He took out the antidote given by the third young lady, and William Carter studied it carefully for a long time. He cut it in half with a dagger, then thoroughly analyzed his plan. Only when he felt there were no omissions did he immediately begin cultivating the second diagram of the Internal Ascension Technique.

At 55 minutes and 13 seconds, William Carter suddenly opened his eyes. The moment intense pain surged through his body, he swallowed half of the pill in one gulp, and it melted instantly in his mouth.

From his previous experiences, William Carter knew well that the worm inside him would only cause him excruciating pain once, interrupt his cultivation, and then immediately hide deep within. But this time, because he had taken the antidote, he clearly felt a slight tremor in the deepest part of his lower abdomen.

The worm seemed to be hesitating. In the end, it darted rapidly through William Carter's body and stopped near his stomach, just as the antidote, now liquefied, had flowed there.

The little worm immediately lost control and rushed toward the antidote that had tempted it for so long. The corner of William Carter's mouth lifted slightly. With his right hand infused with elemental energy, two fingers quickly stabbed into his stomach. The worm instantly became alert, but it was reluctant to give up the substance in the antidote that so strongly attracted it. In that moment of hesitation, William Carter's fingers had already caught it.

A piercing screech rang out at once. William Carter's body was wracked with pain, sweat pouring down like rain. When he withdrew his fingers, about one-third of the worm's corpse appeared between them.

"This worm is actually so clever—it severed its own body to escape this fatal blow. But this time, it's been severely weakened. The next time it acts up will be its death!" The corner of William Carter's mouth curled up, a faint trace of mockery in his expression.

With the worm no longer obstructing him, he completed the cultivation of the second diagram of the Internal Ascension Technique that very day. The wounds on William Carter's body also gradually healed under the stimulation of elemental energy. After washing off the faintly black impurities expelled from his body, he immediately seized the time to practice precise control of his internal elemental energy.

His schedule was now packed. Every day, he spent 15 hours practicing physical techniques and the Internal Ascension Technique, 4 hours on "release and retract in one breath," 4 hours on elemental energy control, and the final hour resting.

Speaking of elemental energy control, William Carter vaguely felt that his current method of forcibly controlling the energy inside him was wrong. After much thought, he took out a metal ball from among the many devices he had purchased.

This metal ball was a high-tech product from the Empire of Springwater, specifically designed for training explosive power and defense. The harder you strike it, the more forcefully it rebounds.

Based on this feature, William Carter planned to use it to train his elemental energy control. He first placed the metal ball in his right palm, gathered all his elemental energy in his right hand, and gently released it. The metal ball immediately bounced up, hit the ceiling, and quickly fell back down.

William Carter caught the metal ball and immediately tried again.

After failing over and over, William Carter did not get discouraged. He calmed his mind and carefully recalled the reasons for his failures. His elemental energy was out of control—either it wouldn't release at all, or it would surge out almost completely. Previously, he had always forced himself to control the energy so it wouldn't all rush out, trying to increase it bit by bit to avoid wasting even a trace. But now, he realized it might be better not to control it that way.

Since he couldn't increase the energy bit by bit for now, he might as well do the opposite: let it all out at once, and then practice reducing the energy little by little. In this way, the principle was almost the same as "release and retract in one breath."

With his experience in "release and retract in one breath," William Carter clearly felt he was making progress in this practice. He set himself the goal of making the metal ball bounce to the same height every time.

In the courtyard, William Carter calculated that currently, when he released all his elemental energy, the metal ball bounced to an estimated height of about 22 meters.

So he set 22 meters as his initial goal. William Carter knew well that as he continued to cultivate the Internal Ascension Technique, his elemental energy would increase day by day. In this way, it wouldn't be hard to make the metal ball bounce higher, but to make the height decrease from 22 meters would be difficult. That would require precise control.

This was exactly what William Carter needed to practice.

With a clear goal, William Carter adjusted his cultivation plan: each time, he would first practice the Internal Ascension Technique, then, with abundant elemental energy, practice bouncing the metal ball and "release and retract in one breath." Once his energy was exhausted, he would immediately practice physical techniques by running laps, and when his stamina surpassed the point of exhaustion, he would start over from the beginning.

William Carter named this series of training the Minor Circulation of the Whole Body.

Time flew by.

One day, William Carter had just finished running 180 laps with 80 kilograms, utterly exhausted. He ate a medicinal fruit to replenish his energy and blood, and immediately began cultivating the Internal Ascension Technique.

Halfway through, he frowned, sighed helplessly, and opened his eyes.

"Here we go again. I really need to find a way to stop him from bothering me all the time."

At that moment, a weak voice called from outside the courtyard: "Mr. Carter, I'm begging you, please take me as your disciple."

A man dressed as a servant in a gray short shirt, his face full of nervousness and caution, walked in. He didn't dare get too close to William Carter, and stood at the doorway from a distance.

"Andrew Jackson, I'm telling you for the last time, I won't take you as my disciple, nor do I have the ability to do so. If you come to bother me again, I won't be so polite. Now leave." William Carter waved his hand impatiently.