Cross appeared in a black forest and his killing intent seeped into the woods. He stopped and boomed "ROLL OUT FOR THIS KING!" the trees in front of him exploded into wood chips as his voice traveled into the depth of the forest, several Elves with pitch black skin appeared in the space and coughed out blood before falling to the ground and breathing heavy.
Cross looked at them and his eyes were burning with flames. He grabbed one of them and held him up by his neck as he said "Go get whichever moron is leading you all. NOW!" before throwing him through the air into the depths.
A few minutes later
An old woman appeared with a wooden staff, Cross sneered and said "Don't put on your weak appearance, this King doesn't like it. You have 3 seconds to greet me respectfully, or I will kill you. 3..." The old woman said nothing and Cross said "2." as endless killing intent shot into the skies as pressured all the Elves.
A Gold and Black Crown appeared over Cross' head as he said "1." the old woman's eyes bulged out seeing the crown and she turned into a middle aged woman with beautiful features before kneeling on the ground in fear.
Cross looked at the woman on the ground and said "You know the Great Brahma is attacking the Tree, right? Despite knowing this, you support his forces?" the woman said hatefully "What Tree? We've been cast away!"
Cross started laughing and sneered "Stupid woman, if you were really cast away by the Tree do you think you would be alive?" he crouched down and held the woman's chin as he continued "Silly girl, look at your King." the woman looked up and Cross gave her a kind smile as he said "The Tree never abandons her children, no matter the circumstance."
He swept her hair from her face and continued with a smile "The Tree sent you away because it knew you were in danger. How many Elves have I seen that are separated from the Tree? Don't worry, I will bring you back."
He stood up and held out his hand as he said "This King is going to make a reformation, no longer will we be bullied by other forces. Brahma? Ptui! Who the fuck is he?" Cross pointed to the sky and looked at the woman as he said "Even the Heavens won't be able to stop me! This time, for the first time, we elves are going to fight back! Every single waste of life that had a hand in attacking the Tree will suffer extermination of their entire bloodline!"
A tyrannical and domineering aura erupted from his body, dazing the woman, who was kneeling and looking up at him. She whispered "Is it true? Does 'Mother' still care about us?" as tears fell from her eyes.
Cross reached out his hand and said "Yes. This King needs you, will you become my right hand and help me change the fate of our Elf clan?" the woman looked at his hand and wiped her eyes before taking his hand and saying "Saya and the rest of the Dark Elves are willing to serve, your Highness."
Cross pulled her up and kissed her forehead saying "From this moment on, you shall be my Shadow Killers and my right hand." Saya kneeled on one knee and made a fist over her heart. Cross stroked her hair softly as he said "Saya, get the rest and bring them to me. How long will it take?"
Saya said immediately "A day at the most." Cross nodded and said "Pack up all you things, bring everything you can with you. I will give you a new place to live. Meet be at the Tree in the Huayan Company, the one where one of you tried to assassinate my brother." one of the Elves started sweating like crazy, a few of them looked at him with schadenfreude in their eyes.
Cross smiled and stepped into the void, disappearing instantly, stunning all the Dark Elves that were supposed to be the best assassins in the Elf clan. A young man said "Leader... Are you sure about this?" Saya stood up and said "100% This man... he disdains to lie. Perhaps all these years we were fooled."
The rest of the Elves were immediately angry and Saya narrowed her eyes as she said "Plus, I can smell the blood from his soul. This new King... He's probably killed more people than I've seen in my life." the Young man was stunned and said "How's that even possible?!"
Saya replied "A person like this... If I had told him I serve the Brahma he would've killed us all." the young man panicked and said "Leader, you-!" Saya said coldly "I do not! What I said was, one wrong word and he would've killed us all! Nonsense! That bastard fooled us all these years, telling us Mother abandoned us! If I don't tear out a chunk of his flesh I won't be able to die in peace!"
Terrifying killing intent came out from her and her eyes were so angry that they were almost spitting out fire. The young man whispered to her "Leader... The spies..." Saya squinted and said "Take them with us. I don't know whether he will appreciate me testing him, but if he disappoints me, even if I have to die so you can all escape, I will do it."
The young man was spooked and Saya said coldly "What are you waiting for? Go! Gather everyone and pack up. Have a group go notify the rest, tell them to cancel all operations and return immediately!" the young man bowed and said "Yes, my Queen."
Saya said "Don't call me that anymore. The sky has changed, a new King was born, I am no longer the Queen." The young man opened his mouth before closing it and disappearing, Saya looked out into the distance and muttered "I really hope you don't disappoint me..."
