“I still have things to do here, I’ll hang up first.” Alice Clark replied hurriedly and quickly hung up the phone.

William Clark put down the receiver speechlessly and glanced at the clock on the wall—it was nine in the evening.

He was still working outside at this hour, and he truly didn’t want to use Alice Clark’s hard-earned money.

But that guy was so stubborn; if he said he’d send money, he definitely would.

“Forget it, I won’t worry about it for now. I’ll get a good rest tonight and focus on reviewing for the college entrance exam tomorrow.”

The college entrance exam in this life wasn’t much different from his previous life.

It was the crucial hurdle for students to leap over and change their fate.

If you failed the exam and couldn’t get into a good university, you could only go to a vocational school to learn a trade.

There were many technical schools in Xilin, but their status was relatively low. Compared to William Clark’s previous life, the quality of technical schools here was even worse.

If a student only went to a technical school because they couldn’t get into a university, it basically meant their life was over.

The class divide here was huge, and it was rare for a technician to rise up again. In many industries, simple technical jobs paid very little.

William Clark returned to his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed. He had already made up his mind to get a good rest, put the nightmares aside for now, and focus on the college entrance exam first.

Pulling up the covers, he told himself good night, closed his eyes, and slowly drifted into sleep.

……

……

Hoo…

William Clark heard his own breathing echoing slowly in the empty room.

He opened his eyes to see the familiar manor hall before him.

On the long table covered with a tattered white cloth, some scattered silverware was still laid out.

“I… I’m back in here again??”

William Clark’s heart sank, and he quickly looked around.

To the left was a wall covered with blurry oil paintings; to the right, a huge checkered window. Through the hazy curtains, he could see the mist swirling outside.

He quickly lifted his foot and walked forward, soon arriving at the study door and entering through the open doorway.

He soon saw the scene inside the study.

A thick tome lay open on the low table, its pages spread wide, the large blocks of text still clearly visible.

“As expected, I’m back again.”

William Clark calmed down.

He didn’t bother to look at the swordsmanship notes, but instead left the study and returned to the living room.

At the window on the side of the living room, he reached out and gently lifted the curtain to look outside.

Beneath the hazy mist, outside the manor’s shabby wall, was a wild, clawing black forest.

Inside the wall, in the yard, there was a small swing and a few broken long wooden benches.

In the corner of the wall stood something that looked like a hoe.

William Clark let the curtain fall and went to check the other windows.

None of the windows allowed him to see in the direction of the main entrance.

And that was exactly where the shadow had rushed in from before.

He paused, standing in the living room, thinking for a moment. Then he turned and began searching the rooms.

“I need a weapon for self-defense. The longer and wider, the better, so it’s easier to block with!”

William Clark had a clear goal in mind.

He didn’t plan to stay in this house forever. This dream was bizarre and inexplicable, and dying here actually affected his real body.

This filled him with a strong sense of crisis.

He had a strange premonition that if he kept getting killed by that shadow, something extremely troublesome might happen to him.

It felt as if his body was instinctively warning him.

Chapter 14

After searching the living room, William Clark didn’t find anything.

He went to the study, but aside from books, there was nothing else there.

Then he went from the study to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, he quickly found a pointed kitchen knife and took it straight to the bedroom.

In the manor’s bedroom, a double wooden bed stood in the center.

Along the wall was a wardrobe, a dressing table, and a very large wooden chest.

The lid of the chest was open, but it was empty inside.

William Clark slowly scanned left and right, then walked to the dressing table and pulled open the drawer.

Inside were a few colorful hairbands in a young girl’s style, their colors a bit faded.

He closed the drawer and glanced around the room.

Soon, in the corner near the window, something leaning against the wall and covered by a curtain caught his attention.

He strode over, reached out, and grabbed it.

Hiss…

It was an unsheathed longsword!

The silver-black tip of the sword scraped against the floor as William Clark moved, making a faint noise.

He carefully lifted the sword.

The sword wasn’t very heavy, about four or five jin. Its length was just right, reaching from William Clark’s waist to his toes.

The hilt and blade formed a standard cross shape, looking just like an elongated cross.

William Clark gripped the hilt with both hands, feeling the rough cloth strips wrapped around it. The hilt and blade were seamlessly joined, with almost no visible manufacturing seams.

Near the handle on the blade, there was a simple vertical eye pattern engraved—exactly the same as the one on the door before.

He tried swinging the sword and found it a bit heavy.

“Let’s see if there’s anything else.”

William Clark searched the bedroom for quite a while, but aside from this sword, he didn’t find anything else.