The Custodian came out of the Lightning Emperor's study and threw a glance at the waiting Shang.

"You left quite the positive impression on the Ancestor, Shang," the Custodian said with a polite smile.

When Shang heard that, he felt like something was different from before.

It wasn't that his status had changed or anything, but that something about the Custodian was different.

It was like the Custodian was more distant?

Cold?

Off-putting?

Something in the way the Custodian was talking or looking at Shang had changed, but Shang couldn't be sure what exactly.

Nevertheless, Shang only answered with a wordless nod.

The Custodian gestured to the hallway with a move of his head and traveled back to the entrance with Shang.

The Custodian opened the door, and the two of them arrived in front of Queen Primordium again.

Shang still couldn't see Queen Primordium, but he could tell by the atmosphere that she felt relieved.

Since she was the leader of the Reinforcement and Contender Departments, she was obviously very interested in powerful people. After all, it was her job to make new Thunders and Mage Kings.

"I apologize for the wait, Vana," the Custodian said with a polite smile. "The Ancestor enjoys talking."

"No worries," Queen Primordium said. "Any new orders?"

The Custodian nodded. "Our little friend Shang will enjoy very special treatment from now on. First, his allowance will be increased by a factor of ten."

"You're referring to the Ancestral Mage allowance?" Queen Primordium asked.

The Custodian nodded.

Queen Primordium nodded back.

"Next, he gets access to all special training areas except the grade 0 ones for a price. The prices will be according to the arms race decree," the Custodian explained.

Queen Primordium raised an eyebrow with a bit of surprise.

That was quite good.

The Lightning Manor had some decrees they could implement for emergency situations like wars and the breaking down of relations between Empires.

In that case, the Lighting Manor would essentially operate at a loss to push the power of every member as far as possible, which included cheap access to very expensive and difficult-to-maintain training areas.

Of course, since it was only Shang that got this access, the Lightning Manor wouldn't lose much money, but it was still quite significant.

Many of these training areas were only accessible to people that rendered great services or achieved amazing results in the different trials.

And Shang got to enter these without needing to do anything but pay some money.

"Okay," Queen Primordium answered.

"Next," the Custodian continued, "due to the peculiarity of his Spirit Sense, his true power needs to remain a secret. In public, he will remain a Cloud, but he will be disguised as a Cloud one level higher than he actually is."

"I trust that you can find a good way, Vana," he added.

Queen Primordium nodded. "A permanent talisman should do the trick," she said.

The Custodian nodded in agreement.

"Lucin knows about his Spirit Sense?" the Custodian asked.

"He does," Queen Primordium answered.

"Then, make sure that he doesn't tell anyone else about this, including his own bolts."

"I will," Queen Primordium said.

"Good. Lastly, I would like you to tell him about our friends," the Custodian said. "If he finds someone fitting, you may contact me, and I will try to persuade them to take him as a permanent student."

"You said to tell him," Queen Primordium said, "not introduce him. I assume that means that the others also shouldn't know about his true nature?"

"Correct," the Custodian said. "The fewer people know about this, the better. Only I will be the one that tells the truth of his existence to anyone else."

Queen Primordium raised an eyebrow. "Is that your order or the Ancestor's order?"

The Custodian's expression lost some friendliness. "It's not an order," he said.

"Understood," Queen Primordium said.

"Then, that should be everything," the Custodian said to Queen Primordium, his polite smile recovered. "If there is anything you need, you know where to find me."

"Of course, Wester," Queen Primordium said.

The two of them nodded at each other, and the Custodian threw a glance at Shang. "Do your best," he said.

Shang just nodded back.

The Custodian went back into his room, and Queen Primordium gestured for Shang to follow her.

The two of them walked back to Queen Primordium's room and met up with Lucin.

Lucin had already noticed that Shang had survived the meeting with the Lightning Emperor earlier, and he was only glad that there were no issues.

"Give us a moment," Queen Primordium said. "I have to show Shang something privately."

"Of course," Lucin said with a nod.

"Follow me," Queen Primordium said to Shang as she stepped into the imperceivable darkness that was her room.

Shang nodded toward Lucin and also walked into the darkness.

As soon as Shang passed by the wall, a new world opened up in front of him.

These were Queen Primordium's private chambers.

And it looked very different from what Shang had expected.

The color scheme of the room was azure, and there were several comfortable blue cushions strewn around the room. The floor was carpeted with a nice carpet, and Shang could sense several huge ponds in the room.

Just like the Lightning Emperor's study, there were also several Concepts of Space, Time, and Gravity active here, but in a different way.

The size of the room itself wasn't being manipulated, but the depth of the ponds was.

The several ponds in the room were so deep that Shang couldn't even feel their end, which was more than shocking.

After all, Shang's Spirit Sense now extended to 3,000 kilometers!

Shang could also feel several powerful beasts in the depths of the pond, and he could even feel a very distant but extremely powerful Aura.

Shang had felt a similar Aura before.

The Eternal Maw.

The extremely powerful Beast Lord.

"These ponds are not technically in my room," Queen Primordium said, noticing that Shang was mostly focusing on them. "This is just a permanent portal on the floor of my room with the size of the ponds. If you step through, you will enter an underground mountain in the endless ocean northwest from here."

That was when Shang noticed something else.

Queen Primordium had deactivated the shield around her, and Shang could finally see what she actually looked like.