Ch. 111..120

Chapter 111

Gravis reminisced about his homeworld and about everything that happened back then. This fight reminded him of the past, and he wanted to enjoy every moment of it. Times were simpler back then, and he only had to think about getting stronger. There was no guilt or schemes, just a goal to increase his strength.

"SCREE!" shouted Skye as it excitedly flew around Gravis while the parent bird left and flew back up to its nest.

Gravis got torn out of his reverie by Skye's shout, and he could only smile bitterly. "No sense in dwelling on the past. I am on my journey to become stronger now, and I need to remain stalwart. I can't falter just because it was easier back then. If it were still as easy now, as back then, then my will wouldn't be as tempered," he said to himself with a smile.

Gravis went through Silvio's belongings and found about 30 Energy Stones, and Gravis could only grimace when he saw that. Of course, the strong enemy he had killed didn't have much wealth. Why had he expected anything else? The other disciples' bodies were probably already fully eaten, and they weren't even his kills. Just like the parent bird left this corpse for him, Gravis would leave the other corpses for it.

The only other thing of note was Silvio's weapon. Gravis grabbed it and felt its weight. "This weapon is probably better than mine," he smiled bitterly. "Sadly, I don't use spears," he said as he put it on his back. He could surely sell it at some point.

"Scree!" shouted the parent bird from the treetop, and Skye quickly went to it. Gravis also had nothing else to do and followed. Gravis went up the tree and saw the corpses inside the Formation Array, surprised that they weren't eaten yet. They were also surprisingly still in one piece. Gravis didn't know how the parent bird had done this, but it surely had a reason for that.

Gravis forgot that the parent bird couldn't retrieve the corpses since they were still inside the Formation Array. Gravis willed for the corpses to leave the Formation Array and caught them. He then carried them up the tree and threw them in front of the parent bird. He didn't look through their belongings, because they were not his spoils. Gravis also couldn't exclude the possibility that Energy weapons and Energy Stones were useful for beasts too.

The parent bird looked at the corpses and nudged Skye, which was right beside it. Skye started growing excited and devoured them with glee. Gravis didn't mind the sight, because this was just nature. Just how humans ate beasts, beasts ate humans. There was nothing wrong with that.

Gravis also saw how Skye devoured the sacks with Energy Stones, and now he could be sure that those stones were also useful to beasts. While Skye was devouring the corpses, the parent bird looked into the distance. Gravis was not sure if he judged its mood correctly, but he believed that the parent bird was thinking about something.

When he saw that, Gravis also started thinking about his current situation. This time, the Lightning Guild had sent three people at the eighth level of Energy Gathering and one at the seventh. They obviously came prepared and knew exactly where he was. Gravis guessed that someone had probably survived in the last fight and told them everything. Their preparations were just too thorough.

If they realized that those disciples also wouldn't return, the next wave would probably include multiple people at the ninth level of Energy Gathering or maybe even someone in the Spirit Forming Realm. Even with the bird, Gravis wouldn't be able to survive that.

When disciples reached the Spirit Forming Realm, they would leave for the Core-Continent, and Gravis knew that. So, killing three people at the eighth level of Energy Gathering was probably an incredible hit to the Lightning Guild's overall strength in the Middle-Continent.

They would not let that remain unavenged, and Gravis knew that he couldn't remain here. The next wave would overwhelm them, and everything in the Energy Gathering Realm would probably be exterminated in the surroundings, including beasts.

The parent bird might not be as smart as Gravis, but it had seen how new enemies appeared and how they were even stronger than the previous ones. It started to feel agitated and had already decided to leave the tree. Yet, there was still another decision it was unsure about…

When Skye finished eating the corpses, it started screeching loudly in excitement. After that, it enveloped itself in its wings, and its body started pulsing. Gravis could see the Energy of its Core spreading around its body and violently being absorbed.

"It's advancing!" Gravis concluded and was excited to watch. The Energy Stones and the powerful corpses were an incredible tonic for a beast, and it allowed Skye to advance to a middle-grade Energy Beast.

Its body started expanding, and the process took about an hour. After the hour was over, its wingspan had increased from 30 meters to about 60 meters. Skye still looked the same, but its size had increased tremendously.

"SCREE!" Skye shouted excitedly to the world as it proclaimed its happiness and dominance. The shout also shook Gravis' body slightly, but it wasn't nearly as strong as its parent. Yet, Gravis could judge from the loud shout that it was probably more powerful than him now.

Its body was definitely stronger than Silvio's or Gravis', and a stronger body also came with faster speed, and that was not counting its wind element. Gravis guessed that he would only have a slight chance against it if they fought to the death. In a spar, Gravis couldn't bring out his whole strength because using extremely powerful attacks affected his control.

CLANK!

Gravis heard a rustling of metal and turned to his side. The parent bird had pushed the remaining weapons to Gravis, showing that he could have them. Apparently, Energy weapons were not useful to beasts. Gravis smiled at the bird and picked them up.

They were two spears and one sword. They all seemed to be of the same quality as Silvio's spear, and Gravis also tied them to his back. "Carrying all this stuff is a bother, but its worth a lot," he playfully complained. "Well, I only have to reach the Spirit Forming Realm. Then I can just put all this clutter into my Spirit Space."

Gravis stood up and did some practice jumps. The Energy weapons were heavy, and Gravis' speed was slightly lowered. His flexibility would also suffer under the weight, but it was worth it if he could sell them. In the worst case, he could just throw the weapons away.

"Scree!" the parent shouted again, and Skye returned to it. The parent then started cawing in different tones and pointed with one of its wings at Gravis. Gravis was unsure what it was saying, but he could make a guess, and he didn't know how he should feel about it.

