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At this moment, Kalifa was quite happy. Just now, she had clearly felt changes in her body. The vitality that seemed to spread out through the Demon Slayer Mark anytime and anywhere gradually became stable. The mark on her body also became more flexible at this moment.
Thinking that she had such stronger power, Kalifa respected Ikki even more.
"Tsk, has it been successfully activated?" Hina muttered, turning to look at Ikki. "Since you want to help Hina activate the Innate Demon Slayer Mark, why don't you activate yours now and use the mark to influence Hina?"
"Haha, even for me, opening the Innate Demon Slayer Mark is a laborious task. Hina, you don't want me to enter this pool of water with you, so I'm helpless," Ikki replied with a grin.
"Hmph! Who knows if you did it on purpose..." Hina pursed her lips and raised her hand to light a cigarette for herself. "Forget it, Hina allows it – you can go into the water too."
As she said that, Hina patted the place next to her, with an expression that told Ikki to stay by her side.
"Sorry, not now!"
"Huh? Are you kidding Hina? Why can't you do it now?"
"I don't mean to trick you, Hina, but I plan to help Tashigi train first," Ikki said, shaking his head and looking at Tashigi, who had been standing not far away.
"Eh? Help me? Ikki, do I need to go into the water now too?" Thinking of getting into the water in front of Ikki, Tashigi's face turned red.
"Haha, not now, Tashigi," Ikki laughed. "Although you have a Demon Slayer Mark now, you're still far from 25 years old. Even without the healing properties of the pool water, you can still live a normal life in the outside world. The training I'm talking about is to help you further master the power of Water Breathing."
"You should have practiced 'Total Concentration Breathing,' but you haven't completely mastered it yet, right? By the way, it would also be great if you could learn some Marine Six Styles. After all, I've arranged a battle for you to challenge in the future – if you don't become stronger, there's no way you'll defeat your future self."
When he had carved the partner seal for Tashigi, the system had issued the "Mountain-Cutting Realm Swordsman Tashigi Challenge Permission." And the swordsman shadow of Mountain-Cutting Realm Tashigi was higher than the current Tashigi in terms of life force and level of swordsmanship.
Especially the sword level! Although the swordsmanship level of Mountain-Cutting Realm and Sky-Cutting Realm were only one level apart, the gap was much larger than the gap between Iron-Cutting Realm and Sky-Cutting Realm.
Although the swordsman shadow of Mountain-Cutting Realm Tashigi hadn't mastered the Demon Slayer Mark, Ikki felt that if Tashigi, who had now mastered the mark, fought her swordsman shadow, she would only be defeated.
In the case where 'nutritional medicine' couldn't be given to Tashigi and other Marines for use, Ikki could only choose to use other methods to enhance Tashigi and even Hina's power, while allowing them to have the strength to challenge those swordsman shadows in the future.
"Future... me?" Tashigi opened her mouth slightly and looked at Ikki in astonishment. "Ikki, have you prepared a model of my future self?"
"Haha, we've been getting along for a while," Ikki replied. "If I want to create a shadow of you in the future, I can still do it. Let's go, Tashigi. It's time for training. And you, Kalifa – now that the Innate Demon Slayer Mark has been opened, your movements will become quite free. Next, you have to do some systematic training in the gym."
Hearing this, Kalifa nodded slightly. "I understand, Ikki."
She naturally understood what he meant – to let her use the nutritional medicine he had given her before for relevant training.
"Hey, what about Hina?" Hina called out. "You also have a shadow of Hina's future prepared, right?"
Seeing Ikki planning to leave, Hina asked quickly. On the one hand, it was because she wanted to increase her strength, and on the other hand, it was because she also wanted to see what her future self would look like.
"Don't worry, I'll also create your future shadow," Ikki said with a smile, taking Tashigi's hand. "But because your current swordsmanship isn't very good, I can't create a version of you that's too strong in swordsmanship. But that's good – at least when you challenge it, the difficulty will be reduced a lot."
He left the hot spring with Tashigi.
"Bastard, do you think so little of Hina's swordsmanship?" Hina stood up from the pool angrily and wanted to catch up with Ikki to demand an explanation.
"Forget it, once you get out of this pool of water, you'll feel weak and won't even have the strength to argue with Ikki," Kalifa said, raising her hand and putting it on Hina's shoulder, pushing her into the pool water with a little force. "Now, just adapt to the power of the Demon Slayer Mark."
Hina looked at Kalifa in shock, amazed that she could suppress her so easily.
Kalifa gave Hina a meaningful smile, took off her bathrobe, put on fitness clothes, left the hot spring and went to the gym.
"This woman is so powerful!" Hina muttered. "Is she already this strong, or did Ikki train her to be this strong? That man must be hiding something in his training of Tashigi and Hina."
She bit her thumb. At this moment, she decided to observe the difference in Ikki's exercise methods for them versus Kalifa and the others.
"There you are, Kalifa," came voices from the gym. "I heard that you've activated the Innate Demon Slayer Mark. Is it true?"
At this moment, in the gym, Vivi and Perona, who had taken nutritional medicine, were also doing their own training. After seeing Kalifa appear, Perona, who was also working on the project of unlocking the Innate Demon Slayer Mark, immediately looked over.
However, because she had to make the most of the nutritional medicine's effectiveness, she didn't stop her actions.
"Well, it's already activated. Its your turn next, Perona," Kalifa replied, coming to her training area and skillfully taking out a bottle of her own nutritional medicine from the counter.
"Where's Ikki? He said he will take the marnie to practice here?" Kalifa asked, looking around doubtfully.
"He took... Tashigi into... the Sword Enlightenment Room. He probably... doesn't want to... disturb us," Vivi replied breathlessly. The high-grade nutritional medicine made her feel more tired than ever before.
"I see!" Kalifa nodded. The way Perona and Vivi looked – emitting white steam, their skin flushed, and covered in sweat after taking nutritional potions – really wasn't suitable for Tashigi, who was a Marine, to watch.
Thinking of this, Kalifa took the potion and started her training.
At the same time, Sword Enlightenment Room
"Okay, no one will disturb us here," Ikki said. "Next, let me help you better master the way to use the sword. First, let me see how much you've grown."
He pulled out Zangetsu from his waist and faced Tashigi in front of him with a smile on his face.
"Yes, Ikki!" Tashigi took a deep breath.
Knowing Ikki's strength, she didn't show any pretense. She pulled out the blade from her waist and attacked him.
"Water Breathing, First Form..."