The interior seemed to have expanded significantly since his last visit, likely due to the recent upgrade.
The scenery was also more picturesque, and to his surprise, many common animals were now present.
Apart from the special flowers, birds, fish, and insects, he also spotted many cute creatures like rabbits and squirrels.
This space had truly transformed into a complete and self-sustaining ecosystem.
Furthermore, something else happened that caught Ye Yun off guard.
"Master! You're finally here!"
Not long after Ye Yun entered, he heard several maiden voices calling out from a distance.
"Master!"
Following the sounds, he looked and was astonished to discover that Lin Xueyan and the others, who should have been in seclusion cultivating in the Divine Refining Tower, had all emerged!
They were now eagerly rushing towards him.
A hint of fervor could be seen in each of their eyes.
As the maidens approached, Ye Yun looked at them in surprise and asked,
"You've all broken through so quickly?"
Although he couldn't use his divine power here, his divine sense was still functional, and he easily discerned that Lin Xueyan and the others had all reached the Emperor stage in their cultivation.
Currently, Lin Xueyan, Bai Xiaoxiao, Chen Lingyi, Chen Lingxin, Fang Zhiwei, and Ye Yao had all successfully broken through the True Immortal realm and peacefully achieved the status of Empresses!
This speed truly exceeded his expectations.
It was even faster than his own breakthrough to the Emperor stage!
Lin Xueyan explained with a smile, "Master, don't you know? The time flow in the Divine Refining Tower is vastly different from the outside world!"
"In reality, we all trained in there for a very, very long time before we managed to grasp the power of heavenly principles and break through to the Emperor stage!"
Hearing this, Ye Yun asked curiously,
"Then, how long have you actually been cultivating inside?"
Lin Xueyan pondered for a moment before replying with a smile,
"About three to four years?"
"..."
Ye Yun's eyelids twitched. My goodness, that was a rather significant time span.
Regarding the time flow, Ye Yun wasn't entirely sure.
After upgrading the Divine Refining Tower, he hadn't personally entered it. He assumed it was just an advanced version of the trial tower and not particularly interesting.
But he hadn't expected it to have such new capabilities!
However, the time Lin Xueyan mentioned was still quite short.
Chen Lingyi chimed in with a laugh,
"My sister and I cultivated for even longer! I was in there for eleven years, and my sister stayed for twelve!"
Bai Xiaoxiao also spoke up quietly,
"I was also cultivating in there for seven years."
Fang Zhiwei and the others had also spent roughly the same amount of time cultivating.
It was evident that the Sword Godhead Lin Xueyan used had been a tremendous help.
Bai Xiaoxiao's Godhead was slightly inferior, so her breakthrough took a comparatively longer time.
After listening to their accounts, Ye Yun felt a complex mix of emotions.
If he considered their psychological age, these young girls in front of him were now older than him.
However, when he thought of Xiao Ai's ten thousand years and Xiao Meng's several hundred years, he felt a sense of acceptance.
At this moment, Lin Xueyan stepped forward and asked with concern,
"By the way, Master, how are things outside? I heard from Xiao Ai that your situation wasn't very good."
Following that, Xiao Ai also quickly asked,
"Master, what's happening with the secret realm outside now?"
Seeing the worried expressions of the maidens, Ye Yun smiled faintly and said,
"Don't worry, the matters outside have been resolved. We are now on our way back to the Heavenly Domain."
"Ah? We're home already? What happened?"
Xiao Ai's eyes widened, clearly finding the transition rather abrupt for her Master.
Seeing this, Ye Yun could only briefly recount some of the recent events.
Upon learning that her Master had been ambushed outside and nearly suffered fundamental damage, Xiao Ai became extremely indignant.
"So many things happened, that Qian Yuan Domain and Feng Zhi Yu are too detestable!"
She declared with righteous anger, "When the time comes, I'll annihilate them all!"
It was typical of her to want to destroy her enemies with a single utterance.
Ye Yun chuckled wryly and said helplessly,
"You don't need to concern yourself with this. I will deal with them myself later!"
After all, it wasn't as if the disciples should take revenge for their master being bullied.
However, their willingness to do so warmed Ye Yun's heart and moved him deeply.
Alas, his disciples were truly growing up!
Just then, Fang Zhiwei appeared lost in thought.
Ye Yun noticed her unusual demeanor but hadn't yet grasped what might happen next.
"Zhiwei, what's wrong?"
Hearing him, Fang Zhiwei snapped back to attention, looked at him deeply, and said,
"Um, Master..."
"Hm?"
"According to what you said, Master, you're currently like an ordinary person without your cultivation?"
"Uh, for a short time, yes..."
But as soon as Ye Yun finished speaking, whether it was his imagination or not, he immediately felt that the gazes of his disciples around him had become peculiar.
Each of them looked as if they had heard incredibly good news, with a spark of excitement in their beautiful eyes.
Seeing this, Ye Yun felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding and couldn't help but ask,
"Is there a problem with you asking this?"
"Problem? No problem at all."
Fang Zhiwei looked at him with pure innocence, her expression akin to that of a chaste maiden.
But her increasingly mature and alluring figure was drawing ever closer to Ye Yun.
"Master, you haven't forgotten what you said before, have you?"
"Uh, what did I say?"
Ye Yun hadn't quite caught up, asking in confusion.
Then, Fang Zhiwei chuckled, "You said that you would be responsible for us!"
"Disciple thinks this is a good opportunity to compensate!"
These words resonated throughout the master-disciple space.
Bai Xiaoxiao nodded in agreement, saying,
"Exactly, Master, it's time for you to shoulder your responsibilities, isn't it?!"
At this point, even the eldest disciple, Lin Xueyan, cast a meaningful glance.
The current situation made Ye Yun feel like a lamb entering a tiger's den.
However, he managed to maintain his composure as much as possible and said calmly,
"This is still too early, isn't it? You are all still too young, we can talk about this later."
"Who says we're young!"
Fang Zhiwei proudly tilted her head, puffing out her chest.
"I've already grown up, in every aspect!"
This statement was once again met with the strong agreement of her senior and junior sisters!
If it were in the past, they were indeed teenagers.
But now it was different; their physical ages had basically exceeded twenty, and their mental ages had reached their thirties and forties!
Therefore, Chen Lingyi directly uttered a startling statement.
"That's right! At our age, if we were in the mortal world, we'd already have several children!
Perhaps influenced by her senior or junior sisters, Chen Lingyi, who was originally more reserved, had also undergone a subtle evolution!"