughter. The Song clan delegation left in a huff. Perhaps it was better to say that they were allowed to leave, since the Yu Clan certainly could have killed or imprisoned them. However, neither side was ready for this to become an all-out war just yet, and the Yu clan wanted to uphold their image of righteousness. Therefore, they couldn’t attack a group that had just come to talk. Mostly, though, the clan had to be properly prepared before getting in a conflict with the Song clan, because there were other powers in the city that might be waiting for an opportunity. Thus, they would at least want to make sure others would stay out before risking anything.

-----

William found himself in his spiritual sea, practicing Rotational Soul Pressure. His sense of scale had long been lost. He no longer remembered how big it had been starting out. However, he did have a sense of its relative power. In terms of quality and quantity of energy, he was somewhere around the sixth or seventh minor breakthrough in some of the better clan techniques. Obviously, this was quite impressive for a nine year old child, but William had a good starting point and seriously trained for over three years now. This put him closer to the level of those just reaching adulthood, but below those who were truly adults. At least, those who had any significant talent for training ki. William wasn’t sure when he would hit the barrier that stopped his progression in this technique. It could be at any time. He would perhaps not even reach the equivalent of the next minor breakthrough, or he could perhaps reach the energy equivalent of the first major breakthrough or more, doubling or tripling where he currently was. Whenever it was, he would move onto the next cultivation technique that he had prepared. However… William had lost his sense of scale. He could tell the total quantity of energy he had, but how that compared in size to how it had been and how it compared to the maximum limit he had seen, he could not say. When he sent his senses out to the maximum limit, he had trouble comprehending the distance. It wasn’t a real distance that could be measured, so though he felt like he had a good grasp on it before, he realized he had just been thinking too much like he was in a real, or at least physical space. From certain ‘angles’, he appeared to be approaching the limit. From others, he had reached about half the area, and from others he seemed to have done almost nothing. In short, only when he reached the limit would he know. In the end, it didn’t matter. It was a quite decent cultivation technique, not allowing him to progress at ridiculous speeds, but still consistently advancing forward. William enjoyed the sense of perpetual improvement he got. Perhaps he might be able to make a large difference in a war against the Demon King in the future.