"Impossible, Wanjie! According to my previous estimates, it should have taken you at least another two years to break through from the Dragon Transformation Realm. How could you possibly break through just like that?" Jiang Taixu still found it hard to believe.
"Hhahahaha! Father, you might not believe it, but it's not just me. Even Linglong and Lingtian have broken through from the Dragon Transformation Realm, just like me~"
"What? Linglong and Lingtian broke through too??" Jiang Taixu was even more incredulous now.
"Yes, exactly. But we owe this breakthrough entirely to the Emperor Son. If not for the Emperor Son's help, it certainly would have taken us quite a bit longer to break through~" At this, a trace of deep gratitude appeared on Jiang Wanjie's face.
"What? It was actually Chen'er who helped you break through? It seems Chen'er has been hiding his true depth quite well. Truly worthy of being a disciple of our Jiang Family; he bears the demeanor of your eldest uncle." Jiang Taixu praised with a sigh of admiration.
"Indeed, Father. The Emperor Son's strength is unfathomable. This time, thanks entirely to the Emperor Son's guidance, we were able to break straight through from the Dragon Transformation Realm." Jiang Wanjie couldn't help marveling at this.
Yet Jiang Wanjie did not reveal to his father that it was Jiang Chen's meals that had allowed them to break through. After all, everyone has their own secrets, and the fact that Jiang Chen had helped them break through this time was already a boundless favor; naturally, it was not his place to say too much.
Still, given the chance, he would have to go find the Emperor Son again and bum a few more meals.
Just thinking about how a single meal could save him two years of cultivation time, propelling him straight from the Dragon Transformation Realm into the Half-Step Mighty realm—if he could bum a few more meals, wouldn't he easily break through to the Mighty realm? At this thought, Jiang Wanjie couldn't help breaking into a silly grin.
"What is it, Wanjie? What are you grinning about like that?" Jiang Taixu asked, looking at his son with some perplexity.
"N—nothing at all, Father. I was just wondering how I could ever repay the Emperor Son's great kindness," Jiang Wanjie hastily changed the subject.
"Forget it. You just need to focus on your cultivation and assist Chen'er in strengthening our Jiang Family in the future. That will be the greatest repayment to Chen'er."
After exchanging a few more brief words with his son, Jiang Taixu turned and left. As the acting head of the Jiang Family, he had to handle countless matters both big and small within the clan personally. Especially for a family like the Jiang Family, which had endured through countless epochs, administrative affairs were absurdly numerous.
Thus, being able to carve out time to visit his son meant Jiang Taixu placed a high value on paternal affection.
Much like Jiang Wanjie, Jiang Lingtian returned to his own estate, immediately dismissed his guards, and entered closed-door seclusion to cultivate.
Yet unlike the massive, spectacular phenomena that accompanied Jiang Wanjie's cultivation, Jiang Lingtian's seclusion made use of his Void Divine Body to form an independent spatial pocket around himself, completely concealing any unusual signs from outsiders.
As for Jiang Lingtian's father—Jiang Chen's third uncle—he was still far away on the border battlefield and had not returned for a long time.
Jiang Linglong, however, was different from the other two. The moment she returned to her dwelling, she shut her bedchamber door and eagerly pulled out the bowl of rice she had begged from Jiang Chen's courtyard from her storage pouch.
Jiang Linglong gazed foolishly at the bowl of crystal-clear rice. Strangely enough, even the somewhat battered bowl holding the rice now looked rather pleasing in her eyes. Fortunately, she had bolted her door shut in advance; otherwise, if her personal maidservant had seen her mistress grinning foolishly like this, there's no telling what she would have thought.
Yet Jiang Linglong also understood that she couldn't eat this bowl of rice right away. After all, she had just broken through from the Dragon Transformation Realm, and she had relied on external means to do so. Even though the Emperor Son had not mentioned any side effects, Jiang Linglong firmly believed that if she failed to consolidate her own foundation in time and instead continued to rely on such external boosts, it would inevitably plant hidden dangers for her future cultivation path.
After staring at the bowl of rice for a long time, Jiang Linglong carefully put it away. Then she immediately entered seclusion, circulating her cultivation technique to re-solidify her realm.
As for Jiang Wanjie, after Jiang Taixu departed, he went to find his protector, intending to test out the might he possessed after breaking through the Dragon Transformation Realm.
"Old Lu, please enlighten me~" Jiang Wanjie said respectfully to a lean old man standing beside him.
Jiang Wanjie's protector was named Lu Jue. He had once been one of Jiang Taixu's loyal followers, campaigning across battlefields alongside Jiang Taixu in his youth. Later, when Jiang Taixu assumed the role of acting head of the Jiang Family, he ceased fighting on external fronts.
Lu Jue was then assigned by Jiang Taixu to his son, taking on the duty of Jiang Wanjie's protector from that day forward.
Lu Jue's true form was a Golden-Winged Roc—the father of Jiang Wanjie's former mount.
"Hhahahaha, Divine Son! It has only been a few days, and it seems you have already broken through from the Dragon Transformation Realm. Good! Let this old man see what kind of strength the Divine Son commands now." Lu Jue looked at Jiang Wanjie with a smiling expression.
Jiang Wanjie's expression suddenly turned stern, like the surface of a frozen lake without a single ripple. Behind him, nine crimson suns slowly rose, their scorching radiance stirring up wave after wave of searing heat in the air as if they intended to burn everything around them to ashes.
He had no intention of holding back. After all, his opponent was Lu Jue, who was already in the Saint Realm, so Jiang Wanjie naturally had to take this seriously.
"Be careful, Elder Lu!" Jiang Wanjie shouted, his voice echoing through the heavens like thunder. At his cry, the nine blazing suns behind him seemed to receive an order, each shooting forth a stream of dark red flames.
Those flames intertwined and converged in mid-air, finally condensing into a massive fireball right in front of Jiang Wanjie's chest. The surface of the fireball churned with flames that were nearly white, seeming to contain a power capable of destroying heaven and earth.
"Go!" Jiang Wanjie swept his hand forward, and the fireball hurtled straight toward Lu Jue with lightning speed. Wherever the fireball passed, the air itself seemed to ignite, crackling loudly.
Yet in the face of such a formidable attack, Lu Jue merely wore a faint smile of approval. He made no move at all, simply standing quietly in place.
Just as the fireball was about to strike Lu Jue, a transparent barrier suddenly materialized around him. That barrier seemed condensed from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, shimmering with a faint light. The fireball crashed against the barrier, erupting in a deafening roar, yet it failed to shake the barrier by even a fraction.
"Not bad, Divine Son. This move of yours is even more powerful than before," Lu Jue said with a smile, his tone full of praise. With a gentle wave of his hand, the barrier rippled like water, completely neutralizing the force of the fireball.
At this sight, a flash of surprise crossed Jiang Wanjie's eyes. He hadn't expected his full-strength strike to be blocked so effortlessly. However, he was not discouraged; instead, his fighting spirit burned even hotter.
"Hhahahaha! Elder Lu, since that is the case, then please witness this move!" Jiang Wanjie laughed aloud, his aura surging abruptly. The nine blazing suns behind him began to slowly merge, eventually transforming into a snowy white spherical object.
That object emitted a dazzling radiance, resembling a miniature sun and brimming with endless power. At a thought from Jiang Wanjie, the snowy white sphere tore across the sky like a shooting star, hurtling straight toward Lu Jue.