"It's already good enough that I didn't feed you toad dung! What the hell is golden toad pus? If you add that in, what you'll get isn't body-tempering liquid but itching powder, right?"

　　"What do you know? This is called monarch, minister, assistant, and courier—balancing yin and yang..."

　　"Cut it out! Last time you taught me to make Stone Skin Water, you had me add some weird Ghosthead Rock powder, and I ended up itching for three days and nights. And the time before that..."

　　Alice Carter interrupted confidently, "If you want to temper your body and skin, you have to endure what others can't. Do you think martial cultivation is as easy as eating and sleeping?"

　　"I must be out of my mind to believe you!" William Foster angrily dripped three drops of pus, picked up the spiked club, and pounded it into the stone mortar, automatically picturing himself smashing someone's head into it, with two legs kicking outside the mortar—a small comfort.

　　"William Foster, you bastard!"

　　"Shut up, you stupid stick!"

　　He had been studying pharmacology and alchemy for some time now. As his knowledge deepened, William Foster had long begun to suspect that some ingredients were completely unnecessary. It was just that this damned stick deliberately made him add some useless but harmless additives to get back at him for ruining its attempt to possess him. Even the so-called borrowing of moonlight sounded unreliable—he wondered if even that was fake.

　　But as an apprentice, he didn't have the confidence to overturn his mentor's instructions, so he could only follow Alice Carter's recipes and get tricked day after day.

　　William Foster was currently refining a body-tempering potion.

　　Although he hadn't learned any immortal cultivation techniques, he was studying martial arts.

　　The martial skills didn't come from Alice Carter, but from the body's original owner, who even had secret manuals. It was just that he didn't seem to practice them properly, so his skills weren't great. But Alice Carter knew a lot of advanced techniques—even staff techniques...

　　The original owner was mediocre at martial arts, but his blood could open Alice Carter's strange space. William Foster knew there was definitely something fishy about this, and even the villagers probably weren't as simple as they seemed. Alice Carter surely knew something, but no matter how he asked, Alice Carter always dodged the question.

　　There were a basketful of secrets—trusting this damned stick would be crazy.

　　"Crush and pound it eighty-one times, make the potion even and a light red paste, then start the furnace?"

　　"Uh... refine, refine your head... ugh..." The spiked club moved in and out of the mortar, grumbling, "At most, you can make a medicine base first. You're still missing purple lotus root as the main ingredient!"

　　William Foster was stunned. "Purple lotus root..."

　　"You think this lousy mountain has every herb? Even the county town doesn't have good stuff. It's time to get out, kid—go to a big place, a land of immortals and spirits. What future is there in this dump? You can't get anything you need—are you going to make pills in your dreams?"

　　William Foster stopped pounding the medicine, pressed his lips together, and looked a bit lost. After a long while, he said, "Let's deal with the mountain's problems first."

　　He said nothing more, fetched a bucket of water, poured in some Stone Skin Water he had made before, and mixed up a batch of body-tempering liquid. Then he stripped completely naked and, under the moonlight, slowly soaked himself in the water in the courtyard.

　　He had barely started soaking, the medicinal effects not yet spreading, when the courtyard door was suddenly kicked open with a "bang." Olivia Thompson barged in, one hand holding a spear, the other a wild rabbit: "Liar..."

　　Before she could finish, a water pouch hanging above the doorframe suddenly burst open, and a strange milky-white liquid poured down on her head. Olivia Thompson instinctively tried to dodge forward, but with less than a foot between her and the door, how could she escape? She was thoroughly drenched, head to toe.

　　It wasn't over yet. As she lunged forward, her foot stepped on something, and a vine instantly wrapped tightly around her ankle. Olivia Thompson tried to break free with a burst of strength, but realized the water she was drenched in was odd—her whole body felt weak and powerless. The vine, somehow specially made, couldn't be shaken off with her weakened energy.

　　With a "swish," the vine pulled upward. Accompanied by a scream, Olivia Thompson didn't have time for a second attempt at escape before she was hoisted upside down, hanging from the doorframe, swaying back and forth.

　　At the same time, two more vines shot out from either side, binding her hands tightly.

　　"Qin..." Olivia Thompson gritted her teeth, just opening her mouth when the liquid smeared on her chin flowed back into her mouth, leaving only muffled "mmm mmm" sounds.

　　Her eyes were also smeared and blurry, but looking upside down, she could vaguely see William Foster seemingly shrinking in the bucket, staring at her in shock.

　　From the moment she broke in to being hung upside down, it was all in the span of a single breath. Even William Foster hadn't reacted yet, and there was already a girl hanging at the door...

　　Yes, it was clearly a girl. After being soaked, her figure was obviously slender, especially that delicate waist—no way a man could have that shape.

　　Her tied-up hair had come undone, long hair hanging down like a waterfall. Her face was flushed with anger, silver teeth clenched, eyes blazing—a stubborn, fiery maiden through and through...

　　"Why are you looking at me with that chaste, indignant face?" William Foster hugged his shoulders, shrinking in the bucket. "I'm just bathing in my own home. You're the one who barged in and saw me, okay?"

　　Olivia Thompson glared at him upside down, gritting her teeth in silence.

　　In her fifteen years of life, she had never been so humiliated. She was afraid that if she spoke, she wouldn't be able to hold back her tears.