That voice sighed, “Who cares if she’s a man or a woman. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? So many people in the world seek immortality with utmost devotion—if they were truly given a chance at it, they’d gladly kneel for three days and nights. Why is it that you just refuse to cultivate immortality when given the chance?”

“I am cultivating immortality, aren’t I? Look, I’m planning to stay up all night again tonight…”

“You call that cultivating immortality? Don’t try to fool me with the same tricks you use to fool them.”

William Foster said coldly, “Don’t try to fool me with the tricks you use to fool idiots!”

As he spoke, he casually tossed the spiked club into the foot-washing basin by the bed.

The voice in his sea of consciousness became exasperated: “I didn’t complain when you used me to grind medicine or hammer nails, but if you throw me into the foot-washing water again, I won’t let this go!”

The spiked club suddenly leapt out of the water and swung at William Foster. Leaning against the headboard, William Foster kicked out, hitting the handle dead-on. The club spun a few times in the air, then smacked into the wall with a “smack,” slid down, and bounced twice on the floor before lying still.

A thick sense of resentment overflowed from the club.

“Hey, club…”

“I’ve told you ten thousand times, my name is Alice Carter.”

“A spiked club’s spirit named Alice Carter… Do those two things even match in style? Who was your original master, didn’t they have any sense?”

Alice Carter sneered in silence.

William Foster asked again, “Club, do you think those two can handle the problems in the mountains?”

Ever since William Foster transmigrated here, this mountain had started to change. First, poisonous miasma appeared in the mountains, and people would fall ill after entering. Second, a strange winged tiger inexplicably showed up among the rocks. The miasma wasn’t real poison—it was the spatial resentment brought out by Alice Carter. The winged tiger, however, had nothing to do with Alice Carter; it was the result of the “demon-transforming miasma” planted by those two earlier.

Both problems were related to William Foster.

Alice Carter lazily said, “I told you to cultivate immortality with me, but you refuse to learn. Otherwise, how could you be unable to handle a tiger that’s only just begun to transform into a demon?”

“Because it can’t kill me, but you might.”

It had been some time since he transmigrated, and William Foster could now clearly recall and make sense of what had happened back then.

That was when Alice Carter was trying to seize his body, coinciding with his transmigration, and even tried to devour his soul directly. But the complete cultural mismatch from another world made Alice Carter spit him out, and instead, he took over the body. The soul power Alice Carter had accumulated over who knows how many years suffered a heavy blow and became extremely weak, retreating into the club to barely survive.

So Alice Carter claimed to teach him cultivation, hoping to help it rebuild its body in the future.

But William Foster didn’t dare to learn.

After all, the original owner’s soul had already been devoured by Alice Carter—this was definitely not a good thing. Who knew if the cultivation techniques it taught had hidden backdoors, making it easier for it to seize his body again? William Foster considered himself not that reckless and didn’t dare to try.

At first, William Foster even thought about throwing away the spiked club, but he was simply too curious about this world of cultivation, so he kept it by his side. After all, it was very weak now, wasn’t it?

How ironic.

Alice Carter sneered, “Anyway, I can tell you this: the resentment will dissipate on its own soon, no need for anyone to deal with it. But that tiger has already started to demonize. With the demon-binding array I taught you—especially since you haven’t cultivated at all—you won’t be able to restrain it for long. Sooner or later, it’ll start hurting people. If you want to solve this problem completely, you must cultivate with me.”

William Foster pursed his lips and, after holding back for a while, finally said, “I’ll solve it one way or another.”

Alice Carter snorted, “Your plan is to spread word of this long-forgotten immortal site again, attracting seekers of immortality to come and slay the tiger?”

“At least it’s more reliable than the villagers. I think these The Thompson brothers seem to have some skills.”

Alice Carter laughed, “If you want to go that route, I actually have a foolproof idea.”

“What is it?”

“These The Thompson siblings are either rich or noble. If you get them killed by the tiger, that tiger is guaranteed to be skinned and torn apart—there’s no way it’ll survive. Yet you go and warn them to run if they can’t win, and the tiger won’t chase…”

“Bah!” William Foster jumped up, ran to the corner, grabbed the spiked club, and stuffed it back into the foot-washing basin.

Alice Carter cursed furiously from the water, “You soft-hearted fool! If they get hurt by the tiger and escape, the first thing they’ll do is take it out on you!”

William Foster ignored it completely and turned to the corner of the room. There, a small stove kept a gentle fire, and a clay pot was faintly warm, emitting the subtle fragrance of medicinal pills.

The arts of alchemy and simple array formations were both ways for William Foster to satisfy his curiosity about cultivation in this world, and for Alice Carter to prove, “I really can teach you cultivation.” In this area, the two were actually in perfect agreement—one learned earnestly, the other taught diligently, without any noisy arguments.

William Foster stared at the stove fire for a while, silently calculating the time, then casually took a pot of wine, walked to the window, and sipped it slowly.

Night had completely fallen, and the sky was filled with the brilliance of stars and moon.

The world was quiet, with insects chirping and cicadas singing. Slightly tipsy from the wine, William Foster always felt that this environment was already close to immortal. Free from the clamor of carriages and horses, far from scheming and intrigue, how many ordinary people ever noticed the clarity of this moonlight, the fragrance of these fields? Seeking immortality, seeking immortality—in the end, what they find is nothing but the kind of deception he himself was up to.