"Whatever you do, keep it at the forefront of your mind that we are ascending soon. Once we arrive in the upper realm, the slate is wiped clean. We will work only with those who successfully make the journey with us.

A faction that boasts hundreds of thousands of masters here, but only manages to ascend ten or a dozen, is a failure in my eyes. Do not build for the present; build for the future that awaits."

William's words landed with a heavy thud. Those who had grasped his intentions long ago, his old friends like Lang, the girls, and the veteran masters who had been with him since the beginning, simply offered calm, knowing smiles.

They had already shifted their mindsets. Yet, for the newer faction leaders who hadn't realised the sheer scale of the ascension, his words were startling. They looked at their massive units and suddenly felt a chill of inadequacy.

William could tell that no matter how much he tried to lecture them, the harsh reality of the ascension would always be a better teacher than his words. For those who hadn't accompanied him long enough to witness his miracles, grasping the true gravity of ascension was a struggle. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Patiently, he began to explain the situation as if he were teaching children. He knew he needed every bit of help he could get to make things easier once they arrived on the other side.

"In the upper realm, thousands upon thousands of new masters from countless worlds flood into the realm on a daily basis," he began, his voice calm.

"But here is the truth you must accept: once you ascend, your power will be reset. Even if you are the strongest, most feared master in the lower realms, the moment you set foot on that soil, you will be the weakest of the weak. You will be at the bottom of a very tall, very dangerous ladder."

He intentionally paused, moving his eyes slowly around the master to ensure he had everyone's undivided attention.

"And to make things worse, rising in power up there is a challenge that dwarfs anything you've faced before. The spirit power in the upper realm is not like the gentle mist we have here. It is volatile, aggressive, and incredibly thick.

It cannot be easily absorbed into a lower-realm spirit without causing internal damage. You won't be able to hunt monsters to enhance your spirits as easily as you do now because the monsters there are far stronger than our starting point."

He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a low, sombre tone. "On top of that, every training manual you currently possess, every technique you've spent years mastering in these lower realms, will become invalid.

They are useless relics. They cannot be used to absorb the spirit power at all. You will have to unlearn everything and learn new things to survive."

"..."

The more William talked, the more shocked and depressed the atmosphere became. The gravity of his words seemed to crush the pride of the dark gold masters.

However, the most shocked individuals weren't his guild members, but the Blue Purgator elite masters standing at the periphery of the tent and meeting, listening to William's words.

What William described was the raw, unvarnished reality of the upper realm. New masters struggled immensely up there precisely because they lacked this foundational understanding. They arrived thinking they were gods, only to realise they were insects.

They would try to train but fail, ending up very confused and stagnant in their initial spot for a long time. Then it came down to the damage caused by absorbing the spirit power from the world.

Spirit masters were stubborn humans, very stubborn to shoulder all the challenges and hardships and ascend.

The misconception they would have once trying to train and fail, thinking it was another obstacle to overcome, ending up pushing further down the wrong path, ending up severely damaging their spirit. That damage was the reason newly risen masters would take years to just take the first step forward.

And yet, here was William, a youth who had never officially set foot in that realm, speaking with a familiarity that surpassed that. He wasn't just guessing; he was reciting a survival manual for the upper realm.

"That's why I built the Fox Guild on different rules from the very beginning," William said. After throwing the bad news like a bucket of cold water, it was finally time to offer the good news.

"Starting from our unique method to assess your spirit power, your spirit types, and your elemental affinities, then moving to the various specialised training manuals we provided, and ending by stressing the three major concepts of training, the Holy Triad.

Everything we have built since day one was aimed toward this singular end. Because of this preparation, our journey up there won't be as harsh or as lethal as it is for others. But," he paused, his eyes turning into flint, "that does not mean we shall slack. In fact, it means the real work begins now."

He moved his eyes across the vast assembly, his gaze lingering on the faction leaders who had grown comfortable in their local authority.

"I've heard the reports. The different new factions have been finding their backing and forming alliances with the oldest, biggest factions of our guild. That's fine for a lower-realm conquest, but I can tell you this: that method won't work up there. Therefore, we need to renovate everything.

The alliances, the deals, the promises, everything you've brokered will be negated and rebuilt. Even the structure of the factions themselves will be dismantled and reborn today."

His words landed like a silent bomb over their heads. Even his inner circle, the girls who had bled to expand the guild, exchanged weird, confused looks. They truly thought they had done a masterful job in the past few months, yet William's tone suggested they had made a fundamental mistake in their organisational expansion.