"This tea... how does Your Highness find it?"
In a spacious room, Wu Ling sat in the main seat. Four people sat below him. Aside from Goran Tremor, who had his eyes closed as if resting, there were two men and one woman.
These three were the deans of Divine Wind Academy, Blazing Fire Academy, and Heavenly Water Academy, the same three academy heads who had met Wu Ling two years earlier. The one speaking to Wu Ling was Divine Wind Academy's dean.
Facing the dean's probing question, Wu Ling set down his teacup without expression. His gaze lowered, and his fingers tapped lightly against the table. Each crisp tap struck the three deans' nerves like a small hammer, making them restless.
Outside, they were the lofty heads of three great elemental academies. Here, they were like students in front of a teacher or employees in front of an owner, full of nervousness and unease.
The reason went back to one week earlier.
Because Wu Ling had ordered Spirit Hall to ignore the Fire Leopard Sect's protests, and because Bibi Dong had little goodwill or expectation for that sect either, she had let Wu Ling handle it as he wished.
That caused the Fire Leopard Sect's master to grow even more arrogant and reckless. Whether because Spirit Hall ignored him or because someone behind him indulged him, that man, who had no idea how to judge the times, actually relied on his Spirit Emperor status and openly ran to the front of the Pope's Palace to shout abuse.
He even raised banners of righteousness and morality, accusing Spirit Hall of publicly killing and dissolving the Flying Sword Sect, one of the lower four sects.
His shouting did draw the attention of passersby and Spirit City residents. Just as he reached the height of excitement and began imagining Spirit Hall bowing to public anger, with his own bright future starting from there, Wu Ling appeared.
Wu Ling first had the soldiers push the watching crowd back more than a dozen meters. Then he met the Fire Leopard Sect master face-to-face.
At first, the man thought Wu Ling intended to negotiate one-on-one. Wu Ling used one punch to prove otherwise.
After that, in full public view, the Fire Leopard Sect master was beaten down by Wu Ling from start to finish. Even when he used his Martial Soul True Form, before he could exert any power, Wu Ling punched him into the stone bricks beneath him.
Even after using every last bit of strength, the man lasted only ten minutes against Wu Ling, who had not used his Martial Soul. Afterward, more than a thousand members of the entire Fire Leopard Sect were killed. The civilians who had watched the battle each received a basket of eggs and happily returned home.
Through that incident, Wu Ling's true strength was exposed. His decision afterward to cut the weeds and remove the roots left everyone deeply wary of him. The three deans present were among those people.
Originally, they had planned to delay as long as possible. Because Wu Ling disappeared, that delay had lasted two years. But after Wu Ling appeared again, his behavior was completely different from before.
If the old Wu Ling had hidden his strength and built momentum, the current Wu Ling showed his edge openly and acted with absolute dominance.
First, he killed the bishop of Spirit Hall's branch in Soto City. Then he thoroughly investigated every Spirit Hall branch across the Polaris Empire.
After that, he massacred the Strength Clan and Speed Clan, two of the four clans formerly under the Clear Sky Sect. Based on the actions of the other two clans afterward, it was almost certain that the Defense Clan and Breaking Clan had also bowed beneath Spirit Hall.
Finally came the Flying Sword Sect and Fire Leopard Sect. If they disagreed, their sect masters died, and their sects were destroyed. Especially the Fire Leopard Sect. Back then, Star Stripe soldiers and the vice sect master of the White Tiger Sect had gone to support and protect them. In the end, everyone present died. Not one survived.
And what did the Star Stripe Empire do afterward? It did not even dare release a fart. Instead, it issued a statement claiming the White Tiger Sect vice sect master had colluded with the Fire Leopard Sect, and that the two sides had joined together to frame Spirit Hall.
All of that happened only because Wu Ling personally went to speak with the Star Stripe Emperor for half a morning.
All of these actions and consequences proved one thing. Wu Ling, the Saint, had stepped out of concealment and into the open. The achievement of defeating a Spirit Emperor without even using his Martial Soul was like a shot of stimulant for Spirit Hall's people, while also nearly causing certain overly "excited" people to die from shock.
Because of that, after two years, the three academies had gone from forces Wu Ling wanted to win over if possible to forces that were only slightly better than optional, and that was with all three academies added together.
To the three deans present, if Wu Ling could wipe out the entire Fire Leopard Sect without changing expression, then ordering the slaughter of three academies was not a major matter either.
A thousand people and several thousand people were vastly different numbers. But in the eyes of certain people, the difference might only be a few extra words in a report.
As for the empire, even the warlike and hard-line Star Stripe Empire had compromised. The three deans did not believe their own "peace-loving" Polaris imperial family would support them. Even if it truly did, whether it could endure Wu Ling's "conversation" was another question.
In other words, the future of the three academies now hung on one sentence from Wu Ling.
At last, after a long stretch of torment, Wu Ling stopped tapping the table.
"I understand what all of you mean. You want to join our Spirit Hall. I am happy about that. But the time you spent thinking about it makes me very unhappy."
As Wu Ling spoke, his Spirit Ring configuration appeared around him. Two purple, two black, and three red rings.
All four people present were stunned by the rings. This configuration made no sense. Forget reality, even theory said it should be impossible.
Then the pressure on the three deans multiplied. It felt as though a mountain had been pressed directly onto them.
Goran Tremor, who was not under pressure, lowered his eyes and guarded his expression. Wu Ling's Spirit Rings stunned him, but he understood what he should do even more clearly. Right now, what he needed to do was control his eyes and his mouth.
The chairs beneath the three deans shattered. Their eight Spirit Rings each appeared. Twenty-four Spirit Rings between the three of them barely resisted the pressure Wu Ling released.
They were humiliated by their own wretched state, but since Wu Ling had shown them his Spirit Rings, this was not only a threat. It was also a signal. If they endured, they were qualified to know about his rings and join him. If they failed, then apologies would be useless. Only the dead had truly tight lips.
Five minutes passed quietly.
During those five minutes, Wu Ling kept increasing the force. But the three people opposite him had lived for decades and become academy deans. With one look, they understood what each of them needed to do.
After five minutes, all the pressure receded like the tide.
When they raised their heads, they saw Wu Ling smiling.
"In that case, welcome, all three of you, to our great Spirit Hall family."