Over the next half year, the four women spent their days amid sweat, extreme challenges, and rapid growth.
The training regimen Jiang Zhen devised for them could only be described as both "luxurious" and "brutal."
The Heavy Pressure Water Realm remained a mandatory daily course. That pale-blue water-pressure barrier seemed to exist eternally, but the pressure within it was no longer comparable to what it had once been.
They practiced Spirit Skill releases, tactical coordination, and physical training under high-gravity conditions.
Every circulation of Soul Power and every exertion of muscle required several times the effort it normally would.
Within such an environment, the sound of Dugu Yan's Jade Phosphor Poison Dragon claws tearing through the air grew ever sharper.
Lan Xi's Blue Silver Emperor Vines became tougher, like refined steel hammered time and again, growing ever purer.
Meanwhile, Jiang Lingxi's physical potential was further drawn out under extreme pressure, her strength and defense increasing at an astonishing rate.
But that was merely the foundation.
Combining his vast, ocean-like Spiritual Power with a Soul Bone Skill, Jiang Zhen constructed near-real battle illusions for them.
Within those illusions, they might face frenzied packs of Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Beasts, cunning and vicious teams of hostile Spirit Masters, or even extreme and harsh natural environments.
The battles were no longer sparring matches that ended at the right moment, but genuine fights to the death.
Injuries brought real sharp pain, exhausted Soul Power inflicted utter weakness, and even in the instant of "death," that cold sense of despair was incomparably clear.
Though they knew it was an illusion, every experience greatly tempered their mental will, combat instincts, and ability to adapt in desperate situations.
The understanding between the four women also became unbreakable through fighting side by side in those illusions again and again, depending