Zhang Wen stood amid the silence, his gaze sweeping across the twenty four figures kneeling before him. Within his sight, Affinity values floated clearly. Some had reached ninety, while others had surpassed one hundred completely.
He remained quiet for a moment before speaking in a calm, steady voice.
"But these drops… have one fatal drawback."
"If you consume them, your cultivation will never advance again for the rest of your lives."
Zhang Wen looked at them one by one.
"Are you still willing to take them?"
Those words failed to stir the atmosphere in the slightest. No one hesitated. All twenty four answered in unison, their voices firm and resolute.
"We are willing!"
This answer was not born of madness, but of a decision forged through long years of despair. For them, the Saint realm or Saint King realm had always been an unreachable dream. Some had exhausted their cultivation potential. Some had shattered foundations that would never recover. Some were even nearing the end of their lifespan.
To gain a chance to step into the Saint realm, even at the cost of everything, they were willing to seize it.
More importantly, they believed in Zhang Wen with all their hearts.
Everyone here understood that if not for Zhang Lingyue's assassination order, Zhang Wen would have passed the clan trials and become the next clan leader without question. Based on past experience working under him, they knew that Zhang Wen possessed qualifications far beyond anyone else.
Zhang Wen fell silent briefly before continuing.
"Have you ever wondered why the drops differ in size?"
He pointed toward the floating droplets.
"There are only four Saint King level drops, while the remaining twenty are Saint level. I personally chose the four individuals whom I believe would be the strongest among you if measured at the same cultivation realm."
The Saint King drops were slightly larger than the Saint drops. Zhang Wen's voice sounded once more.
"Do any of you object?"
"Or would you prefer to fight for them and seize them by strength? I permit it. Even I am not always correct in my judgment."
Yet the twenty who had received Saint level drops answered immediately, without the slightest hesitation. The four who received the Saint King drops were indeed the strongest.
"We trust my lord's judgment."
Zhang Wen smiled faintly.
"Good."
He raised his hand slightly.
"Very well… swallow them."
The moment the order ended, all twenty four lifted the pure crimson drops at once and swallowed them without hesitation.
In the very next breath…
The bodies of the four who had received the Saint King drops began to convulse violently. Veins bulged across their skin as the energies within them collided, producing deep rumbling sounds from inside their bodies.
Zhang Wen did not hesitate.
Whoosh!
He warped all twenty four people out of the command hall, through the spatial gate, and into the barren wasteland outside the cave in a single instant. With a flick of his hand, he separated them at a distance from one another and created twenty four water clones to stand guard from afar.
In the blink of an eye, heaven and earth changed.
Twenty four sacred energy pillars surged into the sky at once. Radiant gold and white light erupted like divine columns, linking heaven and earth together.
The ground split open in massive cracks. The surrounding mountains trembled violently. The air tore apart with continuous explosive sounds.
The first twenty shattered the limits of mortal life simultaneously.
Their cultivation surged at an insane pace, racing through Spirit Formation, Body Integration, Nirvana, and Heavenly Cavern in rapid succession.
Saintly power was born within their bodies. Sacred energy circulated endlessly. Some stepped into Saint Level One, others Level Two, Three, or Four, depending on the foundation of the drop they had consumed.
The sky began to churn.
Dark clouds gathered at terrifying speed.
Heaven… had begun to resist.
A furious roar echoed from above, as if unwilling to accept the unnatural birth of so many Saints at once.
Yet Zhang Wen merely raised his hand.
A horrifying tidal wave burst outward in an instant, surging upward and crashing directly into the power of the Heavenly Tao. The heavenly inscriptions that had just begun to form were engulfed and devoured by his water tide. The black clouds howled before being torn apart, unable to gather again.
"Calm down," his voice carried a trace of irritation.
"You and I will be meeting many times in the future."
The heavens still refused to stop, striking wildly against his water tide in futile resistance.
