William Carter was instantly left speechless in astonishment—this Old Man was simply incredible. After just hearing and seeing it once, he could already read and write it. William Carter's handwriting was already very good, but unexpectedly, the first time Old Man wrote the character for "I," it was even better than his—bold and forceful, deeply etched.

Next, Old Man rewrote the character he had written at the very beginning in the snow, read it aloud again, and pointed to himself.

William Carter quickly followed along, reading and then writing it once in the snow as well. This was the character for "I" in this world.

William Carter's pronunciation and writing were both quite accurate. Old Man gave a slight smile, nodded, and then wrote another character in the snow, pronounced it, and pointed at William Carter.

This time, it should be the character for "you" in this other world.

Chapter 4 The Mysterious Old Man (Part 2)

This time, it should be the character for "you" in this other world.

William Carter followed along, reading it once and then writing it. Then he wrote the Chinese character for "you" in the snow, read it aloud, and pointed at Old Man, indicating that this meant "you."

Old Man quickly mastered it, pronouncing it very accurately and writing it even better than William Carter.

Next came words like eyes, nose, mouth, hair, skin, flesh, blood vessels, tendons, belly, foot, heavy snow, ice, steps, sky, and so on.

William Carter was already very smart, but Old Man was even more brilliant.

For more than ten hours, until the snow stopped, the two of them kept learning each other's languages and scripts.

Old Man taught William Carter a total of 189 characters and over fifty words. After finishing, Old Man actually tested William Carter using Chinese.

For example, Old Man would point at the dark clouds in the sky, say the words "dark cloud," and ask William Carter how to pronounce and write "dark cloud" in this world's language.

If William Carter answered correctly, Old Man would smile. If William Carter answered incorrectly, Old Man would immediately slap him across the face.

That slap really hurt, but it seemed to hurt Old Man even more, because his broken bones hadn't fully healed yet. Once, when he slapped William Carter, he even coughed up blood himself. So William Carter no longer dared to make mistakes. If he did, he would quickly slap himself hard instead, not daring to let Old Man do it. In fact, he hit himself even harder than Old Man did, swelling his own face, and sometimes even drawing blood.

Even though William Carter was very smart, after more than ten hours, hundreds of characters, and nearly a hundred words, he still made some mistakes. In the end, his whole face was swollen and red like a pig's head, his teeth were a bit loose, and the saliva he spat out was bloody.

Old Man never showed a hint of pity. Whenever there was a mistake, he would stare at William Carter with piercing eyes.

It wasn't until the end of the lesson that Old Man reached out and gently touched William Carter's swollen face, causing a wave of warmth to rise in William Carter's heart.

"Go make the ice steps!" Old Man actually said this in Chinese, then slowly closed his eyes and entered a meditative state again.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" William Carter asked, but Old Man ignored him, even though by now he could almost understand what William Carter was saying.

William Carter gave an awkward smile, then carefully straightened Old Man's clothes and smoothed his hair before going off to make the icy steps.

……

And so, day after day passed.

Most of the time, Old Man sat with his eyes closed in meditation, tossing William Carter a fiery red pill every ten days to sustain his life and energy.

Only when it started snowing would he open his eyes, write in the snow to teach William Carter the language and script of this world, and at the same time learn Earth's Chinese.

When the snow stopped, the two would stop studying, Old Man would close his eyes and meditate again, and William Carter would continue making the icy steps.

Time passed day by day.

The icy steps spiraling up the cave wall grew higher and higher, and William Carter mastered more and more of this world's language and script. As for Old Man, he had almost completely mastered the main Chinese characters, because he was truly a genius. Once he grasped the rules and essence of Chinese characters, he could fully integrate and teach himself, so later on he could even point out some obscure mistakes William Carter made in Chinese. Old Man's intelligence left William Carter utterly amazed.

However, while William Carter's study of this world's language and script went smoothly at first, it gradually became more difficult. At first, he could learn over a hundred characters in ten hours, but later it got slower and slower. This world was entirely one of martial power and mystical energy, and for many terms William Carter had no concept at all—they were simply too abstract.

To help William Carter master them accurately, Old Man even had to fully translate those terms and concepts into Chinese before teaching them to William Carter.

So, after not being hit for a while, William Carter started getting hit again. With every lesson, he would slap himself until his face was swollen like a pig's head.

Old Man remained extremely strict, his gaze as sharp as ever.

But when William Carter turned away, Old Man's eyes would suddenly be filled with gentleness and pity as he looked at him.

Time gradually passed...

One month, two months, three months...

Half a year went by. Winter passed, and snowy days became fewer and fewer. However, the icy steps were only a little more than halfway finished!