High in the shimmering void, Elena and the others watched Julian's actions with stunned expressions. They hadn't expected someone to treat a collapsing world like a clearance sale.
However, they immediately reacted. Seeing the efficiency with which Julian's Hallowed Realm absorbed the drifting population, they began collecting a few groups of commoners and livestock themselves.
In their eyes, these natives were merely resources—laborers to plant medicinal herbs or tend to spirit beasts within their own realms. Yet, they were far more selective than Julian.
"What grade is his Hallowed Realm?" Evander Night stared at the golden vortex emanating from Julian's brow, his mouth agape. "How can it accommodate so many people without collapsing under the spatial strain?"
Evander estimated that in those few frantic minutes, Julian had vacuumed up more than 20,000 additional people, along with a chaotic assortment of horses, cattle, and stray steam-engines.
Suddenly, everyone's attention was yanked back to the remains of the world below. The ground cracked and heaved as if a gargantuan beast were turning over in its sleep. As the core of the Stargate began to dissolve, every living soul in the sky—except for the students—vanished in an instant.
"Have they all disappeared?" Julian wondered, a trace of doubt flickering in his mind. He vaguely felt a tidal force whisking the uncollected natives away, perhaps to be scattered across other random dimensions.
"Focus! The Earth Essence is emerging!" Elena shouted, her knuckles white as she gripped her Earth Essence Gourd.
From the jagged fissures in the dying earth, thick plumes of gray gas began to rise. Each strand was about the size of a man's forearm, swirling with a heavy, primordial weight.
"Retrieve!" In the distance, Gideon Garrow produced an identical gourd and channeled his pure qi, drawing in the strands of Essence closest to him.
Julian followed suit, uncorking his khaki gourd. As the gray gas entered the vessel, it felt strangely heavy, though it looked like nothing more than common smog.
The harvest was over quickly. An Earth Essence Gourd could only hold ten strands at most. Elena had brought ten gourds, hoping to sweep the field, but with Gideon and Evander moving so aggressively, the supply was quickly exhausted. She opted not to fight them; in the unstable vacuum of a collapsing Stargate, a skirmish could be fatal.
"Is this stuff really that extraordinary?" Julian asked, peering into his gourd at the dull, dust-like specks.
"Earth Essence can raise the very grade of your Hallowed Realm," Elena explained. "It doesn't look like much now, but once you release it into your land, you'll see the transformation."
Before Julian could respond, his vision blurred. The sensation of the void vanished, replaced by the familiar, sterile air of the Royal Valerius Academy arrival hall.
"Welcome back, everyone. Congratulations on officially becoming members of the High Dragon class."
A calm, resonant voice cut through the students' disorientation. Julian looked up to see their instructor, Orrin Fingerland, standing at the head of the hall.
"Officially?" Julian muttered, glancing around. He noticed the group had thinned; only 22 students remained of the original cohort.
"This year, the Academy requires true excellence," Orrin Fingerland said, his gaze sweeping over them with a hint of satisfaction. "You have faced the bone-wraiths and survived the shattering. You have proven you can thrive in the chaos of the Stargates."
He didn't mention the Blessed Stones or the formal mission requirements, acting as if the survival and the harvest were the only metrics that mattered. "Go back, rest, and integrate your gains. I expect you in the High Dragon wing at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
As the group dispersed, Evander Night walked up to Julian with a friendly, if somewhat eccentric, grin.
"Brother, that was an impressive haul! Interested in joining the Night family's coalition? I have an older sister—fair skin, long legs, very high cultivation level," Evander pitched with a wink.
"Evander, shut it," Elena snapped, walking past them with a look of disdain. She turned to Julian. "The Earth Essence you collected is yours. We'll talk about future cooperation when the next Stargate opens."
She left with her retainers, intent on finalizing the rewards she had promised them. Evander watched her go, then turned back to Julian. "So, you prefer the 'Ice Queen' type? Understandable. But if you change your mind, my younger sister is also—"
"I appreciate the offer, Evander," Julian interrupted, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sudden recruitment drive. "But I have much to attend to."
As Julian walked away, Evander's smile faded into a look of deep contemplation.
"Do you really think he's worth the effort, Boss?" one of Evander's lackeys asked.
"You didn't see the scale of his intake," Evander replied softly. "To hold that many people, his Hallowed Realm has to be at least Grade 9 already. He's a sleeper hit."
Back in his dormitory, Julian immediately submerged his consciousness into his Hallowed Realm. He manifested directly inside Ember-Fall Manor, where Jaxen Flaux was already waiting, surrounded by scrolls and holographic displays.
"My Lord," Jaxen bowed.
"Give me the numbers, Jaxen," Julian said.
"Including the survivors you pulled from the void during the collapse, our total population has surged to 53,100 people," Jaxen reported. "The original residents of Brass Horizon City are helping the newcomers settle, but we have reached a critical bottleneck."
Jaxen pointed to a series of projections.
"First, we are facing an immediate food crisis. Our current stores cannot sustain fifty thousand people for more than a month. Second, housing is insufficient. Brass Horizon City is overflowing; we need to expand the infrastructure immediately."