Death… And Me

Chapter 4492: Weird Training (2)

”How?” someone asked.

Thery continued, ”In Rean’s example, babies start at the eighty-kilometer mark. However, that’s only where we can say they begin once they are born. Their adaptation shouldn’t actually start on the day of birth. It should begin much earlier, while they are still developing inside their mothers’ wombs, eggs, or whatever environmental birth-development conditions apply to spirits and other races.”

His reasoning immediately made several people thoughtful.

”So they spend days, months, or even years developing before they are born,” Thery explained. ”That also means they spend just as long being exposed to and adapting to the Godly Pressure before their birth. That could explain why they are already so far along in the process when they enter the world.”

He paused briefly.

”Of course, I don’t believe they start at zero inside the womb. Their parents’ genes and constitutions must already provide some degree of resistance, so they probably begin somewhere above the starting point. Even so, they obviously aren’t immediately at the eighty-kilometer mark. Their resistance should increase gradually throughout their development.”

Thery looked toward Rean.

”Following Rean’s theory and my own reasoning, and using humans as an example, I don’t think it should take more than a few days before we start feeling some difference. As Rean said, starting from the zero-kilometer mark should mean the first few kilometers are much easier to cover than the final ones.”

Rean’s eyes immediately lit up.

”Yes! Yes! Friend Thery is completely right!”

He looked around at the group with renewed enthusiasm. ”Let’s do our best. If we really can adapt, then every moment we spend here could bring us closer to being able to move freely under Godly Pressure.”

Some of them remained skeptical, but no one gave up. Even if the chances were small, gaining resistance to Godly Pressure was simply too valuable. If they could truly acquire the ability naturally possessed by the inhabitants of Woster, the benefits would extend far beyond this place.

They would be gaining something that could potentially change their future cultivation entirely.

—

Inside the Vault, Coyui watched the group struggling outside while leaning against one of the walls. He had no intention of trying the same thing himself. After all, unlike the others, he had nothing to gain from proving whether this method worked. He was already perfectly adapted to the Godly Pressure, and as far as he was concerned, the only thing that mattered was getting out of Woster.

Still, his eyes remained on the cultivators outside, and it didn’t take long before he noticed the first signs of trouble.

”The ones called Sison and Flugel,” Coyui said after observing them for several minutes, ”you two seem to be pretty much at your limit. I’d suggest returning to the vault to heal yourselves. The Godly Pressure is clearly causing some damage to your bodies, and continuing like this will only make your injuries worse.”

He then looked toward the others.

”Haniala and Kachia seem to be holding up a little better, but it won’t be long before the two of them need to return as well.”

Rean glanced in their direction and carefully observed their conditions. He had to agree with Coyui. Sison and Flugel were indeed reaching the point where remaining outside would be more harmful than useful. Their bodies were already showing signs of strain, and they couldn’t afford to have badly injured cultivators among them.

”Go back,” Rean ordered. ”We can’t afford to have seriously injured members in case an emergency happens.”

Sison and Flugel clearly didn’t like being the first ones to retreat. Neither wanted to admit that they couldn’t endure as much as the others, especially when the entire group was hoping to discover some form of adaptation. However, they knew Rean was right. There was no point in destroying their bodies merely to remain outside a few minutes longer.

”Friend Coyui, please,” Sison said.

Coyui nodded and walked toward them.

”In you go.”

He grabbed the two cultivators and carried them back into the vault. The moment they crossed the entrance, the overwhelming Godly Pressure disappeared as if it had never existed. Sison and Flugel immediately sat down and focused on healing the damage their bodies had suffered.

The process repeated itself not too long afterward.

Haniala and Kachia eventually reached the point where Coyui determined they should return as well. He went outside again, carried both of them back, and deposited them inside the vault so they could recover. The two of them weren’t happy about leaving either, but there was little point in pretending they could continue when their bodies were already approaching their limits.

Surprisingly, Lukay was holding up considerably better than the other Zone Gods.

Even Lukay himself was surprised by that fact.

He had expected his core to suffer just as badly as a normal body, maybe even worse, yet the Godly Pressure didn’t seem to be affecting him quite as severely. Although he still couldn’t move freely, his resistance was noticeably better than that of Sison, Flugel, Haniala, and Kachia.

’I thought having just a core would be worse, but maybe it is better?’ Lukay thought to himself.

He had no way to confirm the theory, but it was the only explanation he could come up with at the moment. His body was fundamentally different from that of ordinary cultivators. He didn’t possess flesh and blood in the same way they did, and perhaps that difference also affected how the Godly Pressure interacted with him.

Meanwhile, Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky remained focused on the experiment.

Neither of them knew whether the theory would actually work. They had no guarantee that the Godly Pressure could force their bodies to adapt, nor did they know how long the process would take if it was possible. It was entirely possible that they could spend days, weeks, or even months enduring the pressure without seeing any meaningful result.

Still, none of them intended to give up.

The same applied to Arcis, Thery, Haniala, Kachia, and the others. Even those who had already returned to the vault were not abandoning the experiment. They would recover, go back outside, endure the pressure for as long as their bodies allowed, and then return again. If adaptation truly required a long period of exposure, they were prepared to repeat the process as many times as necessary.

And so, this strange training began.