William hadn't truly realised how much his long absence had pushed them to the edge of worry. Seeing the shadows under their eyes and the way they clung to his every word made him feel a rare pang of guilt.

They had spent a long night talking, exchanging stories of his fight against the Fox, and laughing until their sides ached. Even Becky and the young Anna had joined the festivities, bridging the gap between his past and his future. It was a rare moment of peace before the coming storm.

Now, however, the laughter was replaced by a heavy sense of responsibility. This was the meeting day, the day that would set the Fox Guild upon a fast-track training period, ending with their collective ascension.

As William entered the massive tent, he stopped in his tracks. He stood in front of the top circle of his guild, but the scale was staggering. Due to the rapid expansion following the fall of the monster tide, the guild now boasted one hundred distinct factions. The absorption of the various kingdoms and different forces had caused a surge of recruits that defied his earlier projections.

The girls had taken the limelight, leading their respective divisions with a ferocity that had earned them the absolute respect of the newcomers. This meeting was strictly limited to the elite masters of each faction and the two specialised tail groups: the Black Tails and the Gold Tails.

William knew the guild was expanding, and he had expected a surge once the attached lower realms were integrated, but as he looked out over the crowd, he saw tens of thousands of masters.

The sheer density of spiritual power in the place was enough to make the air hum. He struggled to grasp the reality of the powerhouse he had built in such a short time.

"Surprised?" Anjie's voice cut through his daze. She walked up to him, a playful but proud smirk on her face. Seeing the stunned look on William's face drove her to let out a short laugh.

"While you were busy fighting the Fox, we didn't exactly sit on our hands. We absorbed the entirety of our home world. Every force worth their salt has knelt to the Fox Guild. This is the result."

William moved his eyes across the rows of disciplined masters, his mind racing to adjust his plans. "I was aware of the expansion, still…" He struggled for a moment to find the right words to express the mixture of shock and concern brewing in his gut.

He turned to the different faction leaders, his gaze sharpening. He feared that in their haste to grow, they had diluted the term elite.

"You do know that elite doesn't just mean anyone who managed to get into the Dark Gold grade, right?" he asked, his voice carrying a hint of a reprimand. He looked toward the newly joined faction leaders, suspecting they might have padded their ranks with anyone who met the bare minimum requirements just to impress him.

William thought that when they received his summons, the faction leaders had simply brought every Dark Gold master they could find. He assumed they had prioritised quantity to show off the guild's growth.

Yet, when he heard the firm rejection of these concerns and the detailed explanation from his girls and his close friends, he couldn't help but inwardly smile in contempt and pride. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

What had actually happened was far more impressive: the faction leaders had followed his orders to the letter. They hadn't just grabbed anyone with a high rank; they had mass-tested the entire population and filtered them through the gruelling standards William had established a long time ago.

They had grabbed only the absolute crop of the cream. Even with such a ruthless selection process, the sheer number of qualified candidates was still way beyond his highest expectations. It was a staggering, pleasant surprise that recalibrated his entire vision for the future.

Having such a grand number as a base, especially when that number was expected to skyrocket once the different sub-worlds were fully integrated into the Fox Guild, meant his dream of manifesting a force of tens of thousands in the upper realm was no longer a distant fantasy.

To an outsider, tens of thousands might sound like a small number for a world-changing force. But William knew the reality of the upper realm. When looking at how the most prestigious forces were structured in the upper realm, quality far outweighed mass.

The Blue Purgators, for example, maintained a core force of only around one hundred thousand elite spirit masters, yet they were feared and respected as one of the top-tier powerhouses in the upper realm.

William understood the secret: a strict, uncompromising selection process was what defined a legendary force. In the upper realm, numbers were a liability if they weren't backed by peak-level quality.

"Ok, let's talk seriously now," William said, his voice becoming heavy as he shifted his attention from the lighthearted banter with his inner circle to the future plans for them. The hundreds of thousands of masters in front of the grand tent leaned in, the air growing heavy with anticipation.

"I'll need to stay behind for a while to personally explore the newly opened worlds and stabilise the core," William explained, his gaze sweeping across the sea of faces.

"Yet, we can't afford to delay your training any longer. Time is our most precious resource. To that end, I have secured the assistance of the best masters currently available to lead you through your final steps.

The Blue Purgators have agreed to stay with us for one month. They will guide you through the proper high-density training required to jump through the last bottleneck and prepare your spirits to ascend."

He paused, letting the mention of the upper realm masters leading their training sink in. Then, his expression hardened.

"I know you have all been working tirelessly to grow your factions. You've recruited, built fortresses, and expanded your banners. Yet, I need to stress this point with absolute clarity: we are not staying here in this lower realm theatre for much longer. This world is a cradle, and we are about to outgrow it."