Cross was walking with Yun Che in the Heaven Basin Secret Realm, kinda bored. He was invisible and instructed Ling Jie to go and face as many beasts as he could, he told him that if he died he shouldn't tell anyone in the underworld he was his disciple as he would be embarrassed when he died.
Ling Jie didn't know how to feel about that, but listened anyway and left by himself.
Cross left a string on him and watched what he went through, while he said he didn't care of Ling Jie died, he would look bad if his disciple died wouldn't he? He still hadn't taught him any moves yet, mainly because he was still working on them himself and if he couldn't do them then wouldn't he be embarrassed?
Currently, though, Cross was walked next to Yun Che, completely invisible and undetected. Yun Che wanted to take care of some people and Jasmine sealed her strength so that she wouldn't get any poison flares any time soon. She fully trusted Cross to keep Yun Che alive if something happened.
Cross silently let out a breath of relief. If she died, wouldn't he lose a sparring partner? He spread out his Mantra while had explosive growth merging with his Divine sense and spanning hundreds of miles, he could still slightly predict a second or two in the future.
He saw Qingyue following Yun Che secretly with a nervous expression and sighed. He might not like her because of the Laws but her true personality without the frozen heart art was truly just a gentle and shy girl. He didn't feel bad about his actions before because she was truly too arrogant.
Only after he wiped the Frozen Heart Art out of existence did she truly blossom, it was quite refreshing to see her flustered over a boy.
Cross watched as two boys appeared, Yun Che ridiculed them and they attacked. They were in a disadvantageous position and a spear flew through the air towards Yun Che, who lifted one of the boys.
The spear exploded his body and Yun Che laughed. A man appeared and was beyond angry, he attacked Yun Che, but Qingyue stopped him before running away with Yun Che.
Cross watched before waving his hand the man turned around and pierced the other boy before Cross walked away to Yun Che's position.
Cross appeared next to the running Yun Che and Qingyue and looked at Qingyue in thought. The man chased after them and Yun Che said "Qingyue my wife, run! You don't have to die with me!" Qingyue shouted with tears in her eyes "I'm not leaving you!" Yun Che was shocked by her emotional turn around and thanked Cross in his heart.
Cross appeared in the air and said "That's enough old man... Why do so far just to die? Isn't it nice to be alive?" Yun Che relaxed and Qingyue dragged him away. The man said "Who are you!?"
Cross scratched his stubble and said "I think they call me the Reaper outside?" the man started trembling and Cross waved as he said "Well anyway, you can ask the people in hell for more information." the snow around him transformed into a giant beast, Cross couldn't tell what the beast was but it gave him a warm and familiar feeling, which confused him.
The unknown beast devoured the man and crushed his entire being into nothingness, spitting out a storage ring before dissipating. Cross caught the ring and looked at the space where the beast disappeared. Why did that beast feel like kin?
He floated after Yun Che swaying slightly and dropping. Flying was tougher than he thought!
He continued to think about the beast as he dropped from the sky in front of Yun Che, he flipped and landed on one knee with his fist in the ground. Yun Che and Qingyue clapped, Cross stood up and said "Whoever that was is dead. I took his ring but..." his face was awkward as he threw it over.
Yun Che was excited and looked inside before spitting out blood and shouting "He liked to dress as a woman?!" Qingyue opened her mouth in shock and Yun Che threw all the woman clothes out of the storage ring before keeping the rest with a sour face.
Cross chuckled and looked through at the clothes before his eyes lit up and he laughed. Yun Che said "Cross... you're not going to wear those are you?" Cross choked and smacked him saying "Do I look like I wear woman clothes?!"
Yun Che looked him up and down, he was wearing a black hoodie, white shirt, black shorts, and his signature pink fluffy bunny slippers as usual. Yun Che shook his head and Cross took out a vial with a yellow liquid inside.
Yun Che asked "What's that?" Cross grinned and said 'This my little brother is Felix Felicis! Go on! Ask me what it does!" Qingyue asked meekly "W-What does it do?" Cross smirked and said "As my former professor has said 'One sip and you should find that all of your endeavors succeed.. Well at least until the effects wear off.' Another name for this particular potion is Liquid Luck!"
