After finishing all this, William Carter immediately used all his strength to flee for his life without looking back. He knew very well the gap between himself and a Venerable, and secretly sighed that tonight would likely be dangerous. If he were caught, he would need to reveal his Purple Mansion identity at the first opportunity; that way, he probably wouldn’t be killed. As for the blood-forbidden technique the other party mentioned, it did surprise him a bit—could there really be a cultivation method that attacks using blood?

If that were true, then heaven had not abandoned him. The woman was now greatly shaken, making this the perfect opportunity for him to escape quickly!

The woman saw the cold look in William Carter’s eyes, and a chill suddenly rose in her heart. The legendary blood-forbidden technique, a deadly poison art from Azure Dragon City, one of the four great free cities in the East—rumors of the horrific deaths of those struck by it flooded her mind.

Especially when she saw William Carter swing his left hand, she was about to dodge in shock, but his timing was terrifyingly precise. At that moment, her knees went numb and she couldn’t dodge in time. Instinctively, she reached out her left hand to block.

Her left hand felt a chill. The woman looked at the drop of fresh blood on the back of her hand, hesitated briefly, and when she looked up again, William Carter’s figure had already completely vanished from sight.

Cautiously returning to the Purple Mansion, William Carter felt a wave of exhaustion. This had been his first battle, and the opponent’s mistaken belief that his attack was the blood-forbidden technique was the only reason he’d managed to escape by luck. This incident taught William Carter a profound lesson, and he secretly decided that unless he was strong enough, he would never take such risks again.

As for the blood-forbidden technique, William Carter felt a bit of fondness for it. He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and took out the storage card he had obtained from the wall...

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, William Carter had already lived in the Purple Mansion for two months. On this day, William Carter was diligently practicing the internal Ascension Technique when he suddenly frowned and stopped cultivating, standing up.

Not long after, there was a knock at the door, and Lillian Carter’s voice came through.

“William Carter, Miss asked me to come get the medicine. Are you ready?”

“Almost done. If you come by around dinnertime, it should be ready.” William Carter opened the door and smiled at Lillian Carter.

Lillian Carter stared at William Carter in a daze, her pretty face flushing red and her heart pounding. She thought to herself, how has this person changed so much in just half a month? His eyes are so bright, and his whole aura is completely different from half a month ago.

“I... I... Miss is waiting for my reply, so... so I’ll come back tonight then.” Lillian Carter stole a glance at him with a red face, and when she saw the hint of a smile in William Carter’s eyes, she immediately became flustered and hurried away.

William Carter knew that he had changed greatly in the past half month, almost transforming every day. This was entirely thanks to the pill he had obtained from the storage card some time ago.

Thinking of that storage card, William Carter’s eyes lit up with excitement. Besides the two pills, the card also contained a black sheathed dagger and some miscellaneous items.

William Carter had tested the dagger—it could cut through iron like mud, which was no exaggeration. He was extremely fond of it and kept it close to him instead of in the storage card.

Of the two pills, William Carter had used one to test on a living creature. After confirming it wasn’t poison, he took the remaining one himself. Just one pill had completely transformed him: not only did it expel a large amount of impurities through his pores, but his internal meridians had more than doubled in size. His muscle tissue was also noticeably more resilient than before.

Although his elemental energy hadn’t increased, William Carter valued the pill greatly. Through his cultivation so far, he had vaguely realized that the size of the meridians carrying elemental energy in the body was fixed, which was one of the reasons limiting the growth of elemental energy.

Yet this pill was so powerful that it could expand and strengthen the meridians. William Carter guessed that what those Venerables wanted was most likely this pill. Unfortunately, he had used one for testing, and every time he thought of this, William Carter felt a deep sense of regret.

Besides these two items, the storage card also contained a human-skin mask, which excited William Carter even more. With this mask, he knew he would have a much better chance of escaping in the future.

In the past half month, William Carter had made considerable progress. He had cultivated the second diagram of the Ascension Technique to 55 points, and his elemental energy had become slightly more robust. However, what troubled him was that from 55 points onward, his cultivation speed had noticeably slowed. Even with full effort, he could only extend his practice by a few seconds each time, and if he forced himself to continue, the long-missed intense pain would immediately return.

William Carter knew very well that this must be the parasite in his body acting up again. This time, the parasite was extremely cautious—after a brief flare-up, it would immediately hide, making it nearly impossible for William Carter to find any trace of it no matter how hard he searched.

After much thought, William Carter had already made up his mind about this: tonight would be the key moment to resolve the issue.

As for physical training, William Carter was very satisfied. He was now carrying a 50-kilogram load all day and could run 70 laps.

William Carter’s goal was 200 kilograms and 200 laps!

What he was least satisfied with was the precise control of elemental energy in his body. After half a month, he still couldn’t fully control every bit of his elemental energy without letting it leak out. However, thanks to practicing the technique of inhaling and instantly retracting energy, he had made a little progress. After infusing elemental energy into his hand, a single hand-chop now consumed slightly less than before.