After the realization that they came from different worlds, Li Rencai felt he should leave the kid to his rest. He also felt a bit sorry for how he interrogated the kid. Especially so when the kid was so kind-hearted that the thought of abandoning people in need never even crossed his mind.

Will let go of his hold on his tiredness. It fell back into his mind like a brick, now even heavier than before. Looking at the bed, it looked like heaven. It was a fancy bed.

Hopping into it, it felt like heaven too. Actually, since his twelve year old half had come here after dying, wasn't this whole place kind of heaven? After some half-asleep ruminating, he concluded that heaven was a specific place, not just wherever you woke up after dying.

Then he fell asleep.

—

Will woke up… at night. He'd gone to bed in the morning, so it was kind of expected. He got out of bed and just decided to wander the house aimlessly.

Which meant running with Wind Dance at full speed. He'd had enough walking. It really hadn't taken him long to end up finding this speed normal, huh? He felt it was a mix of his lack of experience with a normal walking speed and his impatience.

Thinking about it, it was kind of weird to make a map of the inside of someone else's home, wasn't it? He was doing that currently, he'd made a habit of always updating his map, and it wasn't like he would stop, but he at least recognized that it would likely be frowned upon.

He noticed that there seemed to still be maids around. Well, some of them were threatened, so it was probably better to just fix any vulnerabilities for threats instead of just firing everyone. That's what Will would do, at least, if only because rehiring sounded like a hassle.

It didn't take long for him to run into someone. It was Duodibunu Lili. She appeared to be in a great mood, walking down the hallway to somewhere else. Probably another hallway, since he couldn't see anything much to walk to in this hallway other than that. He doubted she'd look so excited over a broom closet. He greeted her.

“Hi.”

She was a bit startled at first, clearly not having noticed Will's arrival.

“Oh, hello.”

“Why is your name like that?”

She looked confused at the sudden question.

“Like what?”

“Weird.”

She understood now.

“It's the name the founder of my family picked after fighting off a beast horde.”

Ah, that made a bit of sense. It was still a really dumb name, but it at least made sense why it was this dumb name and not a different one.

“Alright. Bye.”

He ran off. Lili watched for a moment before continuing her journey.

Will didn't run into anyone else. He decided to leave. He let one of the maids know, so Li Rencai didn't assume he'd disappeared dramatically after fulfilling his role as a hero. As cool as that would be, the bed here was nice, and he was a bit homeless and penniless. Though only a bit. He had a bunch of corpses and stolen knickknacks, and there was no shortage of inns around. He wouldn't budge on his assessment. He was a bit homeless and penniless, not completely, but a bit.

Exiting the gate, he was now in a city. There would definitely be something to do here. There had better be. It was a whole city, right? There was surely something to do.

There wasn't much. There were bars, but, well, he doubted they'd serve him anything even if he wanted them to. And he didn't want them to. In the end, he didn't want it and couldn't get it, so it didn't matter.

The main issue was the time. It was currently night, so most places were closed. Maybe the alleys would be open. For getting robbed. He was actually desperate enough to get robbed for fun. The plan was more fighting a bunch of robbers, but that felt worse. He didn't even like fighting. Why would he do that?

The answer was boredom. And he was doing it. He waltzed to an alleyway, attempting to embody the mannerisms of a naive rich kid. It didn't work. Looking at his clothes it wasn't surprising.

He hadn't changed since he rose from the dead, so his outfit was… Well, it definitely wasn't expensive looking. He hadn't actually been hit by anything that did any damage, so it was in good condition in that sense, but it was pretty dirty. Mostly just from the ground. It was also peasant wear. It was a washed out tan brown color, and had a pretty simple design.

Overall, he looked less like a target to steal from and more like the one who'd be doing the stealing. As a pickpocket. Maybe he could walk around until someone yells at him for skipping on his non-existent pickpocket job?