Only then did the true process begin.
The four who had consumed the Saint King drops rose into the air. The power within them roared far beyond that of ordinary Saints. They did not halt at the Saint realm but began condensing fragments of a small inner world.
Space twisted violently. The laws of power started to take shape.
The first was shrouded in dark green mist. A nauseating stench spread outward as the Law of Poison erupted. Everything it touched began to corrode and decay. A fragment of a dark violet small world slowly formed within his body.
The second exploded with vibrant green radiance. The Law of Wood surged madly. Gigantic vines pierced through the earth as life energy flowed without end. A stable emerald colored small world took shape.
The third caused the temperature to plummet instantly. The Law of Ice froze all directions. Frost crystallized even within the air itself. A chilling silver white world fragment was born.
The fourth resounded with a deafening sword howl. Razor sharp sword intent flooded the surroundings. The Law of the Sword unified into perfection. Every breath became a blade. A dark silver world fragment trembled behind him.
They advanced to the first…second…third…fourth level of the Saint King realm, in sequence.
The sky trembled violently once more, as if the heavens themselves were struggling to resist.
Yet every time the power of heaven and earth stirred, Zhang Wen's tidal water stood in its path like an inseparable shadow.
The turmoil gradually faded. The raging heavens returned to silence. Dark clouds scattered apart, and the light of dawn poured down from the horizon. The sky became clear once more, as if everything that had happened had been nothing more than an illusion.
The sacred energy lingering in the air slowly dissipated, leaving behind only a faint pressure that had yet to fade completely. At that moment, Zhang Wen's water clones began to vanish one after another until only a single body remained.
The four Saint Kings who had broken through the limits of life descended from the sky in unison. Their surrounding power had yet to fully stabilize, and the aura radiating from their bodies caused the earth to tremble with every step.
They did not need to consolidate their foundations at all.
The drops refined by Zhang Wen, whose core originated from the Phoenix Emperor Flame Pill, had already forged their foundations into perfection from the very beginning. Their bodies and souls were several times stronger than ordinary Saints.
The lifespans that had once neared their end were forcefully extended. Some who had only decades left now possessed tens of thousands of years. For the younger ones, their lives might even stretch for hundreds of thousands of years.
Moreover, the binding of the Zhang clan that had been deeply engraved into their souls was completely burned away, leaving not even a trace behind.
At the same time, however, a new bond was born.
A bond that connected them directly to Zhang Wen.
And it was far more terrifying than the one imposed by the Zhang clan.
If they ever committed an act of betrayal against Zhang Wen, they would die instantly. Furthermore, their Affinity toward him must remain above ninety at all times. Should it fall below that threshold for three days, death would be inevitable.
All twenty four stepped onto the ground and knelt simultaneously. The heavy sound of their knees striking the earth echoed throughout the shattered valley.
"Our entire lives are devoted to my lord alone!"
The voices of all twenty four rang out together, powerful, resolute, and without the slightest hesitation.
The four Saint Kings lowered their heads to the deepest degree. Their eyes were filled with reverence far beyond that of the others. They had long known that Zhang Wen stood above the Saint realm, but only now, standing so close to him, did they truly understand that his strength existed on an entirely different plane from any known definition.
When they gazed upon Zhang Wen, it no longer felt like looking at a human being.
It was like staring into a bottomless abyss of the deep sea, endlessly dark and unfathomable.
Zhang Wen nodded slightly, his expression calm and indifferent.
"Alright."
He turned his back to them. His white robes fluttered gently in the lingering wind.
"Let us go. It is time."
The moment he stepped forward, an immense pressure spread outward without intention. An invisible aura erupted around him, and the world fell silent in an instant. Even the wind dared not pass through.
Twenty four figures rose together.
The four Saint Kings stood at the front, sacred auras overlapping into rolling waves. Behind them, the twenty Saints formed a straight formation, their combined presence like an unbreakable wall.