Even though I ordered plenty of food, the two of us, like a pair of starving ghosts reincarnated, didn’t waste a single grain and devoured everything in no time. The middle-aged man acted as if he were at home, and after eating his fill, he poured himself a glass of red wine, sat down on the sofa in the room, and fixed me with a sinister gaze.

Chapter Thirteen: Deterioration

Red wine was something the hotel offered as a complimentary feature with such an expensive dinner I ordered; otherwise, I’d rather drink water than order something so ridiculously pricey.

It wasn’t until I started to feel a chill in my heart that he finally spoke slowly: “Edward Bennett introduced you to me, saying you’re a good team member. I’ve observed you for two days. Although you’re really weak, you have decent potential. Now you need to decide—do you want to join me?”

I shrugged, poured myself a glass of water, and then replied, “I need power—power strong enough to kill a certain person!”

The middle-aged man let out a chuckle and said, “Then it’s a deal! Starting tonight, I’ll teach you boxing for half an hour every night.”

I said with some disdain, “What’s the use of boxing? This is a fantasy blockbuster, not a martial arts TV drama.”

The middle-aged man gave a sinister smile and said in a low voice, “My boxing can help you survive the rookie stage and qualify to enter the next scene, instead of dying before you even step into the real dark world. If your boxing skills reach a certain level, even that white-haired guy today might not be able to kill you—he’s someone who possesses a soul core.”

I admitted the middle-aged man had a point, and was also a bit shocked, finally realizing what that thing was. I’d heard the term “soul core” from Edward Bennett as well, though he’d only mentioned it in passing—I never expected I’d get to have one so soon.

I grinned and replied in a low voice, “Then please train me as hard as you can—the tougher, the better!”

The middle-aged man didn’t hold back. He immediately stood up and showed me three stances and how to exert force. His teaching method was very unique—he’d just press on me somewhere, and it felt like a current of electricity was running through my muscles, letting me quickly understand the correct way to do things.

Half an hour passed quickly. The middle-aged man had no intention of going overtime. He patted me on the shoulder and walked out of the room.

The moment he stepped out, he casually tossed a phone to me, and his calm voice echoed in my room: “Here’s the information you need. If you want to gain power in the dark world, you must memorize all this material, because it’s the only way to obtain power. My name is Julia Carter, and I’ll be your captain!”

Holding the phone, I felt a strange sensation in my heart: “Shouldn’t secret manuals be fancy silk scrolls or handwritten ancient books? Now it’s all electronic documents—what’s the world coming to?” Though I grumbled a bit, after Julia Carter left, I still turned on the phone.

The phone was tiny, even smaller than a credit card, round and smooth like a pebble, looking cute and compact. It felt very comfortable in my hand, but I had no idea which country made it—I’d never even heard of the brand, something called Veer.

The Veer phone that Julia Carter gave me was incredibly slow to boot up—it took a full minute just to display the main menu, making me almost think it was broken. I originally wanted to go to Julia Carter to return it, but the reason I didn’t wasn’t because I remembered Julia Carter hadn’t mentioned any warranty when he gave it to me, but because he knew my room, while I didn’t know his. Judging by the people here, the price of knocking on the wrong door was probably much higher than helping up a fallen old lady in Nanjing. Helping up an old lady in Nanjing just costs you money, but knocking on the wrong door in the dark training camp could cost you your life.

To my disappointment, the phone did contain a lot of information, but there wasn’t a single “legendary secret manual.” Most of the data was about the dark world, some of which Edward Bennett had mentioned to me before, just not in as much detail as what was on the phone.

Outside of the ordinary world we live in, there is a parallel world—the dark world.

Between the main world and the dark world, there are many interconnecting spatial rifts. Creatures from both worlds sometimes, due to certain special accidents, cross over into the other world!

Humans discovered the dark world a long time ago—at least over thirty centuries ago. The inhabitants of the dark world learned about the main world even earlier. Their first trips to the main world may have happened tens of thousands of years ago, even before intelligent humans appeared.

The dark world is different from our normal world. In addition to the usual physical laws, there is also a mysterious force known as the laws of spirits and gods.

Because of the existence of these laws, most beings in the dark world can develop a soul core and possess mysterious and powerful abilities.

The method of developing a soul core is called soul arts in the dark world. Low-level soul arts are relatively easy to obtain, but high-level soul arts are as precious as top-tier martial arts manuals.