This small courtyard, passed down through William Harris's family, gave him a stable place to stay in Luyang City. Although the courtyard walls and house were quite old and worn, everything inside and out was kept spotlessly clean and tidy.

The stools, chairs, and tea table were free of even a speck of dust.

After returning home from the martial academy, William Harris sat at a desk by the window, took out a book on the adventure discipline, and continued to bury himself in study, seizing every moment to learn about the nine major disciplines.

It wasn’t long before he felt extremely tired and drowsy.

Opening the divine book "Elegy" to the section "Vast Ages" to consult the knowledge recorded within always came at a price.

During the last class of the day, every time he opened the mysterious ancient book in his sea of consciousness, his mental energy was greatly depleted.

In order to deal with Megan Walker the instructor, Eric Johnson, Wayne Miller, and Sandra Cooper, he had opened the ancient book four times in a row, completely exhausting all his mental strength.

Just now in the classroom, in order to finally hold his head high in front of the other martial students, he managed to hold on. But after coming home, as soon as he looked at a book, his eyelids grew heavy.

With a thud, William Harris collapsed onto the desk and drifted off into a deep sleep.

He had no idea how much time had passed.

Suddenly, William Harris woke up with a start.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the sky outside the window was just beginning to lighten—it seemed to be dawn.

"Didn't I just come home at noon to rest for a bit? How did it suddenly become morning? ...Oh no, today is the Luyang Ten Academies Joint Exam—did I miss the exam time?!"

William Harris jumped up from the desk, looking a bit flustered.

At that moment, a calm voice sounded in his mind: "You slept through the afternoon and the night. It's now the next morning, and there's still plenty of time before your academy's assessment."

William Harris was startled. "How did I sleep for so long?!"

Shawn complained, "I told you before, every time you consult 'Vast Ages,' it consumes a huge amount of your mental energy. Unless it's necessary, don't use it lightly. Yesterday, just for the sake of those useless classmates of yours, you opened the book four times in a row, completely draining your mental strength. It took you most of a day to recover!"

William Harris immediately remembered that this was the voice of the mysterious ancient book "Elegy" that had entered his mind.

Hearing Shawn's complaint, he couldn't help but give a wry smile.

It wasn't like he wanted this to happen.

But Eric Johnson and his gang were always bullying him, and he just couldn't take it anymore, so he struck back at them. He just accidentally consulted the book a few too many times, which led to him sleeping through the whole night.

Shawn sounded a bit helpless. "The main problem is that your mental strength is too weak! Your mental power is probably less than half that of other martial artists at your level—it's unbelievably weak. With your meager strength, it's hard for me to get any nourishment from you. I really don't know how many tens of thousands of years I'll have to stay in your sea of consciousness before I can recover my full power."

"Am I really that weak?"

William Harris's heart was filled with bitterness.

Even though he had shown off a bit yesterday, in truth, he was still just a pitifully struggling junior martial artist.

His martial talent, especially in terms of mental strength, was less than half that of others. No wonder, despite his desperate efforts every day, he still lagged far behind others in martial arts, and the gap was only widening.

"By the way, if I run out of mental strength and overuse the divine book, what will happen? Will I just pass out on the spot?"

William Harris really wanted to know.

Shawn shook his head. "You won't pass out! After your mental strength is depleted, it will start consuming your vital energy. If your vital energy is drained to the brink of death, it will then start consuming your lifespan, until your life is exhausted and your soul is utterly destroyed. So I'm warning you, don't overuse 'Martial God Combat' and 'Vast Ages,' or you'll just die even faster! I don't want you to die early and drag me down with you."

William Harris was shocked. "If I force myself to read after my mental strength is gone, it'll even consume my vital energy and lifespan?"

Shawn nodded. "Of course. Did you think flipping through such a thick ancient book wouldn't consume energy?"

William Harris suddenly thought of a crucial question: "So, is my mental strength enough to activate 'Martial God Combat'? How many times can I use it?"

He was about to take the martial discipline assessment.

The martial discipline assessment wasn't just about consulting the divine book or talking a good game—he had to demonstrate real martial skills in front of the examiners.

His martial skills were too weak; he needed to rely on Shawn's power to have any hope of passing the assessment and entering the only advanced academy in Luyang Prefecture.

Shawn replied indifferently, "Activating 'Martial God Combat' consumes even more mental energy than consulting 'Vast Ages.' With your pitiful amount of mental strength, you can probably only use 'Martial God Combat' once a day, and only to perform the most basic martial techniques. If you recklessly try to use techniques above the basic level, or skills from other disciplines, it will directly consume your vital energy, and may even shorten your lifespan! You only have about a hundred years of life left—you can't afford to waste it."

William Harris was a bit surprised.

But at least he could perform 'Martial God Combat' once.

Even if it was only a basic martial technique, maybe... just maybe, he'd have a slim chance of passing the martial discipline assessment at Luyang Academy.

However, among the thousands of martial students from the ten major academies of Luyang Prefecture, many already knew basic martial techniques, and even the children of noble families had learned intermediate techniques.