David Cooper nodded with a cheerful smile and said, “You could say that. Besides, now that I know your secret, you should feel even more at ease having me by your side!” He was referring to the fact that William Carter was a practitioner of the dark spirit arts.

“If I kill you, not only will I feel at ease, but it’ll also save me a lot of trouble.” William Carter said expressionlessly.

Chapter 0011: Wait and See

“You won’t do that.” David Cooper said with full confidence.

William Carter had no idea where his confidence came from, but he truly no longer felt any urge to kill David Cooper. Henry Clark belonged to this world, but after all, five hundred years had passed, and now was a time of chaos and turmoil. If he wanted to survive, he needed someone familiar with everything here. For now, David Cooper was undoubtedly the best choice.

He deliberately threatened, “Give me a reason not to kill you.”

“If you kill me, you’ll lose someone who can offer you advice and strategies.”

William Carter snorted and shrugged, “I don’t need that at all.”

David Cooper replied seriously, “Maybe you don’t need it now, but in the future, you’ll realize how important I am.”

“Then I’ll wait and see.” William Carter didn’t take his words to heart at all. For now, aside from thinking David Cooper was extremely arrogant, he hadn’t discovered any other strengths in him.

But William Carter never would have imagined that David Cooper’s words would actually come true. In the days to come, David Cooper would indeed become someone extremely important to him. David Cooper’s strategies would help William Carter climb ever higher, and would even throw the entire Feng Kingdom and the Haotian Empire into upheaval. Many years later, William Carter once said that when it came to grand strategy, even ten William Carters tied together couldn’t compare to one David Cooper, but in close combat, he trusted his own instincts more.

“We can’t stay here long, let’s go!” David Cooper glanced around, estimating that it wouldn’t be long before a large force from Ning Kingdom arrived.

William Carter asked, “Where are we going?”

“Of course, to Tongmen!”

Tongmen was an important city on the western border of Feng Kingdom, and also the gateway to the west. Beyond Tongmen was the Hedong region, fiercely contested by Feng and Ning, and past Tongmen lay a vast plain leading straight to Feng Kingdom’s capital, ‘Yancheng’, with no natural defenses in between. Feng Kingdom had always stationed heavy troops at Tongmen. This time, after sending two hundred thousand troops to attack Ning Kingdom and suffering a crushing defeat, the scattered remnants were all fleeing toward Tongmen.

To evade the pursuing troops from Ning Kingdom, William Carter and David Cooper dared not take the main road and instead slipped through the tall grass.

William Carter was a man of few words, not only due to his cold nature but also because of his upbringing. David Cooper, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Ever since he started traveling with William Carter, he hadn’t stopped talking, asking about everything. Even if William Carter ignored him, he could keep muttering to himself endlessly.

“William Carter, your spiritual energy cultivation doesn’t seem very high.”

It wasn’t. William Carter didn’t bother to say much, just nodded. After merging with Henry Clark, he hadn’t inherited much spiritual energy, and although he had just used the Dark Flame, all those he killed were ordinary people, so the spiritual energy he absorbed was pitifully little.

David Cooper pressed, “What level have you reached?”

There were nine levels of spiritual energy cultivation, from lowest to highest: Spirit Initiate, Spirit Movement, Spirit True, Spirit Break, Spirit Transformation, Spirit Origin, Spirit Heaven, Spirit God, and Spirit Void.

William Carter countered, “Is that important?”

“Of course it’s important.” David Cooper said seriously, “I have to understand your strength first. Only then can I make the right decisions at critical moments.”

William Carter laughed. It seemed David Cooper really saw him as a muscle-bound brute with no brains. He didn’t want to explain further and simply said, “Barely at Spirit Movement.”

David Cooper nodded, looking as if he understood everything, and muttered, “I knew it, your cultivation isn’t high.”

William Carter asked casually, “How could you tell?”

David Cooper replied, “The Dark Flame you used is Death Burn. If I’m not mistaken, that’s the first level of the Dark Flame.”

William Carter was a bit surprised. It was impressive enough that David Cooper could tell he was using the Dark Flame, but he hadn’t expected him to recognize that it was the Death Burn level. He smiled, “Now I’m starting to believe you really do know a lot.”

This was the first time William Carter had complimented him, and David Cooper was quite pleased, which made him even more talkative. He grinned, “That’s not all I know! The Dark Flame has three levels. The first is Death Burn, which can burn the flesh of all living things in the world and absorb fifty percent of their spiritual energy. The second is Soul Burn, which can burn the soul and absorb one hundred percent of the spiritual energy. The third is Destruction Burn, which can incinerate everything in existence and draw spiritual energy from all things under heaven. However, as far as I know, since the birth of spiritual martial arts, no one has ever managed to cultivate the Dark Flame to the third level.” As he spoke, he saw William Carter’s wry smile and thought he had hurt his confidence, so he quickly added, “You’re already amazing. As far as I know, there are hardly any dark spirit practitioners who can master the Dark Flame. In fact, I’ve never even heard of anyone who has. It’s just a legendary skill, and I never expected it to appear in you…”