As white light envelops all three of us, I create a barrier of pure mana shielding around the Vice Region's director.

If not, the pressure of dense orange divine energy filling the underground bunker in the Crimson City would have shredded him to bits in a matter of milliseconds.

An additional upside to this barrier is that with this man's lack of strong mana control, it will be impossible for him to see or sense through it, essentially bringing him into my fortress blind until I decide he should be able to see.

When we finally materialize, the sight before me is fascinating.

To my right, I instantly sense two fully formed orange cores inside Maria and Abby. On the other side, Lydia and Fisher hold two red cores, almost fully saturated and on the verge of transitioning to orange.

The room is densely packed with swirling divine threads. From my experience in the past, when I was trying to compress my own divine energy, once they're ejected from the cultivator's body, the threads usually stay stagnant or dissolve into the air. But something different is happening...

As the orange shimmering threads are consumed by my four teammates, small amounts of energy stay contained in their bodies, and a large portion is ejected. However, at the back of the room, the faint consciousness of Ember lingers inside the isolation pod that continues to dilate time inside of it by over ten times the normal speed.

As divine energy seeps in at a slow rate, it is expelled at a far faster rate, though in slightly lesser quantity.

It's like Ember is subconsciously processing the divine energy and taking a small tax, but in doing so, allowing the momentum to keep pushing it around the room, creating a whirlpool effect rushing through all four of them and adding additional threads to their bodies.

The enhanced shielding I created is doing its job perfectly, allowing for the divine energy cycled out from each of them to stay in the room and forcefully continue to cycle through them, compounding the effects of each fragment consumed.

Alone, this would be quite detrimental to the advancement process. The body can only handle processing so much divine energy at a time.

However, with Abby's constant use of her mythic-grade [Restore] skill, and [Area of Total Restoration] buff everything can be expedited. Now, with all of these unique healing traits enhanced by the power of a fully awakened orange core, everyone in the room is being constantly healed physically, mentally, and held together with extremely strong divine restoration threads.

What took Ember and me nearly a week to accomplish while fighting orange-cored insects in the construct has taken my teammates under two days.

I assume it would have taken even less time if they'd started inside this bunker, but when the process began, I was more worried about getting strong enough to take on the Apex Region's Director than anything else.

Now... I've taken over the entire Nation and have quite the special gift to surprise my teammates with.

The first to sense our presence as we enter is Maria, as she's not actively trying to awaken her core, nor is she focused on healing the others like Abby.

Her blue eyes pierce through the plumes of orange divine threads and meet with mine as I power down my illusion magic, but keep a tight oval-shaped bubble of dense mana around the director.

A telepathy link between us opens as a wave of perception ripples through the group.

"Welcome back, Jay—Wait—That's... The Vice Region's... No way..."

I smirk as Abby's eyes open, and she does the same scan of the room before speaking through our link as well.

"It's him... What—what are you planning to do now...?"

Lydia's eyes open next as she senses a change in the constant flow of divine threads. Her gaze darts around the room to make sense of everything. She doesn't say a word and makes her own assumptions, but Fisher yells out loud, breaking the silence once he realizes who I've brought back.

"It's that damn Regional Director that scre—"

I send a four-way wave of telepathy to all of them during his outburst, explaining the situation briefly and giving them a reason as to why I didn't kill him the moment I had a chance

Even Fisher stops his heated statement and can't hold back a grin, nodding as he agrees with my plan.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"I mean—Mr. Freeman—long time no see. How can we assist you today?"

All four of them stand from their seated positions and take a small break from cultivating.

Abby and Maria deserve a break from cultivating for almost two days straight, and from the looks of it, Fisher and Lydia could use a moment to rest, as their cores are about two-thirds of the way completed. At this rate, it will still take almost half a day to finish up.

It is still incredibly fast, but their natural innate talent is making itself known again, just like how it took a little longer for both of them to awaken their soul energy.

A muffled voice from Brutus comes out from beneath the dense mana shielding.

"Who—Who's there? Where have you brought me, Director?"

My smile grows wider as everyone in the room uses a high-grade concealment artifact to change their appearances. I shift mine slightly too, making myself look like a less animated version of Mr. Freeman without the glowing golden eyes to keep the facade alive for Brutus, and we all walk toward the spiral staircase exit.

My four teammates walk in front of me, and I release a small amount of my True Core's aura, contained by my superior-grade mana manipulation, to push and contain the direction of all the excess divine threads around us back down into the room.