After wandering around some more, the answer was no. The alleys were pretty empty here. Probably related to that thing Xu Lanhua had said about Li Rencai not letting crime fester or whatever.

He'd just about hit his limit for walking like a person, so he went back to using his footwork. He decided to use both Wind Dance and Cloud Steps this time. It seemed like going a bit faster could be possible by switching between them at the right times. He was bad, so it ended up being slightly slower than just regular Wind Dance, but it was practice, so whatever.

He continued moving through the alleys for a bit. It wasn't eventful at all. He looked at his map. Nothing unusual there, he hadn't run into some wacky formation yet. It was just regular euclidean geometry. He went back through to get a few small spots he missed. He'd just happened to miss them, no formation or secrets to be found.

He decided to try and fill his map out of the place. Maybe the secret would be in the unexplored parts.

Eventually he stumbled upon something. Not a secret but a weird little shop. He went inside, the door creaking loudly as he opened it. Across the room was an old man behind a counter. His hair was long and unkempt, with a long scraggly beard. He chuckled lightly when he saw Will.

“You best run along, kid. This is no place for a brat to be hanging around.”

Will didn't care about the melodramatic warning. He was bored. He pointed at the man.

“Give me a quest.”

The man stared at him, eyebrows raised slightly. Will spoke again.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Quest.”

The man remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“Quest? What's that supposed to mean?”

Will realized something. He hadn't said ‘quest’ in English, of course, but the equivalent of quest in this language didn't have all the connotations and implied meaning the word ‘quest’ itself did. He doubted there was a big RPG market here. He rephrased his demand.

“I'm bowed. Give me a thing to do.”

The man looked at the child inquisitively.

“For free? Why?”

“Because I'm bowed!”

The man thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“I don't have anything for a brat to do.”

“I'm a cultivatow.”

“Don't have anything for a cultivator brat to do, either. Now run along back to your parents.”

Will executed a perfect counter.

“I'm an orphan.”

“Don't have anything for an orphaned cultivator brat to do, either.”

Will was getting annoyed now.

“Do you have anything fow anyone to do?”

“Course I do.”

“Like what?”

“If I tell you, you'll just try and do it.”

Will pivoted topics.

“What do you even do hewe?”

“Sell things.”

“To who?”

“People who aren't brats.”

Will decided to throw him a curveball. He pulled out the ingot he'd used to kill a man that one time.

“I killed a man with this ingot.”

“Huh?”

“Threw it weally hard. He was a bandit, though, so it's fine.”

“Sure…”

“What do you think of it?”

“It's an ingot.”

“Yeah. And?”

“It looks like iron?”

“That's cool. I didn't know that.”

“Isn't it your ingot?”

“I stowe it. From the Demonic Wightning Sick Fweak.”

“You mean the Demonic Lightning Sovereign? The notorious demonic cultivator?”

“Was that the third word? Soveweign? Sick Fweak fits better, honestwy.”

“You're saying you stole from him?”

“Yeah… Well, it was mowe wansacking than steawing.”

He remembered Sarah. He held her up to show the man.

“Except this. He called her the Demonic Wightning Dagger because he's stupid. She's actuawwy a sword.”

“Wait, you stole the signature weapon of a nascent soul cultivator?”

“I guess so. But she asked me to, so it's mowe like wescue than steawing.”

“Who asked you to?”

“The sword.”

The man sighed.

“Well, that's great. Have fun with that. Somewhere else. Shoo.”

He didn't feel like humoring the brat's antics anymore. He waved Will away.

Will ignored his words and gestures.

“Give me a thing to do.”

The man decided to just give in and give the kid some ridiculous task so the damn brat would leave him alone. He decided on a task related to the guy the brat claimed to have stolen from.

“Fine then. Get me the manual for the Demonic Lightning Arts.”

“Do you have a book?”

“Just any book?”

“One you don't need.”

The man nodded, a bit confused, and rooted around in a chest to his right until he found a book, holding it out to the brat. Will copied the contents as soon as he touched it.

