A full month passed.
The five Empty Vessels remained submerged within the Abyssal Pool the entire time.
At the edge of that black sea, Lucien and the four women sat in meditation, motionless as statues.
Their true bodies never entered the Pool during that first stage. Only their awareness did. Each of them controlled their corresponding Vessel below.
And through the synchronized constitution, whatever happened to the vessel was reflected back into the original body.
The process was difficult from the very beginning.
None of them were used to inhabiting bodies without mana vessels.
That alone was disorienting.
An ordinary practitioner perceived the world through mana circulation almost without thinking. It was like breathing, or feeling one's own heartbeat. Remove that, and the body no longer behaved the way instinct expected.
The Empty Vessels had no internal energy.
