William Carter was relying entirely on his iron willpower to force himself to persist at this moment. This extremely intense cultivation consumed a tremendous amount of physical energy, and in just three days, he had lost a significant amount of weight.

Originally not very robust, William Carter now looked even thinner.

Hard work pays off. On the afternoon of the ninth day, he finally managed to last for a full hour as he had hoped.

The sensation of ants crawling all over his body that he had felt during the initial success stage surged up again, only this time it was even more intense. After enduring for three hours, the streams of energy circulating from his organs, bones, and muscles condensed together, forming a faint but tenacious yuan force.

At this point, the first diagram of the Internal Ascension Technique was mastered.

According to the manual, once the first diagram was mastered, yuan force would be generated within the body, and the emergence of yuan force signified that one’s strength had reached the first level.

Thirteen days, yuan force level one—such an achievement would be considered rare even among geniuses on the Empress Continent. However, William Carter was not the fastest; the record was five days to reach yuan force level one!

After washing up, William Carter changed into clean clothes and walked out the door.

The sky was filled with brilliant starlight, and the autumn wind carried a hint of nighttime chill past his ears. William Carter did not rush to practice the second diagram, but instead quietly felt the thread of yuan force within his body.

With a thought, the yuan force flowed into the meridians of his right hand. William Carter gently chopped at the corner of the stone table in the courtyard. It felt a bit awkward, but the corner of the stone table broke off.

William Carter raised his eyebrows slightly, secretly amazed at the wonder of this yuan force. Even at just the first level, it could achieve such results. However, he clearly felt that nearly half of the yuan force had been depleted, and at the same time, a wound split open on his right hand, with blood gradually dripping down.

“Just one use of yuan force consumed so much…” William Carter's eyes flickered as he looked at the wound on his right hand, suddenly realizing, “No, it’s because I used the wrong method. If I hadn’t injected so much yuan force when chopping the stone table just now, maybe I wouldn’t have wasted so much.”

Thinking of this, William Carter immediately began experimenting. He tried injecting yuan force into his right hand bit by bit, attempting to find a balance point. Unfortunately, the yuan force was like a wild horse out of control and could not be precisely managed; often, with just a thought, all the yuan force would surge into his right hand at once.

William Carter was not discouraged and continued to try again and again, but he still could not achieve precise control. Time passed without him noticing, and he sighed, realizing he was being too impatient. Precise control of yuan force could not be accomplished in a short time; it would require a great deal of practice.

He vaguely felt that if he could achieve precise control, he would only need 1/10 of the yuan force to chop off the table corner, whereas he had just wasted more than half.

“It seems that from now on, besides cultivating the Internal Ascension Technique every day, I also need to spend time practicing control of yuan force. But for now, the most important thing is to find a way of attack suitable for my current abilities. Injecting yuan force into both hands is clearly no longer appropriate, so how exactly should I use this limited yuan force?”

William Carter pondered, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him. He recalled that when he had tried to control the yuan force earlier, some of it had leaked out through the wound on his right hand. At the same time, the wound had also healed quickly under the stimulation of the yuan force.

This gave William Carter an idea—perhaps, by using this, he could find a suitable way to attack!

Without hesitation, he immediately gathered the little remaining yuan force into the index finger of his left hand, swiftly cut open the fingertip against the stone table, and instantly released and withdrew the yuan force. A drop of blood, wrapped in a bit of yuan force, shot out and left a small hole in the stone table.

The slight wound on his index finger also gradually healed under the stimulation of the yuan force.

A flash of excitement appeared in William Carter's eyes. If this attack method was used skillfully, it could achieve the effect of controlling yuan force without requiring advanced control techniques. It was a powerful self-defense weapon at this stage, and its power was quite satisfactory.

William Carter believed that with more practice, as he increased the amount of yuan force injected, the power of this attack would definitely rise. All he needed to do was master the timing of this “release and withdraw.”

Now, in addition to practicing the Internal Ascension Technique and precise control of yuan force, William Carter had a new exercise: “release and withdraw.”

“But this is just a clever trick. My body clearly can’t withstand normal attack methods, so it looks like I need to train in body techniques!” Previously, through his conversation with Lillian Carter, William Carter had learned that so-called yuan force was actually a type of energy, and that there were two ways to use yuan force in this world: spiritual techniques and body techniques.

William Carter didn’t really understand spiritual techniques, but from the name, body techniques were clearly about using the body as a weapon to unleash yuan force.

Unfortunately, the bookstore didn’t have any training methods for body techniques, but according to William Carter's understanding, body techniques were nothing more than using every possible means to enhance one’s physical fitness.

With this in mind, William Carter decided to go out the next day to buy some equipment to strengthen his body.

By now, dawn was breaking. William Carter returned to his room, ate a few medicinal fruits, and sat on his bed to review the posture for the first diagram. Time passed quickly, and after William Carter finished his third round of cultivation, Lillian Carter brought breakfast.

After explaining to Lillian Carter that he needed to go out to buy some exercise equipment, the two of them left the Purple Mansion together.

Walking through the city streets for the second time, William Carter still couldn’t feel at ease. The sensation of being watched by the passing pedestrians made him feel as if he were sitting on pins and needles.