“Here. That good?”

Will nodded. Then he exported the manual for the Demonic Lightning Arts, using the book as a medium. It was pretty cheap, especially with his current point total. Sarah sighed in exasperation as she witnessed the book instantly turn into a copy of the Demonic Lightning Arts, red cover and all.

“Of course it's not limited to arrays. Just turn a book into a different book. Sure, why not?”

Will ignored her grumbling and passed the book back to the man.

“Huh?”

Looking at the title, it read ‘Demonic Lightning Arts’. He flipped through the pages. It was a lot of torture.

“What's with all the torture?”

“He's a Sick Fweak.”

“Is this real?”

Will nodded.

“Yeah.”

“How did you get this?”

Will thought about it for a moment.

“The book itsewf, you just gave me. The Demonic Wightning Arts, I copied from the Sick Fweak.”

“That wasn't just nonsense from a brat?”

“It was twue.”

“So you're just giving this to me?”

“Didn't you litewally just ask fow it?”

“Didn't expect you to actually have the damn thing. I was just hopin' you'd run off somewhere and leave me alone.”

“Then do you have a thing for me to do now?”

“Yeah. Take this book back, run for your life, and hope the bastard you stole it from doesn't catch you.”

“It's fine. He pwobably thinks I'm related to the Beast King, so he'd go bother him if he wanted to get wevenge.”

“Why would he think that?”

“Because I destroyed his twials and fought him off with a bunch of monstwous beasts.”

“How did you do that if you're not related to the Beast King?”

“Beasts in the fowest he lived in have weird instincts.”

Will noticed he'd strayed from the important part.

“So, do you have something fow me to do, now?”

“Sorry. Don't have anything for an orphaned cultivator brat on a madman's shitlist to do, either.”

“Do you even do anything? Is this whowe place just an excuse for you to sit awound and do nothing all day?”

The man sighed.

“Why do you even want me to give you work?”

“I'm bowed, and you're wunning a stowe hidden past a bunch of awweyways. Normal stowes don't do that. Only intewesting ones do. And I'm bowed.”

“It's really just boredom? If it's just boredom, then you should just go to bed. It's late. I can even offer you a bed for the night if you need one.”

Will sighed.

“I just woke up. And I awready have a bed at Li Rencai's place.”

The man was surprised this brat was close enough with Li Rencai to just sleep at his home, but it was less shocking than somehow turning a shitty novel he had lying around into the manual for a powerful demonic cultivator's arts.

“A brat like you shouldn't have a sleep schedule like that.”

He didn't really do it on purpose. It was mostly because a bunch of kidnappers tried to kidnap his roommates.

“I know.”

The man sighed.

“Can we be done here? I really don't have anything you can do. I wasn't lying. Nothing I need can be done by a brat. So go off and do brat things.”

Will finally decided to leave. After one last question.

“Befowe I go, teww me what it is you actually do hewe.”

The man groaned in annoyance.

“Nothing a brat needs to know about. I can promise you it's nothing your little buddy Li would take issue with, alright? Now go!”

Then he remembered the book and added some words as he held it out to the kid.

“And take this book with you! You should deliver it to the Dragon Flame Clan.”

He realized they probably wouldn't just let some random brat in. He grumbled for a moment at having to deal with all this, before he began speaking.

“Hold on. Don't go just yet.”

He reached into the chest again and pulled out a badge-looking thing, a scrap of paper, and what looked like a pretty modern pencil. Will felt it was probably the work of Li Rencai, since he was a transmigrator and all.

The man put the scrap of paper on the desk, holding it steady with one hand so it wouldn't crumple up when he tried to write on it. He placed the pencil to the paper, realized some of his beard scraggles were in the way, used the hand holding the pencil to move his beard until his view was clear, put the pencil back on the paper, and started writing. His writing speed was incredibly fast, so he finished writing in only a couple seconds. Once he was done, he looked at Will, glad to see the brat hadn't run off somewhere. He passed the scrap of paper to the kid. Will copied it as soon as he touched it.

