On the patio next to the crystalline lake, the frazzled-hair old man continued to lounge about while being fed fruit by beautiful women. His relaxed and content expression suddenly changed slightly as he sat upright and focused for a moment.
The beautiful women next to him vanished into thin air, as they were revealed to be merely constructs of a formation.
"Hmm, those brats have finally been expelled from the realm? Good, good," the man mused out loud while smiling slightly. "I can finally get back to peaceful relaxation without worrying about those brats breaking anything."
A deep sigh escaped that mans mouth a moment after as a different sounding voice spoke up.
"Sigh, yet another wasted year of not finding an heir," the voice grumbled. "Are you happy with yourself? Lounging lazily about instead while our legacies fade away into dust?"
"Shut up," the first voice replied with slight agitation. "Just because we all live in the same body does not mean we have the same goals. As we agreed, this is my time to control our body, and it will remain that way for quite some time. You can worry about finding a heir when its your turn," the man grumbled to himself.
His rant was met with silence, as his agitated face once again turned into one of relaxation. Just as he was about to lay back down, his expression changed slightly and his body suddenly vanished. It quickly reappeared in a different location, which was the hallowed out cavern with the lightning sphere.
The man closely inspected the lightning sphere, his expression becoming slightly confused as he studied it.
"Hmmm, it seems as though the Origin Lightning Seed has lost a small portion of its power…How bizarre."
While musing about the problem, the man's gaze shifted upwards, at which time he spotted a hole dug down directly into the cavern. He arrived before it, and quickly realized it pierced down from the fog world, where some of the disciples had visited.
"You see!" the angered voice from before bellowed out. "Clearly one of the disciples managed to stumble their way down here to the Origin Lightning Seed, and its slight power loss indicates that they absorbed some of its power without dying, and did so with such a low cultivation. Someone like that would be more than worthy to inherit our legacy, but instead of focusing on the trials, you were focusing on yourself. Not only that, but the Labyrinth trial has almost no rewards for those who worked hard to get through it. The least you could have done was give them some rewards for passing the trials within."
"Oh, will you shut up already?" the man once again grumbled with an agitated expression on his face. "You can worry about such things when it's your turn to be in control. Until then, leave me be."
He briefly inspected the area for a short while longer before his body vanished and he appeared back on the patio before the crystalline lake. The beautiful women from before sprung up into existence and once again began to feed him like a king while he laid there with a relaxed and content expression on his face.
…
The visions of all the disciples flashed white as they were rejected from the Thunder Realm and transported through space. The top of Thunderrealm Mountain suddenly came into view as they all returned to the real world at the same time.
Some of the disciples appeared to be unconscious, as they were clearly under the effects of some of the labyrinth traps, while others appeared battered and bruised. A frenzied commotion broke out amongst the disciples as many found their friends to discuss the trials within, treasures obtained, and other things of note.
Upon arriving at the top of the mountain, John's gaze shifted about as he tried to find Adam, Chase, and Iris. He quickly noticed many strange gazes staring at him, as if he were a monster.
'Haha, I suppose I do look pretty gruesome right now,' John laughed at himself as he knew why he was receiving such stares. His body was currently in a miserable looking condition duo to the lightning training he had undergone. Most of his external flesh was charred black, mkaing it look as though he was on his deathbed.
If such damage had occurred to anyone else, they would be half a foot into the grave. However, thanks to his incredibly resilient Immortal Asura Body, John was able to live through such gruesome wounds without too much trouble.
'I really should thank my so-called 'father' for this combination of cultivation arts. I would never be able to cultivate the Celestial Lightning Script like this without the Immortal Asura Body, and without the Celestial Lightning Script, my Immortal Asura Body would never be able to survive heaven tribulationis. It seems as though everything was perfectly accounted for in regards to these techniques and their shortfalls.'
"John!," an loud yell suddenly boomed out from John's right, and he quickly turned his head to gaze at who it was. Adam was rushing towards him, while Chase and Iris were following closely behind.
Their excited expressions instantly turned grave as they noticed his condition, and all three rushed up to him in a panic.
"What happened!" Adam exclaimed as he arrived before John.
"Are you alright?" Iris called out as well, a worried expression on her face.
"Here, take this," Chase spoke up as well as a medicinal pill appeared in his outstretched hand.
A warm smile appeared on John's face as he noticed the genuine concern that his three friends were showing, and he graciously accepted Chase's medicinal pill and swallowed it. A warm and fragrant medicinal energy flowed through his body, slightly speeding up his recovery speed.
"I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me," John replied casually. "This damage was all by my doing anyways, so I wouldn't have done anything I couldn't handle. I should be healed up to normal in a few days' time," he explained.
A strange expression appeared on Chase's and Iris's faces, as they didn't know how anyone could voluntarily do such a thing to themselves. Only Adam had a normal look on his face as he knew the crazy lengths John would go to to raise his strength.
Before they could bring up the subject again, John spoke out to ask about something else.
"So, after we split up, what did you three end up doing?" John asked the three of them.
"Nothing. Nothing at all," Iris exclaimed in a frustrated tone. "The next trial after the fog world was an illusion trial, with the only exit having a stupid requirement for passing, which none of us could achieve. As such, we just remained within that trial doing absolutely nothing until the realm closed. We didn't even find any treasures or rewards within either…the entire realm was just a big waste of time," Iris ranted.
A thoughtful expression appeared on John's face as he thought about everything that had happened. The Labyrinth truly had given them almost no rewards to speak of, and if it were not for Kirii's senses, he would have never found the lightning sphere.
According to what Thunderzen had said, the realm should have been filled with opportunities, but the Labyrinth was the complete opposite. However, no matter how much he thought about it, John couldn't come up with an explanation for it, and so he brushed such thoughts aside as Adam suddenly spoke up.
"They might not have found anything, but my time in the city wasn't so bad," Adam replied with a smile of reminiscence on his face, which caused Iris to curl her face in disgust at Adam's expression.
"Pervert," Iris called out, which broke Adam out of his blissful expression, but before he could reply, a loud voice boomed over the entire mountain, catching the attention of all.
"Attention all disciples," the Grand Elder's voice boomed out. "There have been some developments while you were all in the Thunder Realm. You have two days to rest and recover, before all Inner Disciples and above are to gather in the sect's main gathering auditorium. That is all."
A thoughtful expression once again returned to John's face upon hearing the Grand Elder's words, while a frenzied discussion broke out amongst the other disciples as well.
"I wonder what this is all about?"