The Blue Purgators leader didn't just say it to show his support or to settle the argument; he said it because he was deeply, dangerously curious about that special training place William spoke of.

"That's great," William replied, his voice smooth. He could easily read through what the leader was thinking, and he didn't mind the scrutiny. In fact, he welcomed it.

"Let's not waste more time then. I'll ask for one month of your time. Give my elites your best guidance for thirty days, and then I'll guide you myself to the portal leading back to your world."

William wasn't doing this because he was lazy or because he wanted to shirk the responsibility of training his own people. He knew the true value of this Medium World better than anyone. Now that the Fox was defeated and pushed away, he needed to assess the situation properly across all the attached lower realms.

He needed to map the resources, push the survivors on the right track, and, most importantly, investigate what the Fox had hidden here.

There was a reason the Fox felt it had lost a huge asset, something beyond just a harvesting ground. Something was hidden in this world that drove the Fox to fight so desperately to regain control, and William intended to find it.

Doing this would take a long time, months, even. So, William's strategy was clear: let his elite masters cross the gap between their current states and the bottleneck first, using the Purgators as a shortcut.

He was well aware of this specific bottleneck, as he had once faced it himself in his past life. When Anna had saved him, his spirit power had been too low to even allow him to ascend to the Upper Realm properly.

Yet he had followed her there regardless, and he had spent five years of agonising struggle, training and fighting until he finally shattered that bottleneck. Once he did, his spirit power had soared like a rocket, making up for decades of slow growth in a matter of months.

That personal history was why he was so confident he could lead his masters to overcome the same obstacle. But he needed them to hit that wall first before he could show them how to walk through it.

As for himself, he could already feel the resonance deep within his spirit; through the successive wars he had fought recently, he had already reached that bottleneck. He was standing on the precipice.

Instead of wasting time hand-holding the elite masters through the basics, he decided to use the help of the very experienced masters of the Blue Purgators. They were the perfect instructors for this task. Besides, he could tell they wouldn't mind spending one extra month here.

In fact, he felt like the leader, and his elders were actually reluctant to leave so early. They were hooked. They wanted to further study his power, his knowledge, and his intricate machinations.

They wanted to know him inside and out, though William knew with a quiet smirk that they would eventually fail in grasping the true depths of his strength.

The meeting concluded with a formal agreement. William would lead the Purgators back to his world, where they would remain stationed near the special area designated for the Fox Guild's elite training.

"If I'm going to train elites, then with the new increase in the master pool from the new realms, I'll need to select the best out of the best from everyone," William thought to himself, while walking towards a big tent erected by Lara.

After the high-stakes meeting with the Blue Purgators concluded, William finally allowed himself a momentary reprieve. He spent a couple of days in deep rest, letting the exhaustion of the clash with the Fox drain away.

Yet, even in his downtime, his mind remained a beehive of activity. He sent word to his girls, his inner circle of friends, and the various faction leaders.

His instructions were precise and non-negotiable. He briefed them on a grand assembly to be held in three days. More importantly, he asked them to start a mass screening of the newly gained populations across the Medium World's sub-realms.

He needed them to find the hidden talents, individuals with rare spirits and unique spirit elements. He also tasked them with scouring the ruins and hidden vaults for rare materials and treasures that could be used for the final stage of his plan.

He explicitly asked that any master at the Dark Gold grade be subjected to rigorous testing. He didn't just want power; he wanted potential. By cross-referencing their age, spirit type, elemental affinity, and the manuals they had practised, he would curate a group capable of ascending to the Upper Realm. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Masters like Fang were rare, extremely rare. Fang was seasoned by decades of survival, and he was already standing at the bottleneck. William had no qualms about giving such veterans a helping hand, providing that final, subtle push to let them cross the gap.

He knew they would struggle once they reached the upper realm, but their resolve was forged in the fires of a world without guidance. That grit was a resource more valuable than raw talent.

It was an incredible feat to reach the pinnacle of power in a lower realm without the proper manuals and guidance William had brought back from the future. Even in Fang's case, William had only offered small corrections to the old man's training, yet it had caused his power to surge like a dam breaking.

With the special well of high-grade spirit power William had created, any master now had a theoretical chance to shatter their shackles. But William was no philanthropist; he was a spirit master.

"I'll need to filter them based on many factors," he thought to himself on the morning of the third day. He adjusted his robes and began the long walk toward the central assembly tent where the core of his guild awaited.

His girls had been the first to flood his location the moment the news of his emergence broke. The reunion had been a whirlwind of emotion. They were happy, vibrating with excitement, and visibly relieved to see him return in one piece, sounding healthy and sane.