Her gaze pierced the void and Cross turned his head, their eyes locked and Cross smirked before saying "Hopefully, the strength you hid from me wasn't all of it." Saya's pupils shrank and Cross sneered before her gaze was shattered and he disappeared.
Cross went back to the Huayan Company and sat under the tree. Long Chen appeared and said "Done?" Cross said "Soon. 1st level?" Long Chen replied "Broke through just now. Was thinking on going to collect some protection fees from the Longteng Company."
Cross laughed and said "Wait a bit, you're not going to have to worry about the Dark Elves anymore. Give me a day or two." Long Chen grinned and said "No problem." Cross smiled and a golden phoenix flew over before nestling into Cross' lap.
He smiled warmly and stroked Xue'er's feathers as he refined his flesh once more. The Dragon eggs in his body had transformed into Black and Gold Flower Dragons. They were everywhere! Swimming around and sucking in power from the Heavens for Cross to use.
Effectively, instead of borrowing the power of the Heavens, he was stealing it from them. Forcefully ripping it to use for himself. The Hierarch Realm was pretty tough because of this, basically, when a person gets into the Hierarch Realm they condense their 3 flowers from their bones, root, and blood.
But what happens with these flowers is that they give the person the ability to use Heaven's power for their own. Basically they're loaning the power and when they die the power is taken back by the Heavens. The problem is if you want to fight against 'Celestial Reverends', which is what the 3 flower Hierarchs are called, without special means like Cross' Void Qi or Long Chen's Heaven Splitting Sword Strike, it's basically impossible.
Guo Ran can pierce the Heaven's barrier because the arrows he uses are made from the rust from the Ghost ship, but for normal people they can't get this. They also don't have Void Qi or Long Chen's moves, so against the energy from Heaven, they're powerless. This makes Celestial Reverends extremely powerful, not just because they're strong, but because most people can't even touch the corner of their clothes.
Luckily, Cross doesn't have this problem! His Qi is, at it's most basic form, Devour. This means that in face of the Heaven's energy, his Qi will 'eat' it like cookies. Which makes him a super powerful person. That's also the reason, Cross is targeted by the Heavens themselves. Because of the nature of his Qi, he poses a massive threat to the Heavens and they were a living breathing thing, maybe they had no emotions and couldn't speak but they would definitely fight back if someone wanted to kill them.
Anyway, the Flower Dragons were ripping power from the Heavens and imbuing Cross with it. It only made him stronger so really who cares where it's from?
Cross sat under the tree with his body constantly being refined and he stayed there for a while.
A day later
Cross was sitting peacefully, when millions of shadows appeared. He looked at the shadows and the Dragon Blood Warriors appeared, ready for a fight. Saya appeared and kneeled on one knee saying "This is everyone." Cross stroked Xue'er's feathers as he said "Absolutely everyone?" Saya nodded and Cross looked at the millions of elves.
His eyes glowed and the space was locked, Cross flipped his palm and black lotuses flew from his palm. More than a hundred thousand lotuses flew out and each one burned an elf to ashes, all their rings and belongings flew to Cross before disappearing as he said "Now that the spies are taken care of, I have a mission for you."
Saya didn't even flinch as hundreds of thousands of Elves died and she said "Yes?" Cross said "Every Holy pill hall, I want you to kill everyone inside and rob everything they own. The herbs, pills, cauldrons, treasures, nails, floorboards, doors, windows, shelves, etc."
He said "Guo Ran, give me a stealth boat." Guo Ran handed him a stealth boat and Cross gave it to Saya saying "I don't care about loss of life, the strongest make it out alive and become the Elites of the Shadow Killers that I will train personally, the rest of you will die. It's time to weed out the strong from the weak. I don't want a single Holy Pill Hall in the entire Corruption Filled Heaven to exist, understand?"
Saya said respectfully "I understand." Cross condensed countless blackhole spheres and said "For every Brahma statue, place one of these on the head. When you're done, come back to me with the survivors and your mission will be over. Go." Saya collected the blackhole spheres and all the Elves disappeared.
Long Chen grinned and said "We're making a big move?" Cross smiled and said "It's just the start. If Brahma isn't wiped from the world, I won't stop." long Chen laughed and said "Good! Let's go, it's time for us to make a move as well."
Cross smiled and moved Xue'er to his head. She chirped and Cross said "What a cutie." as the group left the Huayan Company, going to the Longteng Company with savage expressions. Long Chen walked into the building and said loudly "Long Chen, coming to collect this month's protection fees!" His voice echoed in the building and the rest laughed.