Zhou Ye and the Eight were now walking, it was a long journey. (The Eight is the Seven + Yi Jun)

Zhou Ye didn't seem to be a tiny bit tired, however, the eight seemed exhausted....

About three to four hours passed, Zhou Ye thought to himself, "It's dark...."

One of the seven said to Zhou Ye, "Brother Zhou, it's dark, let us sleep...."

Zhou Ye replied, "We've had enough rest....."

Yi Jun jokingly rebuked him by saying, "Brother Zhou, we aren't like you! You should simply stop showing off! It's just unfair you're bullying us!". 

The other seven then started to say similar things, Zhou Ye laughed as did the Eight. 

However, Zhou Ye simply said, "Ok that's enough, let's keep going". 

At this time, the Eight simply fell down, Yi Jun was the first to fall down. 

Zhou Ye's stomach grumbled, he wondered how the Eight's stomachs had yet to grumble....

He went to Yi Jun and slowly searched his clothes. 

Extremely slowly and quietly he did this, suddenly he had a thought, he was quite nauseous, it was a simple memory that he had from Tang Xuan's past, he tried to forget it, but it was quite hard....

He gently moved part of the vest and then the robe, and he saw a familiar object.....

It was bread!

He muttered to himself, "Keeping the food for yourself... I even gave you the Vest...."

Zhou Ye slowly pulled it out, but at that time, it tickled Yi Jun.

Yi Jun started to make some strange noises, Zhou Ye then felt nauseous, a memory came back to him....

But he simply ignored it for the sake of the bread. 

Yi Jun started to laugh a bit and Zhou Ye was extremely careful not to apply too much force. 

He decided to go just barely a single centimeter above Yi Jun's body and pull the bread from there.

At this time, one of the seven woke up, this one was Du Chun. He was a simple boy, he had a common name as well, within his Family were many others with a similar name.

This was expected of the biggest Family whose population was about one-quarter of the entire City's full population. 

He saw what was happening to Yi Jun by Zhou Ye and it reminded him of something that he saw about his Uncle, he muttered, "The profound people are always eccentric". (Profound means strong in this case)

Saying this, he fainted. 

Zhou Ye then had the bread taken out and walked a bit before he began to eat it. 

He hadn't eaten for about a day or so, he was naturally hungry, though he had received Heaven's Nourishment due to Celestial Origin, he would still feel hungry, whilst he wouldn't die for even several weeks, he would still get hungry....

Zhou Ye stood watch of everyone as he ate the bread, after a minute or so, whilst he didn't feel sleepy, he was still tired...

About three or so hours passed, Zhou Ye was meditating, he did so as he got bored, he decided to explore the memories of Tang Xuan, it was without a doubt a strange experience....

Every time he did so, he felt himself becoming more and more like Tang Xuan, but before he did so, he remembered who he truly was. 

Another hour passed and Zhou Ye stopped meditating, he looked to the Eight and woke them all up, starting with Yi Jun who he hit his back with. 

They then began to resume their journey. 

After half an hour or so, they saw a large hill, in truth, it wasn't that big, there were far larger hills, it was simply that Zhou Ye and the others had yet to see a giant hill...

The large hill was only called a small hill....

As they came closer to the large hill, a middle aged man with a goatee appeared, he with a smile asked, "Children, where are your Horses and Carriage?".

Yi Jun replied with, "Elder, our horse was poisoned by Greendust, we don't know who did it, as for our carriage, we were attacked by mercenaries, thankfully we had Brother Zhou with us."

The middle aged man looked to the group and saw that everyone except Zhou Ye moved back. 

He was about the say something until he saw something within Zhou Ye's hand.

It was the Inner Sect Medallion, the middle aged man then coughed and said, "Alright, it seems you speak the truth, you need not worry about the horse or carriage". 

They then began to slowly go up the hill, it wasn't actually as big as it looked from a distance, in about ten minutes they made it up.

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At the top, they could see the clouds and they saw that the Sect was actually above the clouds!

Legend had it, this was due to the Lightning Hall Ancestor using his powers to keep it afloat, others stated that it was through a combination of experts and one even was that the clouds were being lifted up by an invisible giant. 

Zhou Ye saw five gates, they were the Outer Sect Disciple Gate, Inner, Conclave (Core), True and Elder Gate. 

He showed his Inner Sect Medallion and entered the Inner Gate, as he did, he could feel powerful auras all around him, one of the aura's had an accompanying voice, "Looks like we have a new addition"

Another voice came with

"This is the third this year, we have about twenty-seven new Outer Disciples though...."

As did another...

"What are Outer Disciples worth?"

And another...

The voices spoke to each other, they seemed to hold great power. 

Suddenly, a young man appeared, in his early twenties, he seemed to hold incredible strength, every part of his aura seemed to be vibrating and make one feel weak when near him. 

He said in a majestic voice, "This one is Kong Hu, young brother, do you wish to join my Branch?". 

Zhou Ye replied with, "What is a branch?". 

Kong Hu began to speak once more, however, someone tried to interrupt him, "Don't trust Kong...."

"Silence!". Kong Hu's voice was powerful and loud, the one that tried to interrupt him immediately ran away. 

Kong Hu smiled and said, "My branch name is the Celestial Lightning Branch, do you wish to join". 

Zhou Ye hearing the name, "Celestial" felt that this was the cycle of Karma which brought him to join perhaps or this man was simply a well-intentioned man. 

He replied happily, "I do wish to join". 

Kong Hu became jovial and started to jump, "He grabbed the hands of Zhou Ye and took him away, in a moments time, they were at a small hall.

