Little Sprout wasn't entirely rigid; at specific times, it would grant Ziye a moment to breathe, preventing it from pushing her to the absolute brink on the first attempt.

Even so, Ziye felt she hadn't exercised in too long; her bones felt scattered, leaving only one word: Pain!

When she emerged from the training, Ziye looked as if she had just crawled out of water, drenched, her usually perfectly straight hair limp and plastered against her face, making her look like a drowned ghost.

She looked at her body, intact with no apparent blemishes, yet—pain! It was an ache that went deep into the marrow!

Take her legs, for example: whether lying down completely relaxed on the **, or simply walking naturally, the pain felt as if the bones were broken. She desperately wished for a knife to slice off her thighs just to end the agonizing torment.

The only part that felt relatively normal was her head. Although her neck was stiff with cramping pain, her mind operated perfectly—so perfectly, in fact, that she could distinctly register the pain in every fiber of her body.

Little Sprout connected to her body, examined her, and shook its head with clear disappointment, “It’s just residual effects from overexertion. There is no substantial damage to your body; a little rest will fix it.”

Ziye rolled around on the floor in agony, complaining, “Rest my foot! How can I possibly sleep when I hurt like this? Even if I did sleep, the pain would wake me!”

An Junlie walked into the gym and saw her writhing like a five- or six-year-old throwing a tantrum for candy. He proposed, “I have a method to ensure you fall asleep without any discomfort.”

Ziye’s expression instantly shifted as if she had found a spring in a drought; her energy doubled. She suppressed the pain, turned her neck, and asked, “What method?”

An Junlie smiled faintly, “A simple, fast, and effective method that can be implemented immediately, safe with no side effects. Want to try?”

Ziye nodded furiously. Was that even a question?

An Junlie approached her, squatted down, and looked directly into her eyes, “Are you absolutely sure?”

Ziye vaguely sensed an inexplicable danger, but the sheer agony of her entire body prevented her from thinking clearly. She could only nod: “Sure, a hundred percent sure!”

A swift hand-chop landed precisely on the carotid artery on the side of Ziye’s neck. Her vision dimmed, and the last thought before she slipped into unconsciousness was, I’ve been tricked by that alien!

Little Sprout shot up with a whoosh and slammed hard onto An Junlie’s head, “You scoundrel! Ziye is mine! Only I get to bully her!”

An Junlie reached out, grabbed it, and carried it towards the door, “Fine, you implement it next time. I’ve seen this a thousand times; I know how to hold back. She’ll wake up in an hour. I’ll cook something for her to eat when she wakes.”

Fine, Little Sprout thought sullenly, I’ll forgive you this once.

Having gone through that experience, Ziye refused to enter the gym under any circumstances, unwilling even to look at Little Sprout—she hadn't forgotten that she got caught in its trap just by glancing at it initially.

Little Sprout extracted the data from her time in the gym and revised the unreasonable aspects, desperately trying to lure her back in, but she refused to cooperate. This infuriated it, causing it to bounce up and down daily, disrupting her work flow.

The human and the photonic brain plunged into a cold war.

Ziye glared at it through gritted teeth; it grew even angrier. How could its owner be so uncooperative? Truly infuriating! In a fit of pique, it opened the light screen and tampered with several critical programs…

In mere seconds, the data was completely altered, and the light screen erupted with massive streams of figures. Ziye gasped in shock. Before she could reach it, the studio’s energy system blared an urgent alarm: “System intrusion detected! Self-destruct sequence initiating in one minute. Evacuate immediately! Countdown 59, 58, 57…”

Damn it, when did the energy system get installed with a self-destruct mechanism? Ziye stared at the glaring countdown numbers, unsure whether to bolt or forcefully shut down the energy system.

Little Sprout zipped in front of her, shouting, “If you follow me into the Physical Training System right now, I have the ability to halt the countdown immediately!”

“Did you do this?” Ziye was livid enough to explode, “I order you to stop immediately!”

“No way!” Little Sprout haughtily tilted its head, “Unless you beg me and promise to spend three hours daily in the system for intensive physical training.”

Ziye pointed at it, unable to utter a word. Just how was this photonic brain manufactured? She truly wanted to smash it flat with one slap.

“28, 27, 26…” The countdown continued. Ziye felt her heart pounding wildly. If it really blew up, all her assets, all her hard work, would be annihilated in an instant. But she simply could not agree to re-enter that terrifying training system.

Little Sprout felt the pressure wasn't enough and upped the ante: “Ziye, Ziye, think carefully. If you still don't agree, I will delete the ownership recognition program in the final 10 seconds and then blow you up.”

Ziye took a deep breath, turned, and walked away: “Most of this place was built using your abilities. If you want to destroy it, go ahead. My teacher is already dead anyway; I don't care.”

“Hey, Ziye, don't be like that! Hey!” Little Sprout hopped around anxiously. Seeing the countdown reach only 3, it hastily adjusted the program, adding a zero at the end.

Ziye maintained her blank expression: “I am very weak, making you regret taking me on. If you blow me up, you can find a better master. Goodbye.”

Little Sprout panicked when it heard this, bouncing onto her head and rubbing frantically, “Ziye, don’t say that! I don’t want to leave you.”

Ziye reached up and plucked it from her head, “Then shut down the self-destruct sequence!”

Seeing that her expression was no longer icy, Little Sprout felt much more relaxed and happily chirped, “Okay, shutting it down now.” Its technical prowess was formidable; it stopped everything instantly, returning normalcy in just thirty seconds.

Ziye looked at the data flickering on its screen and smiled faintly. Trying to force her compliance? How could a machine ever overcome a human? However, just to keep Little Sprout from getting too upset and going on strike, she decided to offer a concession: “That’s a good child. I’ll go train with you tomorrow.”

“Eh?” Little Sprout bounced up happily, rolling around in her hair.

Ziye smiled without speaking.

Going to train wasn't the problem; she just hadn't been willing to bow to a machine—that was human dignity, after all!

In the end, both parties were pleased with the outcome.

From then on, Ziye spent every morning in devilish training, honing every part of her body to meet Little Sprout’s required standards comprehensively. To accommodate Ziye’s schedule, Little Sprout adjusted the training space’s operational time to eight times that of the Silver Talisman Day. That is, three hours of training each morning equaled a full day of Silver Talisman training.

Bearing the dual pressures of work and training daily, Ziye felt like smashing her head against a wall.