Tian Jue Dui was many things: a powerhouse, a relic of a fading age, and an ocean of knowledge—but if there was one thing he was not, it was forgiving. In his world, failure was not a stepping stone. It was a cliff. You climbed or you fell. You succeeded, or you died trying. And under such a philosophy, Qiang Ming found himself hurled headlong into the crucible of true training.
His days bled into one another in the secret realm that Tian Jue Dui had long ago discovered and stabilized—a fragmented pocket of existence hidden away from the world. The atmosphere in that place was thick with latent energy, the kind that pulsed faintly beneath your feet and whispered promises of ancient power. Over two centuries ago, the realm had been given as a sanctuary to Jin Shi and the remains of his once-mighty Pride. Now, it served as Qiang Ming's forge.
The Pride of the Three Eyed Golden Lions lived here in peace, their numbers strong but disciplined. Qiang Ming learned of this history during his long talks with Jin Shi, the elder lion who had become both companion and advisor. Jin Shi was quiet about his past, offering few details about the fall of their kind or the countless battles fought across continents—but when it came to Qiang Ming's new Martial Soul, he was relentless in instruction, unwavering in purpose.
One of the earliest—and most humbling—tasks was learning to wield the Three Eyed Golden Lion King spirit properly. To do so, Qiang Ming was tasked with sparring against members of the Pride itself. Of course, the fights were conditioned: Qiang Ming had to suppress his natural pressure as a King to ensure fairness. He wasn't there to dominate. He was there to learn.
And learn he did.
He sparred with cubs to refine control, then with adolescent lions for precision under pressure, and finally with adults for endurance and real challenge. Each bout left him bruised and bloodied, but he never once backed down. Slowly but surely, he stopped seeing the lions as mystical beings to be revered and began seeing them as equals, as family. Chief among them was Jin Yi, Jin Shi's daughter. She was calm, commanding, and terrifyingly powerful. As the Pride's next leader, she fought with elegance and brutality, and Qiang Ming admired her in the only way a battle fanatic could: with a thirst to surpass her.
Outside of combat, his body was subjected to training that most would consider torture. His Master found ways to weigh him down with garments so dense they felt like forged steel. His limbs screamed under the pressure, his breath shortened just from walking. Yet he was told to run miles. Then to do pushups. Then squats. Then to spar again.
This wasn't just to build muscle—it was to engrave instinct into his bones.
Every night, just as his body threatened collapse, his Master would throw him into a medicinal bath of herbs and heavenly treasures. The pain dulled. His cells knit together. His soul power began to circulate again. And in those sacred hours, when the night was still and only the sound of water sloshing in the stone bath echoed softly, Qiang Ming cultivated.
The Atavism Procedure had pushed him from rank 37 to rank 41, a leap that should have taken years under normal circumstances. His soul power had not only increased—it had grown denser, richer, more oppressive. But that brought its own problem.
His clan's Clear Flow method, the cultivation technique passed down for generations, was laughably inadequate. According to Tian Jue Dui, it was "utterly trash"—a hollow shell of whatever brilliant method it may once have been.
And so, his Master rewrote it.
Using the foundational fragments of the Clear Flow method and intertwining them with his own understanding of soul power, Tian Jue Dui forged a new technique tailored solely for Qiang Ming: the Three Eyed Abyss Method. It was named in honor of his twin Martial Souls, and it altered his cultivation drastically. Not only did it allow him to gather more energy during each cycle, but it streamlined the compression process, ensuring that each drop of spirit energy was refined to match his own Soul Power's daunting quality.
Yet perhaps the most agonizing—and rewarding—part of his daily regimen was the Monarch Will Technique.
This was not some elegant mental refinement process, no slow breathwork or philosophical mantras. No, this was raw, torturous mental discipline. Pain was the grindstone. Will was the blade. And Tian Jue Dui made sure Qiang Ming's mental edge was honed bloody sharp.
He would be placed under psychic strain—illusions, hallucinations, memory spirals, mental attacks—all for hours on end. Some nights, Qiang Ming cried blood. But he endured, and slowly, he could feel his mind expanding, stabilizing. His thoughts grew faster, his will became unshakable.
His soul had begun to match his strength.