Yun Che and Qingyue's eyes widened and Yun Che shouted "WHAT?!" Cross smirked and drank the potion before crushing the vial. He felt energized and indescribable, like everything would go his way! He used a version of Felix Felicis he made himself, he still had a space bottle of it and the one Slughorn gave him was in a memories cabinet in the castle. Still unused.
Cross smiled goofily and said "What are you guys waiting for? We have treasures to find!" he walked forward and tripped over a root, falling face first into the woman's clothes.
Yun Che laughed and said "Looks like it doesn't work! Hhahaha" the root uprooted and revealed 10 seven colored flowers, Cross picked his head up and was biting on a storage ring. Yun Che was beyond stunned, Jasmine watched from the Pearl and shouted "10 SEVEN COLORED PURITY FLOWERS?!"
Yun Che said "What are 7 colored purity roses?" Jasmine gulped and said "Only the second most heaven-defying elixir in the entire world! The first being the 9 colo-" 5 of the 10 seven colored purity flowers glowed and became 9 colored purity flowers.
Jasmine fell to her knees and mumbled in disbelief "9 colored Purity flowers...." Cross sat up and a pie fell from the sky, landing in his lap. Yun Che slapped himself, a literal pie falling from the sky! Cross smiled and said "Oh! A pie! Cool!" as he split it in four and shared with the others and Jasmine.
Cross looked in the ring to see a jade slip and nothing else. He took out the Jade and read it as he ate the pie, it was a Divine Forging Method called 'Void Forge'. Cross smiled and learned it instantly, the Jade slip crumbled away and Cross felt enlightened as he finished the pie.
He crossed his legs and his conversion kicked into overdrive while he used this opportunity to modify his movement technique with Star God's Broken shadow and his Teleportation ability. He had been working on it already, he named it 'Void Step'.
Basically, he would move so fast he would shatter space and teleport while also leaving afterimages when he stepped. The first level had 1 step, the second had 3, the third had 9, the fourth had 27, and the fifth had 81.
The fifth step was extremely complicated but if does correctly, he could theoretically take one step and up a million miles away.
The 'Steps' were different movements that would need to be done. It was an extremely complicated process, even making it, let alone performing it. The movement technique was meant to be graceful and ethereal, while also tyrannical and arrogant. It gave a weird sense of being perfect, as the two appearances were the complete opposite.
During the little bout of enlightenment, Cross managed to complete the first two levels and made it possible to be used without his teleportation ability or an affinity to space. He stood up and stepped before being a few feet away instantly, while an afterimage was left behind.
Jasmine ate the pie and went into a daze as she mumbled "Enlightenment.. Pie?" before executing Star God's Broken shadow, 7 shadows appeared. Yun Che directly broke through to the 3rd stage of the 'Great Way of the Buddha' and Qingyue broke though to Earth Profound Realm 5th level.
Cross picked the 10 flowers and gave a 9 colored one to Yun Che, a 7 colored one to Qingyue, and ate a 9 colored one himself. Cross trembled and his body exploded with 9 colored light. Black goo gushed out of his body and his Realm sky rocketed into the Emperor Realm 5th level.
Yun Che and Qingyue ate the flowers and their impurities gushed out before their cultivation took a massive leap. Yun Che went from Spirit 1st level to Spirit Peak, while Qingyue went to Earth Peak.
Cross smiled and waved, a bubble of water fell on top of them all and washed away all the black impurities before it became a hot wind bubble and dried them off.
Cross whistled happily as he continued walking, flickering with each step. The 7 other flowers were stored in his medicinal garden and told to be taken good care of. Cross found out that the garden had a time warp inside and any plant could grow inside, no matter what. He harvested the flower pods and planted them into the dirt while planting the root back in the dirt and leaving the other flowers inside to grow.
Cross felt amazing as they continued their adventure, Yun Che held Qingyue's hand and followed along, she blushed and smiled a bit as they continued.
