After the Three-Gate Trial, the pressure had eased, but it had not disappeared entirely.
The deeper they went, the stronger it grew.
Still, their journey went smoothly, without a single mishap.
Only when Guan Ao and the others reached their limits and could no longer withstand the pressure did Chen Changan call a halt.
"We'll cultivate here. This time, our goal is the Late-Hongmeng Dominion Realm."
"Once we reach it, we'll be that much closer to Ultimate Heaven."
Chen Changan's words fired everyone up. They nodded to him and began cultivating without hesitation.
Perhaps it was because of the Three-Gate Trial, but cultivating felt easier this time, and their progress was faster.
Every one of them broke through to the Late-Hongmeng Dominion Realm in just a few decades.
Even Guan Ao was stunned by the speed of their breakthroughs.
"I... I broke through in so little time?"
"Did I somehow get stronger without realizing it?"
"Is the Three-Gate Trial really that incredible?"
Guan Ao wondered whether the Three-Gate Trial was why he felt as though he had been reborn.
But the trial had done nothing to alter his body. Why, then, had it brought about such a startling change?
"The first gate simply tested our strength."
"But the second tested our comprehension. It taught us how to better control ourselves."
"The third gate was the key: Transcendence. You all seemed to pass it without quite understanding how."
"But during that process, you looked back over your entire lives. It was as though you had walked the road here all over again."
"And you truly came to understand Transcendence: transcending everything that had bound you, transcending yourselves, and transcending all that was under another's control."
"Without you realizing it, that had already changed you."
"It wasn't a change to your bodies,