“Yes, yes, yes, of course the Second Young Master’s level is beyond what someone like me could ever guess. Lift the sedan.” Michael Bolton was flattering to the point of excess, but he was clearly long used to this, nodding repeatedly for the porters to lift the sedan chair.

“Bang!” Edward Clark, who was tending to the flowers, heard the news and, in his anger, squeezed so hard that four or five pots of precious flowers and plants shattered all at once.

“He actually raped a maid in broad daylight! I’m furious! This unfilial grandson—how could I, Edward Clark, have such a grandson? I…” Edward Clark had been in a great mood, thinking his grandson had finally turned over a new leaf, but who would have thought that in less than half a day, such a thing would happen, making him so angry he felt like his lungs would explode.

Old Brooks glanced at the unlucky, pitiful, and precious flowers and quickly tried to comfort him: “Master, please calm down. For now, it’s just a rumor—no one knows the details yet. I’ll go personally to investigate what’s really going on.”

Chapter 5: The Mysterious Yin Body

At this moment, the most innocent person was William Clark. A grandmaster of the top ten alchemy masters in the Nine Provinces, the youngest existence at the Integration stage, was now being accused by a crowd of raping a mere maid. But William Clark himself hadn’t expected to misjudge his own strength at this moment. It wasn’t until he leapt up and charged toward the little maid that William Clark suddenly realized his power, which had originally been at the fourth level of the Transformation stage, had suddenly surged to the peak of the seventh level.

In a short time, he had jumped three levels, even directly breaking through the bottleneck of the sixth level of the Transformation stage. No wonder he had lost control of his strength.

It was too late to say anything now. The scorching pure yang true fire within him had almost burned off all the clothes of the little maid called Lily, so it was no wonder the other maids had screamed and run out. It was truly an awkward situation, but at this point, William Clark couldn’t worry about that anymore. He immediately found a pile of hundred-spirit leaves and a roughly hundred-year-old snow lotus among the shattered box.

William Clark could identify these medicines with his eyes closed. Except for the blood of a snow toad, which he applied to his skin, he swallowed all the rest. Then he quickly circulated the Yin-Yang Universal Art within his body to balance the yin and yang energies. William Clark gradually felt the scorching pure yang true fire within him being suppressed and balanced, and finally, as he continued to circulate the Yin-Yang Universal Art, his internal energy gradually stabilized and he managed to control it.

“Crack… crack…” As the pure yang true fire circulating with the Yin-Yang Universal Art was suppressed by his internal energy and began to flow normally again, combined with the effect of the snow toad blood applied to his body, the outer layer of William Clark’s body actually began to crack and fall off. William Clark wasn’t worried about this, since he had already checked—most of it was just impurities expelled from his body after his rapid breakthrough, which, under the effect of the scorching pure yang true fire, looked like his skin was splitting, but in fact, his skin wasn’t seriously damaged. It was just some solidified, fragmented filth on the surface of his body.

William Clark stood up, clenched his fists, and with a sudden shake of his body, the layer of impurities completely fell away.

Disaster! With the impurities gone, William Clark was now completely naked. As one of the top ten alchemy masters in the Nine Provinces, to be stark naked—what would people say if word got out? He looked around and saw that, apart from the scattered medicines on the ground, even the main gate outside had been closed, and there was no one around. Although he was naked and no one had seen him, he suddenly realized—those bastards, why did they close the door? Wouldn’t this make it look like he really had committed rape?

But now was not the time to think about that. The only one here was the unconscious Lily on the ground. William Clark checked her and found she was fine, then hurried into the bedroom to change into some clothes, and also took out a large robe to wrap Lily in, carrying her to lay her on the bed.

Lily’s chest was also wrapped in white cloth, already stained with blood, and her hands were bandaged as well. In William Clark’s mind, he suddenly recalled the little girl with tears in her eyes, trying to gather the scattered medicines from the ground, covered in black soot. It was her, Lily. Seeing her appearance and hearing others call her Lily, William Clark had already found some information in his original memories.

On a snowy night last winter, a little girl covered in blood suddenly rushed out of an alley and ran straight into William Clark’s carriage. At the time, William Clark had just returned from drinking at the Flower Pavilion, dead drunk. When his subordinates asked what to do, he vaguely told them to bring her home. Later, when the little girl woke up, she remembered nothing, and William Clark had long forgotten the incident. The housekeeper let her stay on as a maid, and since it was snowing heavily the day she was brought in, she was named Lily.

William Clark unwrapped the bandages on Lily’s hands and shook his head slightly. She had only applied ordinary burn ointment. She didn’t know that this kind of burn was no ordinary injury. After all, to become even a basic alchemist, one must be able to use Scarlet Flame True Fire. Scarlet Flame True Fire is a flame controlled by an alchemist using internal energy and spiritual power, making its heat and power two to ten times greater than normal fire—hence the name Scarlet Flame True Fire.