Cross ate alone at the restaurant, eating away his depression. Thankfully, the man from the Wine God's Palace patted his ass and came to the 7th branch. Cross was drinking when Bai Shishi came over and said "Where's the girls?" Cross spat "Gone."
Bai Shishi was confused and said "What? Where did they g-" Cross shouted "I said they're gone! Are you fucking deaf!?" before grabbing his gourd and leaving the restaurant, leaving the disciples bewildered and Bai Shishi stunned.
Cross returned to his residence and locked his doors before laying on his back and staring at the ceiling, drinking as tears flowed from his eyes, dripping onto the floor.
Time passed like this
A month later
Cross sat on the ground, even those who knew him wouldn't recognize him now. He had long wild hair and a full beard with a moustache. There were several gourds on the ground around him and wine stains everywhere, the inside of the house was in ruins.
Cross was touching the air in front of him, he had been like this for a few days. He finally felt something and his eyes turned as he tore space in front of him directly. The door was kicked open and Cross looked over with a blank gaze. Bai Xiaole's mother said "Cross are y-" she saw him and was stunned.
Cross looked at Bai Shishi and the rest behind her, he didn't say anything and ripped open the space, a terrifying aura surged from the void and Cross dived into it, before disappearing as the space crack sealed itself.
Bai Shishi said incredulously "That was him?!" Qin Feng looked around and said "Seems like Big bro is going through somethings." Bai Xiaole said "But what happened?" Bai Xiaole's mother muttered "So the fluctuations I felt a month ago..." she sighed and said "There's nothing wrong, he'll be back... Hopefully."
~~
Long Chen was in the middle of a massive tribulation, fighting against a man who had muscles everywhere. This was the Beast Region, Beasts Ruled here.
Suddenly, the Thundercloud multiplied infinitely and Long Chen shouted "Lei Yun'er! Run to the edge! Fast!" the woman sprouted wings and brought her people far, far, away without hesitation.
A perfect white hand appeared, grabbing space itself and tearing the void. Everybody stopped and looked over. Cross walked out of the space crack and the mammoth man Long Chen was fighting sneered "Another Terran, get the fu-" Cross looked at him and punched out.
The man exploded into a blood mist, everybody went silent in shock. Cross looked at the rest and said "Ugly." before throwing a ball of black energy into the center. Everyone except Long Chen were sucked into the Blackhole and grinded into meat paste.
Cross snapped his fingers and floated over to Long Chen, the blackhole dissipated and Long Chen said in shock "Big Bro... What happened to you?" Cross' eyes turned red and he choked "They're all gone... The Dragon guy sent them away..."
Long Chen sighed and patted his shoulder with a smile saying "The only thing we can do is get stronger, right?" Cross nodded wordlessly, Long Chen shook his head, it seemed like it hit him harder than he expected.
Cross looked up and said "Just this weak?" Long Chen smiled saying "I was warming up." Cross shook his head and said "You play around too much." he flicked a black lotus into the sky and blew up the clouds, they reformed and countless lightning skeletons from the Ghost Ship swarmed the two.
Long Chen chuckled and said "Want to see how many times we can do it?" Cross replied "I need thunder anyway..." he looked down at the piece of bone in the ground and he muttered "I'll take the whole Secret Realm too I guess. Another feature for the Sect."
Long Chen laughed and sent fire Lotuses into the clouds blowing them up endlessly. Cross waved his hand and all the lightning skeletons exploded before being sucked in. Long Chen looked up and said "Eh.. That should be good."
Cross said "Wanna get risky?" Long Chen said "I'd rather live a long life." Cross said "Let's get risky." as he held out his palm a black lotus appeared before bursting into flames, it slowly grew and a terrifying aura emerged before the lotus started shrinking and turned into a Lotus pod.
Long Chen said "Wow. That's scary..." Cross lifted his hand gently and said "Lotuses bloom in the moonlight." the lotus pod flew into the clouds before blooming and eradicating the clouds completely.
Long Chen's jaw hung loose and red clouds started accumulating, the area was smaller but the aura was 100x more terrifying. Long Chen said "Nima! I'm definitely losing a dozen layers of skin today." Cross just stayed silent as Long Chen smashed the bone plate and Cross said "Want to come with me?"
A voice echoed "I have a choice?" Cross said "I won't use you like others, you'll be your own tribulation grounds in my Sect, I won't restrict your growth either." The voice said "Okay." Cross patted his abdomen and Long Chen was sent out as the entire real turned into a ball and entered the inner world.
Cross appeared outside with Long Chen and endless lightning fell on the city. Cross disappeared, robbing everywhere for treasures, herbs, ores, weapons, materials, books, crystals, pills, furnaces, everything he could find.
Soon enough the entire city was picked clean. Cross touched the ground and absorbed the spiritual vein under it, destroying the formation around the city. There was nothing left for him to take and he took out his scythe, starting his slaughter of the lightning creatures.
He looked over and saw Long Chen piercing a thunder spear through a woman's chest. She looked heartbroken and Long Chen kicked her flying. Cross saw that Long Chen sealed her into her Demon Core, only pretending to kill her. What a nice guy.
Cross slaughtered the beasts and lightning Ghost Spirits, a blackhole opened up on his back and absorbed Lightning crazily while the blood from various beasts was being absorbed as well. Cross literally killed everyone who got in his way, there were no scruples.
Lei Yun'er's Thunder Falcon clan escaped the city, vowing to take revenge on Long Chen, but he saw that they were faking their anger. Cross didn't really care, he was busy collecting lightning and blood.
The blood pool in the sect was absorbing blood like crazy and the stone turned gold as the blood was boiling, seemingly getting rid of the impurities and extracting the source and essence. Apparently the blood pool had the feature of purifying blood that went into it, when one sat in it, they would be able to purify their own bloodline and leave a little bit inside as a thanks.
