“You little rascal!” Grace Newman, tears still staining the corners of her eyes, said painfully, “After your fight with Charles Newman, you suddenly developed a high fever that very night. By the time I found out, you were already burning up and unconscious. We searched all over Black Cloud City and the nearby area for renowned doctors, but none could cure you. We were preparing to send you to Lingyun Sect when Mr. Howard suddenly showed up…”

She carefully explained everything that had happened, then asked, “So? How do you feel now? Are you still feeling weak?”

“No, not really weak.” William Newman shook his head, a strange expression on his face. “On the contrary, I feel… actually quite good. No, I feel fantastic!”

“What do you mean?” David Newman asked in surprise.

“After the fever broke, I feel like I have endless strength, as if I’m even stronger than before.” William Newman chose his words carefully. “There’s no real change in the spiritual energy in my dantian, but the strength in my whole body has definitely increased a lot—I can feel it.”

“That’s odd.” David Newman looked at him deeply, suspicion clouding his face.

“As long as you’re alright, that’s all that matters.” Grace Newman didn’t dwell on it. “From now on, try not to fight with Charles Newman. He’s three levels above you, and his spiritual energy can already overflow. Yet you insist on showing off. I bet this sudden fever was caused by fighting him. If you can’t win, then don’t fight. Your level is much lower—if you lose, you lose. Don’t be so stubborn.”

“I think if I fought Charles Newman again right now, I could easily beat him!” William Newman grinned, a confident and radiant smile on his face.

“Still so stubborn! I don’t want to see you fall into a fever and coma again! Luckily, Mr. Howard happened to pass through Black Cloud City this time, otherwise…” At this point, Grace Newman was about to sob again. “If anything really happened to you, your aunt wouldn’t want to live anymore. If something happened to you, I’d never have the face to see your mother in the afterlife.”

“Alright, alright, I get it. I won’t act recklessly anymore.” William Newman said, rubbing his head.

“For the next few days, you stay home and behave! You’re not allowed to go anywhere!” David Newman instructed sternly.

“Alright.” William Newman nodded helplessly.

Eric Newman’s cultivation chamber.

“Father, that outsider doctor really did cure William Newman’s fever.” Philip Newman entered with a gloomy look, speaking in a tone full of regret.

Drawing strands of cold energy from the black jade pillar behind him into his dantian, Eric Newman opened his eyes and said coldly, “Since William Newman is fine, I need to talk to big brother. According to what he said, yesterday he should have explained everything to the clan elders and voluntarily stepped down as clan head.”

“He should have done that long ago. With him holding the clan head position, there are many things we can’t do. From now on… things will be better.” Philip Newman said, invigorated.

“Although it’s a bit late today, I imagine he hasn’t gone to bed yet.” Eric Newman stood up and left the chamber to find David Newman for a talk.

Chapter 11: Divine Dreamscape

That night.

Grace Newman knew that William Newman had suffered a lot these past two days and told him to rest early. She left after David Newman.

In the stillness of the deep night, William Newman couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. He sat upright on his bed, circulating his Qi Refining Technique, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to cultivate.

Strands of thin spiritual energy, with William Newman’s breathing, were drawn from the outside world into his dantian’s spiritual sea.

Within his consciousness, William Newman could clearly sense that those wisps of spiritual energy, once absorbed into his dantian, were very different from before.

Previously, when he practiced the Qi Refining Technique, he found that most of the spiritual energy wasn’t drawn into his dantian, but instead dispersed into his flesh and limbs.

This time, his flesh and internal organs seemed to have absorbed enough power and didn’t forcibly seize the spiritual energy drawn in by the Qi Refining Technique.

As he focused on cultivating, he could vaguely hear the cheers of his own flesh and blood.

“How strange…”

In a daze, his spiritual consciousness quietly shifted from his dantian’s spiritual sea into his flesh.

Dots of strange light, in his perception, seemed to suddenly sprout from his blood, flickering quietly.

In that instant, his soul seemed to be yanked into his blood, and his whole being became even more dazed.

“Boom!”

After a bizarre rumble, William Newman, in the midst of cultivation, seemed to suddenly fall into a primordial dreamscape!

In an unknown world of ancient, flourishing trees, giant peaks pierced the clouds, and in the depths of the void, enormous demonic shadows loomed faintly.

On the vast, boundless earth, groups of giants carried pitch-black logs hundreds of meters long, striding forward with heads held high, singing ancient, desolate tunes in unison.

On a mountain thousands of meters high, a giant serpent with dazzling silver scales was coiled around it. At first glance, the serpent and the mountain seemed as one.

The giant serpent breathed in and out toward the stars and moon in the sky, and points of starlight and moonlight poured down like flowing water, seemingly merging entirely into the serpent’s body.

At the mist-shrouded horizon, majestic palaces sped through thunder and lightning.

From deep within the earth came wild, terrifying roars. With each roar, the ground cracked open, revealing deep, bottomless chasms.

Black-purple smoke, mixed with vengeful ghosts and wandering spirits, slowly rose from the depths of the chasms underground.