“How could it possibly light up? It’s been left there for who knows how many years. Even if it’s not broken, it must have run out of battery long ago.” Edward Carter interrupted William Carter: “Alright, I still have a lot to do here. Anyway, I’ve already informed you. Whether you come to the wedding or not is up to you.”

After saying that, Edward Carter hung up the phone directly.

“Was it dug out from the ancient well in the old city of Guide? Unfortunately, the old city of Guide has already become an alternate dimension, and ordinary people can’t get close to it at all. But the actual combat test for Guide Prefecture is held right inside the old city. I don’t even know where that ancient well is, or if I’ll ever get a chance to see it.” William Carter pondered to himself, but couldn’t come up with any clues.

Just as Edward Carter said, cell phones are only a product of the last few decades. There’s no way it could be some kind of antique, and even if it were, it couldn’t possibly have such magical abilities.

“Crap, I forgot to ask Dad if he’s offended anyone outside.” William Carter originally wanted to call again, but after thinking about it, he didn’t.

Anyway, An Jing had already left and hadn’t really done anything to him. Since the matter was over, there was no need to bring it up again.

He took out the mysterious phone, opened the Ant Nest app, and William Carter once again dove into the sea of monster grinding.

One ant after another was slaughtered by the blood-colored little figure. The game character felt just like himself; all the experience and insights gained from battle, William Carter could feel as if they were his own.

Now, William Carter was getting more and more experienced at killing Power Ants. He could last much longer than before—one life could take down four or five hundred Power Ants without dying, whereas before he could only manage a little over a hundred.

Unfortunately, his luck today was pretty average. Only two Strength Crystals and one Physique Crystal dropped, and their levels weren’t high. They could only be used as energy supplements, not for directly leveling up.

Just as he was getting into the groove, he suddenly saw a red mutant Power Ant appear, which made William Carter quite happy. He controlled the blood-colored little figure to charge at it.

Before, without having learned Mighty Fist, killing mutant Power Ants was a bit difficult. This time, William Carter went up and landed a Mighty Fist right away, smashing the mutant Power Ant’s head to pieces, then followed up with another punch, blowing its body apart as well.

Ding!

A crisp sound rang in his ears, and sure enough, another Dimensional Crystal dropped, though only one this time.

“Killed mutant Power Ant, found Physique Crystal.”

William Carter looked closely and saw that the Physique Crystal actually had a number 9 on it, which made him quite happy.

His physique was currently at 8 points. With this Physique Crystal, he could advance one more step.

Physique relates to the body’s strength and endurance. Only with a strong physique can one fight for a long time without getting tired, and the body’s resistance to blows also increases. The Bitter Zen he practiced mainly focused on strengthening physique and strength.

He controlled the blood-colored little figure to pick up the Physique Crystal, and immediately a strange power surged from the phone, spreading throughout William Carter’s body, making every cell feel as if it had come alive.

Seeing the physique stat in the game data change to 9, William Carter also felt his body become much tougher. When ordinary Power Ants bit the blood-colored little figure, the health lost was noticeably less.

William Carter continued grinding monsters. He found that these mutant Power Ants would occasionally appear deep in the nest, but there was no fixed location, and they didn’t always drop Dimensional Crystals.

Later, William Carter encountered two more mutant Power Ants, but nothing dropped from them.

Time passed quickly as he grinded monsters. William Carter was much the same as before—almost always sleeping in class and playing games after class. Only during cultivation class would he practice teamwork and coordination with Grace Bennett and the others.

But for some reason these past few days, William Carter kept feeling that James White was looking at him strangely. Every time he looked at James White, he’d see James White squinting and smiling at him, which made him a bit creeped out.

Chapter 10: Companion Egg

Robert Harris was practicing his boxing techniques on the field, but his eyes kept drifting toward William Carter sitting under the shade of a tree at the edge of the field. He’d been practicing here for almost an hour, while William Carter had been leaning against the tree playing on his phone for an hour.

“Comparing people really is infuriating. We’re training like our lives depend on it, and that guy is just leisurely playing games.” The more Robert Harris watched, the more frustrated he became.

After training together these past few days, Robert Harris had come to understand something: the reason William Carter was the top genius at Guide High School wasn’t just because of his cultivation talent.

Robert Harris had originally thought that the saying “cultivation is like rowing upstream” applied to all humans. After all, humans aren’t machines—if you don’t train every day, it’s easy to regress.

Especially in actual combat, things like timing and sense of distance can easily go off.

But William Carter was different. As long as he had learned something, whether he practiced it regularly or not, he seemed to use it with the same natural proficiency.

These past few days, when the four of them practiced together, William Carter would always cooperate. But when it was time for individual practice, William Carter would run off to the side to play games.

If it weren’t for the fact that William Carter’s performance during group practice was flawless—he was even the most outstanding among the four—Robert Harris would have been unable to resist taking on the teacher’s role and giving him a good lecture about the importance of studying hard and making progress every day.