Cross found this a bit suspicious. He was 90% sure he knew the secret of this blood pool. The blood in the pool didn't just purify but MIXED! Which meant it was able to fuse bloodlines, which meant it was able to replace bloodlines as well.
This required further inspection.
Long Chen was cutting people down with a new sword, he looked pretty happy with it. The sword looked happy too! Cross circled around and cut down beast after beast, shattering lightning skeletons with 2 swipes.
Cross looked over and pulled in the air, rings after rings flew over to him. He looked up and saw a golden chariot, he jumped into the air and slaughtered everyone in and around the chariot before stealing the chariot itself, forcing it into a smaller form, before storing it away.
Suddenly, a man appeared in the air and threw a spear at the Great Brahma statue, shattering it to pieces. Cross rushed into the Holy Pill Palace and killed everyone inside before stealing everything, techniques, pills, herbs, furnaces. Ahh... He made the right choice coming here today. He gets to advance to the Divine Lord Realm, and he gets a bunch of treasures. What a day.
A giant sword pierced towards Cross, who looked up and punched the sword, shattering it to pieces before it was absorbed into his body. The Thundercloud exploded into Thunder and Cross sucked in half, the other half going to Long Chen.
Both their breaths multiplied as they reached the Divine Lord Realm 1st Level. Cross let out a breath and looked at the beasts coming at him and Long Chen. The Lightning Tower inside the Inner World had absorbed some Thunder as well and became even better than before, now there were levels!
Cross appeared over the statue of the Great Brahma, he placed his hand on the head and sucked out all the power of faith, spinning it into his own power as the shattered statue became dust. He looked over at the beasts and Long Chen suddenly grabbed Cross and a light curtain appeared as Long Chen said "I'm the dean of Lingxiao Academy's 7th Branch! Come find me if you want revenge!" before they both disappeared, leaving ruins of the city that was once standing there.
Not to mention, there was nothing salvageable. Even the Hall master and Vice hall masters of the Holy Pill Palace were killed and robbed. There was nothing left after Cross stole everything from them, he even copied the skills of all the beasts he looked at, hundreds of techniques poured into the sect and filling up the shelves but it was still only a drop in the bucket.
The duo reappeared in a desert and they went inside the Inner World to see their spoils. Long Chen took a single herb from each of the herbs he didn't have in his space before going into the alchemy building, Cross didn't care about what he took. They were brothers regardless, even if it was a priceless treasure, he would give it to him.
Long Chen took the Sky and Night furnace that the Hall Master had before asking "Big Brother, what about the books?" Cross replied "They can be duplicated, the Academy can have them too. Pick which ones you want and I'll duplicate them, it's not a problem at all."
Long Chen nodded and picked out books, Cross duplicated them all and put them into a storage ring, handing it over to Long Chen along with half the Crystals he had. He had so many crystals, handing half over was literally nothing.
He appreciated that the Castle was so neat and organized everything right away. He had to say, the Scholar made a fantastic Sect. They left the Inner World and flew towards the Tianlan region. After going through a few transmission arrays they arrived at a sea of Sea Demons, frantically attacking the city they went to.
Apparently, Sea Demons attacked the school.
Long Chen threw a flame Lotus and blew up countless Sea Demons before throwing a sword to an old man and leaving the area. They appeared at Lingxiao Academy and slaughtered Sea Demons along the way, they arrived at the school and saw Tianlei! He laughed and said "Haha! I knew I was right!"
Long Chen smiled and Cross remained stoic, expressing no emotion. They both said in unison "Big Brother Lei." Tianlei smiled and said "The Dean wants to see you, go quickly." Cross passed Tianlei and tapped on his forehead before flying away.
Tianlei was stunned and trembled in excitement at the completed Ancient Thunder Art Cross just gave him.
The duo saw the old man, Bai Leitang looked at Long Chen and Cross before saying "Not good?" Cross remained silent and Long Chen smiled "Not bad." Long Chen and Bai Leitang talked for a while before Long Chen and Cross left.
They appeared at the 7th branch and Long Chen was immediately hugged by Bai Shishi. Cross walked to the array and looked outside to see countless demons outside. He tore a crack in the formation and walked outside.
The disciples shouted in fear and a giant demon slapped at Cross.
Cross looked up before flicking his finger, the demon exploded into blood mist. The disciples froze and Long Chen chuckled saying "Maybe he's much more dangerous now..." Bai Shishi asked quietly "Do you know why-"
She was interrupted by a massive 'BOOM' the entire formation shook and there were body parts everywhere outside. Cross looked at the corpses before flipping his palm, a little lotus appeared and grew before condensing.
Long Chen threw out countless Fairy Crystals and said "I would fortify the defenses quickly if I were you." they got over their shock and started feeding the Crystals into the formation.
Cross gently pushed the lotus pod into the group of beasts before walking back though the formation. The Lotus bloomed and an earth shattering explosion occurred behind him as he walked away into the Academy, going to his residence without a word.
The countless beasts in front of the school as well as the area entirely, disappeared. There was nothing except a hole and black flames. Everyone swallowed their saliva and Long Chen smiled before saying "Come, let's go through the tribulation." as he left.
Cross sat in his residence and a black flame appeared on his hand. His eyes turned and the black flame was devouring the black flame from his eyes, becoming even more powerful as the Void flame flowed into his eyes and across his entire body.
He exhaled a mouthful of air and stood up, going to a wall and tapping a part. The wall slid over and dozens of gourds appeared on shelves, he took one and started drinking as he walked away. The wall slid back into place behind him and he walked out of the residence, going to where Long Chen was.
He suddenly shook as his vision changed.