Since he had just died, he couldn't be allowed to die again immediately after someone "possessed" his body. Therefore, when people perform possession, their spirit carries a kind of healing energy that can heal the injuries of the deceased...

Of course, this healing energy is not omnipotent.

Minor wounds and ailments are easy to treat, but for severe injuries like the gaping wound through the young man's body, it's simply impossible to heal in a short time. Even if Ethan Clark succeeded in possession, he would still need to spend a lot of time conditioning and restoring this body...

However...

Ethan Clark did not regret this choice.

Because...

...

"Whoosh!"

The young man, whose eyes had remained open in death, suddenly moved his eyes and closed them.

Immediately after, his mouth, his fingers, his hands, his feet...

Every part of his body twitched slightly.

It was as if a ripple started small and spread to every corner of his body.

"Hiss!"

Even though the movements were slight, the pain from the abdominal wound still made the young man—or rather, Ethan Clark...

Even the smallest movement made Ethan Clark break out in a cold sweat on his forehead from the pain.

A hundred percent pain simulation...

"Whew!"

Ethan Clark still kept his eyes closed.

This young man hadn't been dead for long; his blood hadn't fully coagulated, and there was still a lot of residual information in his body. This information was intermittent and fragmented, making it hard to understand...

After carefully sorting through it for a while, he managed to piece together some useful information.

The most vivid impression in this young man's mind was of a sect—the Xuantian Sect.

This sect had already been destroyed.

There were no memories of how it was destroyed.

However, even after death, the obsession to restore the Xuantian Sect and bring it back to glory was deeply rooted in his soul like a heart demon, affecting his emotions and refusing to dissipate. Because of this, he even changed his name to James Miller, as a reminder to never forget his sect.

"The sect... the only obsession is the sect. But, possession always comes with some aftereffects. The first body I possessed had an obsession with his ailing mother. Fortunately, his obsession wasn't strong. After I took care of his mother, the obsession faded, and my mental cultivation even improved a bit. Not long after, I broke through to the Forging Qi realm."

These were the lessons Ethan Clark had learned.

He was able to become the officially recognized number one expert in Shenzhou not only because of his high mental acuity, but also due to his seriousness and understanding of this virtual world—both key factors in his success.

"Resolving the obsession left in this body won't be easy. I'll have to pay more attention to the Xuantian Sect... But, Xuantian Sect? Does Shenzhou have such a sect? Wait... Xuantian Sect is one of the hidden sects in Central Continent? This young man actually came from Central Continent? From a different continent? The continents of the True Profound World are separated by tens of millions of miles—even those at the Forging Qi realm can't hope to cross from one continent to another in their lifetime... And this young man actually came from another continent?"

Ethan Clark frowned slightly and quickly searched for the remaining memory fragments in the body.

After a long while, some broken memories of intercontinental teleportation arrays surfaced in his mind...

It seemed that, before dying, he had used the sect's teleportation array to escape at random...

However, these memories were vague and unclear. When Ethan Clark tried to examine them closely, the information faded away like an illusion.

"A teleportation array... I thought the developers of the True Profound World really didn't intend to let players from the nine continents interact at all."

Since he couldn't retrieve any relevant information, Ethan Clark didn't force it.

The injuries to this body would be hard to heal in a short time, and would even require a lot of precious medicinal materials to fully recover. However, Ethan Clark had made the right bet.

...

When he saw the seemingly ordinary sword beside the young man—one that actually concealed a divine radiance—he had already guessed that this young man was no ordinary person...

Later, the injuries on his body further confirmed his judgment.

Sword Qi!

Back in his prime, he could indeed unleash Sword Qi, letting it attach to his sword and making his swordsmanship incredibly sharp and deadly.

However, although the young man's wounds were caused by Sword Qi, it wasn't just that...

If he was right, the force that caused such wounds was even stronger than Sword Qi—an attack launched from a distance.

A force even stronger than Sword Qi...

A long-range strike!

Dan Energy!

Most likely, it was a master of the Dan realm, above the Forging Qi realm!

Would someone who could be hunted by a Dan realm master be an ordinary person?

This was why, even knowing that the young man was gravely injured and would require a lot of time and precious medicine to recover, Ethan Clark still chose to possess him.

In the end...

He had made the right bet.

"Whew!"