Ankit didn't reply right away.
He simply continued eating, expression peaceful.
It wasn't that he didn't want to answer—he could easily say, "I am strong enough to destroy a large part of the Earth in just a single attack," and it would be true.
But he had no desire to speak those words aloud, especially not in front of so many disciples and their families.
He had read too many novels where openly revealing strength turned into a fatal weakness—arrogant declarations that invited envy, fear, or worse.
Until it was necessary, he would keep his true power veiled.
On the other side of the table, the disciples who had overheard the conversation exchanged quiet glances.
If their Master had just come back from seclusion, then… who had been with them all this time?
Xinxuan and a few others who were avid novel readers immediately understood: it must have been a clone.
The rest, less familiar with such tropes, simply stared in silent wonder, thinking to themselves:
"Master is really mysterious."
No one dared to ask aloud.
They simply continued eating, stealing respectful glances at Ankit whenever they thought he wasn't looking.
The kitchen hall filled once again with the soft sounds of meals and quiet conversation.
And in that moment—surrounded by family, disciples, and the growing warmth of a shared path—Ankit felt the tension of months of secluded cultivation begin to ease, just a little.
The problem of time element could wait.
For now, he was home.
***
When Ankit left his seculed cultivation, the other clones shifted back to their individual tasks, no longer bound to comprehending higher elements alongside Ankit.
The Solar Clone dove straight into creation, forging new items and weapons from the stockpiled resources gathered from origin points around the world.
He also summoned Astra to the training grounds to train her.
As he worked, an idea from the novels he had read flickered in his mind—secret realms where elements like fire or water were concentrated to extreme levels, which helps in comprehending those elements much faster—so he began designing vyuhas that could replicate such environments, vyuhas that would draw and amplify specific elements in isolated chambers, creating high-concentration zones for disciples and family to train in without ever leaving the safety of the fortress.
The Sacral Clone, meanwhile, resumed his experiments with renewed vigor, using the vast reserves of materials delivered by puppets from origin points to craft new types of puppets infused with the higher elements he had comprehended—Void-powered puppets that could erase their presence completely, Dimension-shifting ones that folded space to strike from impossible angles, and Soul-bound guardians that could possess and control enemies from afar.
He also turned to alchemy, blending the new resources into overpowered pills that could aid in Cultivation, enhance body purity, or mind clarity pills, while experimenting with poisons that drew on Decay to rot flesh in seconds or Chaos to induce uncontrollable madness.
The Root Clone focused solely on martial techniques, weaving the newly grasped higher elements into innovative forms—Void-infused strikes that negated defenses, Entropy-based palms that drained life force over time, and Order-driven stances that imposed unbreakable patterns on battles, forcing enemies into predictable loops.
He tested each one in isolated simulations, refining them until they flowed as naturally as breath, knowing these would become foundational skills for Ankit's disciples and family in the future.
The Third Eye Clone dedicated himself entirely to advancing his Divine Sage profession, still at a basic level despite his progress, so he immersed in study.
The Heart Clone, already in the Beast Continent, threw himself fully into training the beasts—some had broken through to Stage 2.
A monkey beast, agile and clever, became the first to fully learn a Beast Technique—a claw form that channeled essence—so the Heart Clone rewarded it with a custom cultivation system tailored to him, accelerating its intelligence awakening and physical evolution.
To keep the others motivated, he announced another competition: same rules, winner gets a cultivation system, excluding Husa and the monkey beast who already had their own cultivation system.
The beasts roared in excitement, diving into practice with fierce determination.
The Ether Clone, finding himself free, he decided to relax and play the game with his friends Amit, Gyan, and Sumit. He told heart clone to give the playing task to him. Heart clone happily gave him, he can now focus on his beast disciples.
But as Ether clone loaded into a match, a thought surfaced—he had long considered giving them a cultivation system, pulling them into this world of power.
Curious about the outcome, he activated his Divine Sage insight for a quick calculation.
The result made him pause.
If he brought them here and trained them like his disciples are training now, everything would change.
Their easy friendship would twist into something formal—respect turning to awe, equality fading into master-disciple hierarchy.
The pressure of the disciples, the beasts, the cultivation path would weigh on them, altering who they were.
Ankit himself would change too—treating old friends as students, the casual bond lost forever.