William Lynn was cursing inwardly when a commotion suddenly broke out at the village entrance—it looked like the hunting party had returned.

The waiting youths in the village all cheered and rushed to greet them at the entrance. William Lynn glanced over indifferently, but was stunned to see that all the young and strong men returning from the hunt had come back empty-handed. Not only did they have no prey, but even their weapons were gone.

For these villagers, weapons were like a second life. Living in these mountains, it was impossible to survive without them.

A barely noticeable smile curled at the corner of William Lynn's mouth. "Looks like there's a story here." With that thought, he too walked toward the crowd at the village entrance.

Before he even got close, he heard someone roar angrily, "Logan Wolfe is the hope of our Wolf Village, and now he's been seriously injured by people from Stone Village. We absolutely can't let this go!"

William Lynn looked up and saw a young man slumped dejectedly in the middle of the crowd, covered in wounds, his eyes burning with cold hatred.

"So this is the genius the people of Wolf Village are always talking about?" William Lynn observed secretly. He had long heard of this Logan Wolfe—the idol of all the youths in Wolf Village, regarded as the village's hope. Today was the first time William Lynn had seen him in person.

Although Logan Wolfe was injured and looked dispirited, his vitality was strong. While his physical strength couldn't compare to a cultivator, among ordinary martial artists he was definitely top-tier.

According to the consensus in the Great World of Tianyuan, to have this level of ability at such a young age meant that, if he were to cultivate and refine his qi, he would have a promising future. After all, cultivation was about guiding the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, refining it into magical power, and strengthening one's foundation.

Without showing any emotion, William Lynn quietly accessed his Super Ancestral Master System, which included a disciple aptitude detector. He aimed it at Logan Wolfe and pressed confirm.

"This candidate's aptitude is too low and cannot become the host's personal disciple."

William Lynn frowned. This system was way too picky. He had originally planned to just take in four disciples at random to muddle through the system's one-year deadline, and then, if necessary, expel these filler disciples later.

But now it seemed that exploiting the system's loopholes wouldn't be so easy. Even a genius like Logan Wolfe, famous for miles around, wasn't qualified. For William Lynn to gather four disciples and complete the system's task would be extremely difficult.

"One year... one year..." William Lynn sighed gloomily.

In the crowd, an old man beside Logan Wolfe had a face like iron and snorted, "Logan Wolfe is my grandson. Of course we can't just let this go, but not right now. There's been a lot of activity in the mountains lately—it looks like a mountain treasure is about to appear. Let's get the treasure first, then settle the score with Stone Village!"

Clan feuds and armed conflicts were common between rural villages, but William Lynn wasn't interested in that. What caught his attention was the phrase "mountain treasure."

As William Lynn pondered the mountain treasure, he suddenly heard someone in the crowd mutter under their breath, "Who knows how Stone Village raised such a little monster? Not even four years old, just a little kid, and he actually managed to defeat our village's genius Logan Wolfe. It's unbelievable!"

William Lynn's eyes suddenly lit up.

A child not even four years old defeated this Logan Wolfe in front of him?

Logan Wolfe was already quite talented, and the one who injured him wasn't even four yet—what kind of talent would that be?

The chubby boy next to William Lynn cursed in a low voice, "That damn brat, we have to kill him!"

Glancing at him, William Lynn echoed, "Yeah, yeah." But in his heart, he was thinking that maybe this little kid could be recognized by the system.

With that thought, William Lynn quietly slipped out of the crowd. Right now, he wished he could sprout wings and fly straight to Stone Village, but he didn't dare leave the village alone—otherwise, he'd just be a snack for the fierce beasts in the mountains.

Just then, a mechanical, monotonous prompt suddenly sounded in William Lynn's mind.

"Beginner's gift pack issued. Would you like to check it now?"

William Lynn was momentarily stunned, then overjoyed. He had never found that dull, robotic system prompt so pleasant to hear.

Finding a secluded spot, William Lynn opened the gift pack.

Beginner's gift pack: The host receives basic cultivation at the fourth level of the Qi Refining stage, one lottery draw, 300 exchange points, the secret technique "Nine Heavens Heavenly Thunder True Method," and the divine ability "Nine Heavens Moving Thunder Induction."

William Lynn was dazed for a moment as a warm current descended from the top of his head, shooting straight into his chest and abdomen, quickly breaking through a hidden acupoint inside his body.

There are twelve important hidden acupoints in the human body, which cultivators call the Twelve Levels.

The Qi Refining stage is divided into twelve levels, each corresponding to the opening of one of the Twelve Levels. Every time an acupoint is opened, spiritual energy is transformed into magical power, and the cultivator's power rises to a new level.

William Lynn now felt a warm current sweeping through him, breaking through four acupoints in his body before finally dissipating. With each breath, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was rapidly drawn into his body, swirling within the four opened acupoints.

Each acupoint seemed like a constantly spinning cosmic star cluster, with spiritual energy continuously being transformed into William Lynn's own magical power, just like the primordial chaos of the universe giving birth to all things.

William Lynn felt his whole body become lighter, and with a single thought, the magical power in his acupoints surged like a spring, explosive strength ready to burst forth.