"I suggest you all calm down and absorb it slowly. This time, I am bestowing upon you a great fortune. Whether you can break through depends on your luck," Jiang Chen's voice suddenly drifted out from the room.
"Divine Son, this..." Jiang Wanjie seemed as if he wanted to say something, but the immense life energy suddenly surging through his body forced him to quickly settle his mind and deal with it.
Without wasting any time, Jiang Wanjie and the others immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, each circulating their respective cultivation techniques and striving to absorb the surging energy.
"It seems this will take a while." At this moment, Jiang Chen poked his head out of the room, observed the trio's condition with a slight smile, and then retreated inside to rest for a while.
While Jiang Wanjie and the others were hard at work absorbing the energy in the courtyard, two hours later, Jiang Wanjie—the eldest of the three—was the first to break through.
A golden aura burst forth from his entire body, and instantly, nine blazing suns slowly materialized from within Jiang Wanjie.
The vibrant red flames of the blazing suns grew deeper and deeper in color, eventually transforming into a dark crimson.
Had they not been inside Jiang Chen's small courtyard, the manifestation displayed by Jiang Wanjie at this moment would have completely incinerated every living creature within a radius of ten miles.
Jiang Chen, who had been resting, seemed to sense the change in the surrounding temperature. With just a single thought in his mind, the nine blazing red sun manifestations vanished instantly.
Scarcely had Jiang Wanjie's manifestation dissipated when a colossal phantom of a God of War materialized behind Jiang Linglong.
Nurtured by this immense energy, the once-illusory figure now appeared remarkably solid, and even a heavy, edge-less greatsword appeared in the God of War phantom's hands. Indeed, this was the first manifestation brought to Jiang Linglong by her Divine Phoenix Physique—the Flaming God of War.
Meanwhile, Jiang Jiangtian, possessing the Void Divine Body—one of the top ten physiques—saw a strange black aura emerge behind him. Under the shroud of this aura, the space one meter in front of Jiang Jiangtian continuously fractured, generating a powerful gravitational pull that sought to suck all nearby objects into it.
Fortunately, this was Jiang Chen's Invincible Domain; without his permission, no external laws could affect this place.
The manifestations of Jiang Jiangtian and Jiang Linglong lasted for less than a quarter of an hour before dissolving completely.
Immediately afterward, the three of them snapped their eyes open.
"I... I... have I broken through?" Feeling the unprecedented power coursing through his body, Jiang Wanjie looked at the other two, only to see Jiang Jiangtian and Jiang Linglong both nodding with smiles.
"It's true, all three of us have broken through to the Dragon Transformation Realm at this very moment," Jiang Wanjie said with a face full of joy.
"Oh no, the Lightning Tribulation is coming!" Jiang Jiangtian suddenly exclaimed.
Right on cue, dark clouds pressed down over the courtyard as if the sky had been torn open, and endless darkness engulfed the earth. Gale-force winds howled, lightning intertwined, and relentless rumbling shook everyone's eardrums.
"We let our guard down this time. With the three of us breaking through simultaneously, the Lightning Tribulation won't simply be a matter of stacking up," Jiang Wanjie said, his previously smiling face turning grave.
"Everyone be careful, there seem to be two eyes peering at this place from above the dark clouds. Is this... my imagination? How can this be?" Jiang Jiangtian turned pale with shock.
Right after that, a bolt of purple lightning as thick as a bowl-rim crashed down from the sky.
"Noisy." At this moment, Jiang Chen's voice came from inside the room, and the lightning instantly vanished. Jiang Chen then stepped out of the door, glanced up at the sky, and the dark, oppressive clouds dissolved into nothingness in an instant.
"Divine... Divine Son..." Jiang Jiangtian looked at Jiang Chen, his heart filled with shock. Among the three of them, he was probably the only one who noticed that when Jiang Chen looked at the sky, the gaze hidden behind the dark clouds was actually trembling with fear. True, he didn't know who the owner of that gaze was, but it certainly wasn't anyone simple, and he had never heard of a Lightning Tribulation dispersing simply because of a glance.
"Not bad, not bad. You haven't wasted my ingredients," Jiang Chen said indifferently as he looked at the three astonished figures.
"Divine Son, we originally estimated it would take at least another two or three years to break through to the Dragon Transformation Realm. Thanks to your grace today, we broke through directly..." Jiang Wanjie cupped his fists, a trace of gratitude showing in his eyes.
"Forget it. Since we are all members of the Jiang family, no need to be polite," Jiang Chen replied nonchalantly. To him, this was merely a trivial matter.
"Regardless, Divine Son, great kindness goes beyond mere words of thanks. If there is ever a time when you need us in the future, we will gladly go through fire and water without hesitation," Jiang Wanjie said solemnly to Jiang Chen.
"It's getting late, Divine Son, so we shall take our leave."
"Very well. If there's a chance in the future, feel free to come by whenever you like, and we can share and exchange insights on cultivation," Jiang Chen said, making no move to detain them further.
Jiang Wanjie nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait, Linglong, why aren't you leaving?" Jiang Wanjie asked, glancing back at Jiang Linglong, who was still standing quietly in place.
"You guys go ahead, I still have something I'd like to ask the Divine Son for guidance on!"
"Alright, then Jiangtian and I will head out first." With that, Jiang Wanjie and Jiang Jiangtian turned and left, leaving Jiang Linglong behind alone.
"Well... Linglong, what other questions do you have?" Jiang Chen asked, looking at her in puzzlement, somewhat at a loss.
To his surprise, Jiang Linglong suddenly dropped to one knee.
"Divine Son, this kindness is something Linglong will never forget. I beg the Divine Son, in your great mercy, to allow Linglong to follow you."
As it turned out, Jiang Linglong was born into a branch family of the Jiang clan. From a young age, she knew that her lineage was in decline and fading away, so she had practiced cultivation with fanatical desperation since childhood, hoping to restore the glory of her branch.
Unfortunately, the decline of her lineage meant that Jiang Linglong lacked cultivation resources right from the start. To catch up with others, she began cultivating day and night.
Having endured countless hardships and tribulations, she finally seized an opportunity where her innate cultivation talent caught the eye of certain high-ranking figures at the Jiang family headquarters. From then on, Jiang Linglong was groomed as an elite disciple of the Jiang family.
Yet Jiang Linglong never indulged in vanity; instead, she poured every resource back into herself, and her cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds until she finally became one of the three Divine Sons of the Jiang family.
Jiang Linglong was a person who always repaid kindness. Having already held favorable feelings toward the Jiang Family Emperor Son, Jiang Chen, and with him now helping her break through her realm, she directly expressed her willingness to follow him.