~~
Kamar-Taj, training grounds.
When the mages' figures appeared on the training grounds again, they had gone from full of vigor to vacant-eyed and utterly frazzled. Yet only a few minutes had passed.
Those five minutes, however, had felt like an entire century to them.
No one knew what they had gone through in the mirror dimension during those five minutes.
Beaten mercilessly by tree branches~~
Burned by raging flames~~
Struck by thunderbolts~~
One blow after another had relentlessly battered their bodies and ravaged their minds.
They had gone from brimming with confidence to downcast and utterly crushed.
At that moment, Hao Shuai had become a devil in their eyes—a devil who took pleasure in tormenting people.
Seeing them in that state, Hao Shuai worried he might have pushed them too far. He quickly cast a large-scale Spring Return Technique, healing their external injuries, then comforted them. "Don't lose heart. The reason things turned out this way isn't that you're not strong enough. It's that the gap between us is simply too great."
With that, he released the aura he had been suppressing. The aura unique to a Golden Immortal erupted like a mountain flood, pressing down on the mages from all sides.
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
The mages who had barely managed to stay on their feet were instantly crushed by the pressure and collapsed to the ground, prostrate.
At that moment, everyone clearly understood the difference between themselves and Hao Shuai. They also understood why The Ancient One had passed the title of Sorcerer Supreme to him.
Looking at the awe in their eyes, Hao Shuai nodded to himself. A good leader only had to know how to "combine kindness with authority"—or, as the saying went, "slap them once, then offer them a sweet date."
Now he