Day one of preparation. Chen Wei stood in Tang Yong's private training facility. Underground bunker converted to combat arena. Elder Shen waited on the opposite side. Arms crossed. Expression stern.
"Your evolution is at eighty-seven percent," she said. "Thirteen percent in twenty-four days is possible but extremely difficult. Most cultivators spend decades gaining five percent. You need to compress that into three weeks."
"How?"
"Combat. Real combat. Life or death stakes. The System evolves fastest under pressure. You know this already. You jumped from thirty-four percent to one hundred percent during the three hundred cultivator battle."
"That was different. I was dying. The System activated emergency protocols."
"Exactly. You need to replicate that state. Constant near-death experi
