Henry Thompson frowned slightly, quickly making a judgment.

"Is starlight a mysterious power?"

"First it appeared in my stomach, then it overflowed, and then it disappeared... Does this mean I can't retain this power?"

He knew nothing about mysterious powers.

However, he had practiced grappling and combat, and understood one principle: everything requires some routines and rules to organize and store it.

Training chaotically sometimes not only fails to strengthen the body, but can even ruin it—his teacher Scott Foster had said this before.

And now, he was a complete novice.

This power might be the mysterious force he longed for, yet he had no way to keep it, only letting it flow away.

"Does mysterious power require some kind of secret manual?"

At this moment, Henry Thompson glanced at the black panther. Naturally, the black panther didn't know any cultivation methods, but it wasn't cultivating either—it just let the starlight power flow through its body. Even if this energy only lingered inside for a while, it seemed to have some strengthening effect.

At this point, Henry Thompson looked at the water left in the bowl.

He quickly drew several conclusions.

First, the jade sword really did contain a starlight-like energy, but it needed boiling water to neutralize it so the energy could seep into the water.

Second, this energy had a strengthening effect, but couldn't be retained.

Third, obtaining mysterious power might require a secret manual or another system; simply absorbing or consuming it wasn't enough to gain this power.

Fourth, was he perhaps just useless?

When Henry Thompson thought of the fourth point, it wasn't just random speculation. He was considering whether there were requirements for cultivating mysterious power, and whether he met those requirements.

If someone else drank this water, could they retain the power, while he couldn't?

That wasn't impossible!

If everyone could possess mysterious power, then in such a large Silver City, it wouldn't be so rarely heard of. People would at least vaguely know about the existence of Night Watchers, and even then, their numbers probably weren't large.

After noting these points, Henry Thompson felt his body.

He didn't feel much change.

There was no sudden surge of strength as he had imagined, nor did his hair become shiny and his skin radiant like the black panther.

"It feels about the same as soaking in a hot spring, my stomach is warm, but other than that... not much!"

Henry Thompson muttered, and the next moment, he felt a bit helpless.

How come my changes aren't even as good as a dog's?

After drinking the water, the black panther's fur visibly became shinier, but he himself didn't feel much.

"Could it be that I'm not even as good as the black panther?"

Henry Thompson gave a wry smile.

He also wondered if the first batch of water was more effective, but it was hard to say—maybe he really was inferior to the black panther?

That would be infuriating!

"This won't do. It seems like all the starlight energy is wasted. Once it overflows from my body, it quickly disappears."

Henry Thompson furrowed his brow, looking at the more than half a bowl of water left, not daring to drink it anymore.

Afraid to waste it!

This power could still be preserved in the water, and after drinking it, it could enter the stomach, but once it overflowed from the stomach, it disappeared immediately.

"Can the Starry Sky Sword be soaked in water repeatedly, or is there a limit?"

Too many uncertainties made Henry Thompson reluctant to waste this bowl of water.

"Right now, I lack the ability to retain starlight energy. If I could absorb all of it into my body, maybe there would be some changes..."

"No, that's not it!"

At this moment, Henry Thompson suddenly thought of something and muttered, "The main issue is that I'm like water without a source. Not much of this energy is absorbed into my body, and it quickly disappears. Maybe it's because I don't have the root of mysterious energy inside me..."

It was just a guess—Henry Thompson really knew too little about this.

"I can't just watch it go to waste. Who knows how long this bowl of water will keep its effect..."

He stood up, thinking of something.

Maybe he could try the "New Five Animals Book" his teacher had passed on to him.

It was a small health-preserving method, properly and reasonably designed, adapted by his teacher from some ancient civilization records. His teacher, over seventy years old, could still walk briskly and even beat up Henry Thompson—so this "New Five Animals Book" definitely had some effect.

The "New Five Animals Book" didn't involve any specific routines or moves; it was just about maximizing the reasonable exercise of all muscles and bones, and had nothing to do with any mysterious system.

At this moment, Henry Thompson thought of this because he felt that after exercising, maybe he could absorb more starlight.

As for whether it would work, he could only do his best and leave the rest to fate.

The New Five Animals Book described the basic reactions of five animals in daily hunting and escaping: the tiger's ferocity, the deer's calmness, the bear's steadiness, the ape's agility, and the bird's lightness.

Henry Thompson's teacher Scott Foster was especially skilled in the ways of the ape and the bird.

Simply put, Scott Foster hoped he could escape as nimbly as a monkey and move as lightly as a bird, able to cross all kinds of obstacles, making it easier to escape danger at the first sign.