After a bit of walking
Cross tripped again, Yun Che got excited and said "Maybe he'll trip right into a supreme god's inheritance!" Cross got up and smiled goofily "Nah, just a lotus." Qingyue looked over and gasped "That's.. an Emperor's Heart Lotus!" Yun Che said "Emperor's Heart lotus?" Qingyue explained how heaven defying it was and Yun Che was shocked before saying "Qingyue my wife. You must take this. You are at Earth Peak, if you eat this you might jump a whole realm!"
Qingyue looked at Yun Che with watery eyes and said "You... You want to give this priceless treasure to me? But.. You-" Yun Che said seriously "I am your husband! Obediently take it!" Qingyue's heart warmed and she blushed heavily as she slowly nodded, taking the lotus and storing it in her storage ring.
She looked at Yun Che and she lightly kissed his cheek before stepping away with a bashful expression. Yun Che froze in shock before rubbing his cheek with a small smile, looking at Qingyue, who smiled shyly and looked away.
Cross was lifted into the ground by a huge beast. Cross said "Woah! A Tyrant beast.." his eyes widened "A TYRANT BEAST! AHAHAHA I FOUND ONE!" the tyrant beast suddenly trembled and felt fear.
Well that was the last thing it would ever feel because Cross killed it with a single slap and dug out the core with a happy expression before cutting up the beast and taking the meat. Yun Che and Qingyue were startled, scared, and then stunned. Yun Che laughed to himself and said "I almost forgot about that..."
Qingyue gulped and said "He's pretty strong eh?" Yun Che nodded and Cross picked up a blue ball type thing, Yun Che eyes popped out of their sockets and fell to the ground in shock as he stared at the blue orb. It was an Evil God seed! How fucking good was this luck potion!?
Cross threw the orb into Yun Che's mouth and started roasting the Tyrant beast's meat while whistling. Qingyue looked at Cross and said "Was that a treasure?" Cross replied "Just a seed really. Want some meat?" Qingyue walked over and said "I thought you didn't like me?"
Cross said "I don't... Well I didn't. I erased your memories of the 'Frozen Heart Art', now you're a normal person with emotions and feelings. You won't try and become a robot anymore and your original temperament is gentle and shy not arrogant and cold. I don't understand the appeal, why seal away your emotions?"
Qingyue said "For power." Cross looked at her and sneered "Yeah and then what? When you're the most powerful person in the entire universe what will you do?" Qingyue shrugged cutely, Cross patted her head and said "Nothing. Because you have no desires. What's the point of being powerful at the cost of your humanity? You are basically a beast in human skin..."
Cross looked at her in a rare moment of gentleness as he said "Why do you cultivate, Qingyue?" Qingyue was a bit startled by the change in tone but still replied "To find my mother." Cross smiled softly and said "And when you found her but all your emotion and desires were gone, what was the point in finding her in the first place? You don't care about her anymore as you cut off everyone important to you, and you wouldn't care about her in the future because you have no desire to do so."
Qingyue stood frozen and Cross shook his head and put in the final nail in her coffin as he said "Wouldn't all your work be useless in the end? You would simply be a being striving for power without a goal, nothing matters, nobody to care for, going on until you die and are forgotten about by everyone."
Every word rang in Qingyue's mind like a gong and she was speechless. The way Cross put it really made her feel like an idiot. It also made her feel like everyone at Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace was an idiot too.
Cross ruffled her hair and sighed "Emotions are what make us human, sacrificing your emotions for power should be taboo. Without Emotions how are we different from mindless monsters?" He paused and added "Without a goal, we walk aimlessly. Without desires, we are lost along the way."
Qingyue's eyes brightened and she entered a dazed state, Yun Che walked over and whispered "Did you come up with that yourself?" Cross scratched his stubble and replied "I actually did. Even I'm surprised to be honest."
Yun Che chuckled silently, trying to not ruin Qingyue's enlightenment. As Cross continued to cook the Tyrant beast's meat with a smile on his face, happy he came up with something so profound.