Every thread that comes in contact with me is instantly absorbed into my core, though it is such a minimal amount, at a divine frequency one tier below my core, that I don't even feel the energy change.

This is more to protect the citizens that live above us, not to let a catastrophic wave of divine threads flood out of the bunker as the exit hatch is opened.

Raven's geopoint slips out into the guildhall in the back of my consciousness as she curiously comes along for the ride.

As we walk out and it's closed again, I'm not worried about keeping Ember guarded while he rests now. No one is making it through that dense cloud of divine threads below us, and there is a faint flicker of his active mind coming out from the isolation pod. My intuition tells me if he really needed to wake up right now, he could.

The sun is a bit higher over the horizon here, but it is still early in the morning as the five of us walk through the guildhall and I carry the Vice Region's director using telekinesis.

He speaks again as the sounds of the crowded guildhall hit his senses.

"Where are we? I—I didn't mean to offend you... What I said before was not my true feelings. You know we've been great partners for a long time. Wha—Whatever you say, I'll be behind it 100%, you know this."

I don't reply but slowly let his mana barrier dissolve, allowing his feet to touch the ground as we walk out one of the doors of the guildhall onto the main road.

Once he can finally see, he doesn't say a word as he takes in the environment of a prospering city, now with over 2,200 citizens and thousands more outside of the crimson dome.

People line the streets, buying and selling gear that isn't traded in the guildhall. Restaurants and cafés are finishing up the morning crowd and transitioning to lunch, while residents make their way to and from the canyon of dungeons on the far edge of town.

Brutus turns his head all around, trying to figure out what's happening, even looking at the four unknown strangers surrounding him, and his boss. He speaks again.

"What—Where—"

I speak in the same tone as Mr. Freeman.

"This is the Crimson City, the home of the Flame Emperor. Since, as you said, you are my most long-lasting, trustworthy business partner over the years, I thought it would only be right to give you the first tour of our new partnered nation."

I feel a rush of relief emanate from the old man as he responds, and watch his posture straightening up.

"Oh—Yes. Of course, so that's it."

A smile resurfaces on the old director's face as we continue through the crowded city streets.

Despite the Qi barriers in place around my teammates, and their best attempts at fully concealing their mana control and loose divine threads, some of their immense aura leaks out.

I'm able to overlap this aura with my own, absorbing enough of it to prevent it from being fatal to others in the streets. Still, there is a constant aura of intensity and power rippling out from us.

Many here in the city know that the Inner Circle and the Flame Emperor never reveal their true identities, so those walking the same street as us make way, separating from the crowd as they correctly assume who is coming through.

Brutus notices this reaction as we make our way to an outer edge of the city.

"Who are our escorts today? And—if I'm here, does this mean we're going to be meeting with the Flame Emperor?"

I nod as we come to the edge of the crimson dome, creating a small opening in the pure soul energy for Brutus to walk through.

"Yes, indeed, today you will be meeting the Flame Emperor. Right now, you have the pleasure of meeting the Inner Circle of trusted allies, the four strongest fighters on the dark continent. They are the force that easily defended and mortally injured our A-Class hunters when we wrongfully attacked them after the exams."

Brutus' face turns white again as he realizes the strength of the guards around him, but he doesn't show fear in his voice.

"So you've come to an agreement after that scuffle. Very good."

He nods as we all make it outside the dome, and I close the city's defense.

"Yes, and we'll be having another meeting right away. I don't want any prying ears to be listening in, so it's best we make our way to a more private place."

We all float into the air, and I bring the director with us, leaving the bustling city behind and now getting an aerial view of the dozens of trade routes that branch away from the Crimson City in all directions to the neighboring towns and sectors.

Brutus speaks up again as it fades from view, and we start to float far into the desert.

"Quite the interesting infrastructure here. I recognize a lot of these supplies from the Vice Region... and Solara... and even Valor City. Do you have any idea where this Flame Emperor came from? I've sent plenty of teams out to the Dark Continent over the years to secure personal assets, but never heard of such a force out here until he started making himself known these past few months."

I smile as we get further and further from the city, then send a wave of telepathy through all of my teammates in the sky. We all simultaneously deactivate our concealment skills and artifacts as I reply.

"Yes, I do know quite a bit about his origins. It's a funny story, actually. I'm sure all of us would be happy to fill you in on what you're missing."