Chapter 704: Paren Is Apparently Weak
Garion remained completely shameless beneath Paren’s dead stare. "Relax, will you? I was just refreshing my memory. Now that I remember everything properly, it should be fine."
Paren’s eyebrow twitched. "Right..."
Garion ignored the obvious lack of confidence in his voice and turned toward the nearby training area. "Anyway, first things first. Before we touch your [World Seed], I need to test your body."
Paren frowned. "My body?"
Garion nodded. "You said it yourself. Breaking through to the Celestial Realm also depends on the body and soul, right? If your body can’t endure the transformation, your [Inner World] might collapse before it even stabilizes."
Paren’s expression became more serious as he considered that. "That is true."
"Good." Garion pointed toward the Divine Training Hall. "Then let’s see just how good your body actually is."
A few minutes later, Paren stood inside the training hall, staring at rows upon rows of massive divine gym equipment with an increasingly stiff expression.
There were gravity barbells, star-core resistance machines, bone-tempering squat platforms, cosmic pull chains, and energy-pressure benches.
There were also several other devices that looked less like training equipment and more like execution machines that happened to come with customer support.
Paren stared at one particularly horrifying machine for several seconds. "Is that thing supposed to train someone or kill them?"
Garion glanced at it casually. "Depends on the setting."
Paren’s eyebrow twitched again. "That is not reassuring."
Garion clapped his hands once. "Start simple. Lift that."
Paren followed his finger toward the massive black barbell sitting in front of him.
Strange purple runes crawled across its surface like living veins, and even the reinforced floor beneath it had several faint cracks spreading outward.
Paren slowly turned his head toward Garion. "This is simple?"
Garion nodded without hesitation. "For God Gym, yes."
Paren took a slow breath, stepped forward, and wrapped both hands around the barbell.
His aura erupted at full power.
Energy surged through his body as he tightened his muscles and began pulling upward.
The barbell moved.
Barely.
Even with the veins along his arms and neck bulging under the strain, Paren only managed to lift it a short distance from the ground.
His face darkened even further when the weight suddenly began increasing on its own, forcing his knees to bend slightly under the growing pressure.
Garion stood nearby with both arms crossed. "Hmm."
Paren gritted his teeth. "Why the hell does it keep getting heavier?"
Garion answered as though it were completely normal. "Adaptive resistance."
Paren shot him a furious glare. "Turn it off."
Garion sighed as if Paren had just said something incredibly stupid. "That defeats the whole purpose."
Several strained breaths later, Paren finally gave up and released the barbell.
BOOOOM!
The massive weight slammed into the floor hard enough to shake the surrounding training area.
Garion barely reacted.
He simply moved Paren toward the next machine.
And then the next.
Paren lifted, pushed, pulled, squatted, resisted increasingly brutal gravity pressure, endured impact plates smashing against his body, sprinted inside a force field, and repeatedly punched a divine strength-testing pillar until even his Peak Star Realm breathing had become rough.
By the time the physical assessment ended, sweat covered his forehead and parts of his clothes were sticking to his body.
Garion stood in front of the results panel, silently reading through the numbers.
Paren wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked over. "Well?"
Garion continued staring at the panel.
His expression became strangely quiet.
Paren immediately had a bad feeling. "What?"
Garion slowly turned toward him. "Paren."
Paren’s face tightened. "Yes?"
Garion released a long sigh, looking as though he had just discovered some deeply tragic truth about the universe. "Your whole body is really bad."
Paren froze.
Garion pointed at the results panel for emphasis. "Like... seriously bad."
Paren’s mouth twitched violently. "I am a Peak Star Realm cultivator."
Garion nodded. "Yeah."
He looked Paren up and down once. "A weak one."
Paren’s entire face darkened. "You bastard."
Garion coughed once and quickly changed the subject. "Alright, calm down."
Paren’s expression remained dark. "You are not very good at making people calm."
Garion raised both hands innocently. "I’m serious this time."
Paren only stared at him harder.
Garion ignored the look and pointed toward the test results floating on the panel. "Your problem is actually pretty obvious. You’ve been a manager at Astral Cosmic Terminal One for far too long."
Paren frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"A lot." Garion tapped the strength section of the panel. "Basically, your body has been neglected for years because of that manager-type lifestyle of yours."
Paren’s expression stiffened slightly.
Garion continued bluntly, "You sit in an office, handle documents, manage terminal business, attend meetings, deal with annoying people, and probably get into a serious fight once every few decades. Of course your body is weak compared to real Peak Star Realm cultivators who actually train and fight regularly."
Paren opened his mouth, clearly wanting to argue.
No words came out.
A moment later, he quietly closed it again because, unfortunately, Garion was mostly right.
Garion crossed his arms. "For now, we need to put you through some serious training before we even think about pushing you toward the Celestial Realm."
Paren glanced around at the terrifying divine gym equipment surrounding them before slowly turning back toward Garion. "Is the training really that effective?"
Garion immediately nodded. "Of course. After all, you’re my client now."
Paren paused at that.
Garion’s expression became unusually serious. "I’m the head of God Gym. If I say I’ll train you, then I’ll train you properly. By the time we’re done, the results will be satisfying enough that even you won’t have anything to complain about."
His voice sounded incredibly dependable.
Unfortunately, the words inside his mind were somewhat different.
"For the sake of that reward, this old manager better survive."
Atlas, who heard the thought perfectly clearly, went silent for a moment.
[You are a terrible person.]
Garion’s expression did not change in the slightest.