Heaven and Earth Society

"Why… are you… not saying anything?" Tang Waner finally mustered the courage to break the silence, though she didn't have the courage to turn around.

"Still savoring the moment," Long Chen said involuntarily. However, as soon as he said it, he regretted it and wanted to slap his own face.

"You…" Tang Waner glared at Long Chen, tears streaming down her face. She felt that Long Chen was mocking her.

"Alright, I didn't mean to make fun of you. Actually, everyone has inner suffering. At the very least, you had a complete childhood," Long Chen said softly.

Seeing that when Long Chen spoke, his gaze revealed a trace of lament and also a trace of confusion, it couldn't help but make Tang Waner's heart tremble.

Such emotions rarely appeared on Long Chen's face. Tang Waner gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and said softly, "Long Chen, can I hear about your past?"

"No," Long Chen shook his head and said.

"Stingy! I told you mine, so you must tell me yours, otherwise I'm at a disadvantage," Tang Waner said angrily.

Long Chen rolled his eyes. "It's not like I asked you to tell me."

"That doesn't matter. You heard it anyway, so you have to tell me." Tang Waner glared at Long Chen, adopting a posture that suggested she wouldn't let him leave if he didn't speak.

Long Chen smiled slightly, feeling a warmth in his heart. He looked at Tang Waner and said, "Thank you."

Being stared at so gently by Long Chen, Tang Waner couldn't help but feel her heart rate accelerate. She didn't dare to look into Long Chen's eyes and said in a low voice, "What are you thanking me for?"

"Thank you for treating me as a friend. You asked because you wanted to understand me. I used to have some friends by my side, but I abandoned them."

Long Chen said in a low, heavy voice. The figures of Shi Feng, Fatty, Monkey, and others appeared in his mind. That drunken night before he left would likely never happen again.

"Why did you abandon them?" Tang Waner asked, puzzled.

"Let's walk and talk."

Long Chen and Tang Waner walked slowly. He said softly, "Your childhood was complete, but my childhood was only half…"

Long Chen recounted everything he had encountered in his youth. Perhaps he had been suppressing it for too long and needed to release it. He told her about all the bullying, humiliation, and the multiple times he had escaped death, though he kept the memories of the Pill Emperor hidden.

Tang Waner hadn't expected Long Chen to have experienced so much suffering. No wonder she always felt his wisdom was far superior to others.

It was all forced upon him. If Long Chen didn't possess wisdom that surpassed ordinary people, he would likely have long since died under the schemes of others.

Compared to Long Chen, she was simply too fortunate. Recounting her own misfortunes in front of Long Chen made her feel a bit ashamed.

It was like an emperor complaining to a beggar that the meat cooked by the imperial chef wasn't delicious or the desserts weren't exquisite enough.

"Long Chen, having experienced so much, don't you feel aggrieved?" Tang Waner asked softly.

"Of course I feel aggrieved, but I can't find a suitable shoulder to have a good cry on." As he spoke, Long Chen's eyes began to glance toward Tang Waner's fragrant shoulders.

Tang Waner was startled and hurriedly stepped back, saying with a vigilant expression, "Don't you dare try anything."

"How is that trying anything? You were just hugging me and crying a moment ago. Surely it should be my turn now, right?" Long Chen said with some dissatisfaction.

Tang Waner's face turned red immediately, and she stammered, "That's not the same; I'm a girl."

Long Chen muttered "Stingy," then walked over to a clean stone chair and sat down, looking into the distance, not knowing what he was thinking about.

Seeing that Long Chen didn't forcefully "complain," Tang Waner breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Long Chen dazed, she also walked over and sat down beside him.

"After arriving at the Branch, what are your plans?" Tang Waner asked.

"Eat well, drink well, have fun, and be a happy and powerful new bastard with four virtues," Long Chen laughed.

"Hateful! I'm talking to you about serious matters," Tang Waner chided. "Just as you said, our current comfort is temporary, and next, cruel competition will begin again."

"What kind of competition?" Long Chen asked, his heart stirring.

"I don't know yet. I heard that every competition is different, but it's always very intense. We need to be prepared, otherwise, we won't be able to secure more resources, and our overall strength will likely fall far behind other factions," Tang Waner said with some worry.

"No way. With the two of us here, we can say that among the five major factions, we are the strongest. How could we fall behind?" Long Chen asked, puzzled.

Tang Waner said with a complicated expression, "Although I don't know why you are so strong, I guess it must be related to the Cultivation Technique you Cultivate. The stronger the Cultivation Technique, the slower the advancement speed. I've known you for so long, and you actually still haven't broken through to the Blood Condensation Late Stage. This explains everything."

"We are basically all at the Peak of Blood Condensation. We are just waiting for the assessment rewards to be issued. After using the Myriad Beast Essence Blood to perform one last blood condensation, we can directly promote to the Tendon Transformation Stage. At that time, your advantage will no longer exist."

Only then did Long Chen remember that this was indeed a problem. Right now, he could reign supreme among this group of Geniuses.