There was a long line to what it said, "Branch Joining". 

Zhou Ye looked at this line and sighed, as did Kong Hu at the same time that said, "Little Brother, you remind me of myself a bit."

Kong Hu's face didn't sound so majestic as it did before, but Zhou Ye hardly noticed it.

Immediately he breathed in and majestically said, "Recede.... Now!".

Suddenly the line scattered. Everyone in the line could feel themselves being forced to move.

At the front of the line was even a Conclave Disciple that looked to Kong Hu and said, "Senior Brother Kong, aren't you abusing your power a bit too much?".

Kong Hu then replied, "Abuse? You're the Core Disciple, I'm only an Inner Disciple, I heard that your Elder Brother is even a True Disciple, tell him that I congratulate him for his success."

The Conclave Disciple replied, "Senior Brother Kong, please do not bring my Elder Brother into this..."

Kong Hu laughed and said, "Move aside."

The Conclave Disciple quickly moved away. 

Still grabbing onto Zhou Ye he appeared in front of a desk, the desk suddenly became shrouded with thick Qi. 

Kong Hu looked surprised and said, "Look's like Elder Brother Hao has become a Prominent Soul, I congratulate you..."

The thick Qi disappeared and revealed a middle aged man, he then replied, "Looks like you've seen through me, well, what is it today? Huh? Who is this child?". 

Kong Hu replied, "Someone that decided to join my Branch!". 

The middle aged man then said, "Your Branch has to enter the Lightning Shadow Zone once a week, even Emergents may not survive, but you want to send a Spirit Acolyte?". 

Kong Hu smiled and said, "Don't worry about something as trivial as that...."

The middle aged man sighed and then put a stamp on what seemed to be Zhou Ye's identification papers...

Zhou Ye then felt himself being dragged away again, at this time, he found himself in a forest. 

He saw a small house, on it said, "Celestial Lightning Branch". 

He knocked on it, and there was no response, he then entered it. 

Suddenly a young boy that seemed to be about fourteen tried to attack him, Zhou Ye subconsciously activated "Imperial Movements". (Chapter 7 Reference)

The young boy attacked with a dagger, but Zhou Ye managed to easily dodge each attack, but, he was unable to parry or block it as he was far too weak...

There was definitely Qi on the dagger, which meant that this young boy was likely a Spirit Foundation Master of the Late Foundation.

The young boy then stopped, as did Zhou Ye. 

A smile was present as was a strange look, he looked to Zhou Ye and said, "Your the second to dodge all my attacks...."

Zhou Ye took another step, then an arrow came towards him, he just managed to dodge it and as he did, he heard a woman's voice in the background laughing.

The young boy looked up in the small house and said, "Sister Wen, please stop doing it, the house is small, we don't have enough space to do things like this..."

The woman's voice responded with, "How could I Wen Lian, be restricted by this tiny house? Brother Geng, thinks the same right? Don't you Bai'er?". 

The young boy then looked to Zhou Ye and said, 'My name is Geng Bai, up there is my blood Sister Wen Lian."

Zhou Ye found it a bit weird for blood siblings to have different surnames, but he chose to not say anything.

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Inside a room at Lightning Hall, were two people. 

One was Kong Hu, he wore a robe that barely seemed to fit him, it was a plain robe, just blue in color. His face wasn't handsome, it definitely looked a bit ugly, but it was more of being rugged and one that looks like that he went through several battles.

In front of him was a youth in a Silver Robe embroidered with symbols of azure lightning. The youth, however, was handsome and even a look of worry being present, couldn't hide it.

The youth was Yan Mo, as he was conversing with Kong Hu, "Kong Hu, I heard you made a Spirit Acolyte join your Branch!". 

Kong Hu gave an awkward face and replied, "Brother Yan, aren't we half-brothers? Sure I was born about thirty years after..... But we still are-"

Before Kong Hu could finish his sentence, it was interrupted by Yan Mo, "Kong Hu, don't try to dodge the question, the Lightning Shadow Zone is a place your Branch must go, if you didn't make the Ancestor so angry, he wouldn't have made your branch go!". 

Kong Hu simply replied with, "That old fart? Isn't he meditating in his cave? He's just hiding from me, just wait, until I catch up to him, he knows that it'll be soon."

Kong Hu was currently an Emergent of the Early Stage. But his power was already enough to not only contest, but also defeat Prominent Souls of the Late Emergence.

Not even the current Ancestor when he was at the Middle Stage of Emergence was able to defeat those of the Late Emergence.

Kong Hu was the greatest genius of the Lightning Hall, he was the child of his Mother who died giving birth to Yan Mo, because of this, he felt a sense of clinging to Yan Mo. 

"Kong Hu, this isn't any matter, not even the Current Sect Master can overrule the law. Do you THINK the Lightning Shadow Zone is any ordinary place? Legend has it, before our split with the Main Sect when our Sect Master was a Transition Expert, even he wouldn't dare to go there"

Yan Mo's words were harsh but true. 

Kong Hu replied, "Brother Yan, you're too young, you don't understand the truth about the Lightning Shadow Zone, haven't you ever wondered why our Chosen always return alive from it? But our Peak Emergent Elders near their death never come back? Have our Peak Emergent Elders ever crossed a gap? No, only our Ancestor could do so, not even the Sect Head!".

"Only those capable of killing a minor stage above them, ever come back, those that can't, they rarely ever come back, don't you see the pattern?". 

Yan Mo took a second to think, and then realized something, "Do you think that the new addition to your branch will be able to come back?". 

Kong Hu nodded and said, "Of course."