“This is a list of places other than the Dragon Flame Clan you can turn that book in at, along with any others you ‘copied’. The Dragon Flame Clan is closest, but if you're on bad terms with them or can't get there for whatever reason, anything on this list'll work too.”

Then, the man picked up the badge. He stopped for a second, looking at it. Will got the feeling he was doing something to it. After the second passed, he held it out so the kid could grab it.

“This is my badge. I've already got it set up so it doesn't look like you stole it. Without this, you won't even make it through the door, so don't lose it.”

He let go of the badge as Will grabbed it.

“When you get there, just show them the badge and tell 'em you have info on the Demonic Lightning…”

He trailed off in thought for a moment before he continued.

“Y'know what? Call him the Demonic Lightning Sick Freak. It fits the damn bastard. They'll know who you're talking about as long as you add the Demonic Lightning part, anyway.”

Will finally realized something. His bugging a random old man for a quest had ended up with him getting an actual quest. He really didn't expect to get, like, a real full-on quest. Even before he'd had the revelation about the word he was using, he had been expecting a simple fetch quest at most. The whole quest thing was mostly just to give him an in to whatever weird stuff a store hidden past a bunch of alleyways would have going on. He hadn't expected something like this to happen! It was his first attempt, too! His first time trying it and he'd already stumbled onto something that felt like a main storyline quest. He smiled brightly at the old man.

“I accept your quest. You can keep the book though.”

He picked the book up from where the man had dropped it to search through his chest earlier, then reverted it back to the novel it was before. Then he set off. He had a quest!

It was the first time he'd actually been given a task since the resurrection. Sure, there was the stuff with the Li family, but that wasn't the same. He didn't really have a task or even much of a goal for that. It was just him responding to issues that arose.

But this? This was a real quest. And it would probably have some kind of follow-up quest too. He doubted they'd just let go of someone talented enough to rob a nascent soul at the age of two.

He skipped back to Li Rencai's house. The guards opened up the gate for him and he headed inside. He didn't try to find Li Rencai. He'd probably be busy. He just told a maid what was going on.

“I got a quest. I'ww be gone sometime between a few days and a month.”

The maid honestly didn't know why the kid bothered giving an estimate of it was going to be that wide, but it wasn't her business, so she didn't pry.

With the information given to a suitable recipient, Will set off on his quest. He reached the snake much quicker this time since he wasn't held back by a bunch of mortals. It was really fun to call people that, honestly.

Hopping onto the snake, he pointed towards Dragon Flame City.

“~You're going back?~”

“~I have an exciting fun task.~”

The words with meanings similar to ‘quest’ in the snake's language were even farther from it than in the other one. So he made do. It sounded just as awkward in the snake's language as it did translated into English. Though that was only for someone who knew the language. It would just sound like hissing to anyone who didn't.

“~Alright then.~”

Will and the snake set off.

But Will was impatient.

“~Can you go faster?~”

“~It would probably be dangerous, but yeah.~”

“~Then you can start speeding up and I'll tell you when to stop.~”

“~Alright.~”

The snake started slowly speeding up. Will didn't notice any real difference on his end. Over the course of an hour, he still didn't notice anything other than everything around them moving really fast.

“~This is as fast as I can go. Ten times speed.~”

“~Why would this be dangerous?~”

“~From all the lightning zapping you.~”

Was that what the tingly feeling was? Lightning? Huh. It seemed Will had built up a tolerance somehow. Probably because he cultivated with demonic lightning spiritual energy for so long.

“~It's not really hurting me.~”

The snake seemed pleasantly surprised as it continued moving. They reached their destination after another hour. It was much faster. Will hopped off and left the snake in the same forest as last time.

As Will waltzed up to the cultivator entrance, he saw the same woman as last time. She smiled at him and waved him through.

Will smiled to himself as he walked through the gate. He had a quest to complete.