However, once they entered the Tendon Transformation Stage, let alone those monster Geniuses, even the combat power of ordinary Inner Sect Disciples wouldn't be much worse than his.

"Furthermore, the new generation of factions in the Branch isn't limited to just five," Tang Waner said with some worry.

"Hmm?" Long Chen couldn't help but be stunned.

"The Xuantian Branch is different from other Sects. They select Disciples based on regions. They are divided into East, West, South, North, and Central regions. We are in the Central Region. I don't know how many core-level Disciples will be in the other four regions, so the competition will be exceptionally intense," Tang Waner explained.

This time, Long Chen was truly shocked. The original assessment of over thirty thousand people was already shocking. He didn't expect that such a scale was happening in five places simultaneously. The sphere of influence of the Xuantian Branch was simply too vast.

"So Long Chen, you need to hurry up and Cultivate, otherwise your advantage will soon be submerged. Fortunately, Sister Zhiqiu and I have simultaneously awakened our Ancestral Runes, and our Bloodline Power has begun to awaken. The rune power within our Bloodlines will become increasingly powerful. Even Lei Qianshang and the others are no longer our opponents, but if too many of them join forces, we will still be isolated and helpless, and the situation is not optimistic," Tang Waner said.

Long Chen groaned inwardly. He also wanted to increase his Cultivation rapidly, but as his Cultivation improved and his Physical Body became stronger, the speed of leveling up became slower and slower.

Now that over a month had passed, his blood essence still hadn't reached saturation, making it impossible to perform the next purification and impossible to enter the seventh heaven of Blood Condensation.

At the same time, he remembered the difficulty he faced when breaking through from the Qi Gathering stage to the Blood Condensation stage. Now that he had reached the Middle Stage of Blood Condensation, the speed had slowed down again.

Long Chen had a premonition that the difficulty of wanting to break through to the Tendon Transformation Stage would likely not be much less than when breaking through from the Qi Gathering stage to the Blood Condensation stage.

But this was a helpless matter. As for the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, he only understood the tip of the iceberg so far and didn't know how to Cultivate it quickly.

According to Long Chen's estimation, if he opened the second star—the Yuheng Star—the two stars moving together would accelerate his Cultivation efficiency. However, to condense the Yuheng Star, he needed to refine Yuheng Pills, and for the Yuheng Pills, so many medicinal Materials hadn't been found yet. He could only take it one step at a time.

However, Long Chen wasn't particularly worried because he still had a trump card, which was the Fire Lizard Beast's core that he had obtained on the road.

As long as he absorbed the Fire Lizard Beast's core, he could possess the existence ranked ninety-seventh on the Beast Fire Ranking. If Long Chen could fully master the Beast Fire, relying on his powerful Soul strength and the Fire Lizard Beast Fire, his combat power would surge by another large margin.

Now, the matter of wanting to see Chu Yao could only be suppressed for the time being; increasing his strength was more important. Right now, there were two imminent matters before Long Chen.

One was to collect the Materials to absorb the core. This was relatively simple; he believed those Materials could definitely be collected within the Branch.

And the other was to collect the medicinal herbs on the Yuheng Pill Formula. This difficulty would likely be quite high, but it was equally imperative. He would collect as much as he could.

However, there was another problem that made Long Chen want to go crazy: condensing the Yuheng Star would definitely require a large amount of Yuheng Pills. One or two pills were definitely a drop in the bucket and couldn't complete the condensation at all. Thinking back to when he condensed the Fengfu Star, which consumed over a thousand Fengfu Pills, he knew that the number of Yuheng Pills required to condense the Yuheng Star would be a number that could scare people to death.

"You don't need to worry too much. For now, Sister Zhiqiu and I can hold things down here, so there won't be any problems. You shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself," Tang Waner advised, seeing Long Chen lost in thought and silent.

At the same time, Tang Waner felt a bit embarrassed. As the leader of the faction, she was actually offloading the pressure onto her subordinate; this really had the suspicion of shirking responsibility. Originally, this heavy burden should have been carried by her, but she had an indescribable reliance on Long Chen, so she hoped even more that Long Chen could help her.

"By the way, Long Chen, what should we name our faction?" Tang Waner deliberately changed the subject.

"How about Peerless Tang Sect?" Long Chen said.

"No, that name is too arrogant, and 'Tang Sect' makes it feel like it all belongs to my family. Change it," Tang Waner shook her head, obviously not liking the ostentatious name.

"How about Black Dragon Society?" Long Chen suggested another name.

"No good. It feels like a group of ruffians and hooligans, not high-class enough," Tang Waner refused again.

"Then let's call it Peerless Tang Sect Black Dragon Society," Long Chen's eyes lit up.

"Bastard, this is a serious matter. Take it seriously!"

Tang Waner said angrily. She had just been worried about his pressure, but it seemed she was worrying about nothing; this bastard didn't even know what pressure was.

After repeated discussions between the two, before it got dark, they finally thought of an imposing and resounding name—Heaven and Earth Society. Tang Waner became the Chief Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society.

No one knew that from this day on, the Heaven and Earth Society would become a name in the Xuantian Branch that would be recorded in history forever.