After a while, Skye looked at the ground, obviously in thought. Some seconds later, it looked back at its parent, and Gravis could hear an affirmative caw. The two birds then turned to Gravis, and the parent shoved Skye towards Gravis with one of its wings. Skye walked closer and extended its head to Gravis.

Gravis smiled, and all his earlier doubts vanished. He started ruffling its feathers and scratched its skin. Skye liked it and released some quiet caws of pleasure. Gravis didn't notice that his face had the same innocent smile as back when he was still playing with Stella. All his worries disappeared, and Gravis just couldn't stop smiling as some tears ran down his face.

He was not alone anymore.

 

Chapter 112

Gravis hugged Skye and looked at its parent. "Are you sure?"

Gravis wasn't sure, but he believed that he had seen the parent nod. It wanted Skye to go with Gravis because tempering for beasts was nearly as important as for humans. They might not have a Will-Aura, but their combat experience was essential to them, even more than for humans. If beasts wanted strength, they needed to eat beasts or humans at the same level as them, or higher.

Without combat experience, they wouldn't be able to keep up with their peers, and their inherent want for strength would either kill them or disappear. Some beasts, like the low-grade demonic beast tiger or the centipede, had already fled the wilderness to be an overlord in a weak area. Their want for strength had been suppressed by their fear for the other, stronger beasts.

Making Skye follow him was also a risk for the parent bird. That was why it had hesitated for a long while. Yet, if it always kept Skye under its wing, Skye would never surpass its parent. It had to find its own path to strength, just like Gravis.

"Scree!" the parent shouted, and Skye went to it. They both rubbed their heads together, and after some minutes, the parent opened its wings and flew into the distance. It would not return to the tree anymore. This particular area was just too dangerous, and it had to find another spot to nest.

Skye released some last caws as it saw its parent flying away. Gravis saw that Skye was troubled with its parent leaving, so he jumped onto its head and scratched it some more. Skye ignored Gravis for a while but relaxed after a while. It was in a beast's nature to leave their parent at some point and find their own way. A goodbye was easier for them than for humans.

"Skye, we should leave, too," Gravis said. Skye was very smart, and it started understanding more and more of Gravis' words in the last couple of days. Skye jumped and started flying in the air, circling the tree one last time, before it shot off into the distance.

BZZT!

Gravis shot a weak bolt of lightning into a specific direction. "Let's go!" he shouted, and Skye answered him with a caw. They then flew into the horizon, leaving the tree behind.

Why was Gravis not worried about his karmic luck affecting Skye? If he hadn't talked a lot with Orpheus and his father before leaving, he would have definitely declined Skye's company. Orpheus had explained to him a lot about karmic luck, and that had also included beasts.

Gravis had still been confused back then and had also asked his father about Orpheus' words. After talking with his father, Gravis finally understood. Heaven's goal of gathering Energy only involved humans. Beasts, for some reason, didn't help Heaven in gathering Energy. Gravis was a little confused about that, but his father told him that he would explain more about that when Gravis reached sufficient strength.

Yet, why did beasts exist in the first place, if they didn't help Heaven in achieving its goal? The answer was that beasts were useful to Heaven for different reasons. Gravis still remembered the sentence that his father had said when Gravis asked him why beasts even existed.

"They're cultivation resources and tempering tools for humans," was what his father had said to him.

If there were only strong humans around, then the humans would have to kill each other to temper their wills. That would reduce the number of humans achieving higher realms. In Heaven's eyes, humans were its crop, and beasts were the humans' fertilizer.

For all those reasons, Heaven didn't bestow any karmic luck to beasts. All beasts were equal in its eyes, or more like, equally unimportant. If two beings met with the same amount of karmic luck, then there would be no inherent advantage or disadvantage for either of them. Only the stronger one would survive.

Yet, if normal humans met stronger beasts, they would often survive, due to luck. With their inherent karmic luck, humans had a slight advantage over beasts, yet this whole advantage was destroyed by the beasts' inherent supremacy regarding physical strength. Of course, Gravis had never experienced any of this luck when he had fought beasts previously.

Yet, Gravis didn't mind that so much since luck could carry one only so far in a fight. Nearly no beast could be considered a sheltered greenhouse flower since they had to fight other beasts on their level to upgrade their strength. In comparison, there were a lot of humans with lacking battle experience.

When a human and a beast on the same level fought, the beast would have the advantage in power, defense, speed, stamina, and often also battle experience. The humans only had their luck and intellect as an advantage, and without sufficient battle experience, it was difficult to make use of one's intellect.

That was why it was only considered safe to hunt a beast if the human was a minor realm higher than it. Gravis knew all this, thanks to Orpheus and his father, and, therefore, knew that his karmic luck would not impact Skye since it also had no inherent karmic luck. They were both abandoned by Heaven, which also made Gravis feel a kind of kinship to Skye, similar to his family members.

Gravis and Skye flew into the distance, and Gravis opened his arms to feel the wind hitting his body. He felt as free as never before. Gravis had dreamt about flying in the sky ever since he was a young kid. He still remembered the Sky Community in his hometown, and he always longed to fly together with all the others.

Finally, he could fly, even if it was not due to his own strength. "Skye, do some tricks!" Gravis shouted. Skye didn't understand the word "tricks", but it heard Gravis' excitement. His excitement affected Skye, and it started crazily flying through the air, fully demonstrating its agility.

Gravis laughed in happiness as he held Skye tightly to not fall off. He wanted to enjoy every moment of it because soon, he would meet more enemies. They were flying right into a dangerous territory, and

Gravis knew that they could die there. Yet, if they succeeded, they could finally have some peace.

Gravis suspected that his current destination was heavily guarded by the Lightning Guild and maybe even the Fire Guild. It was Gravis' most obvious destination, and the leading brass of the guilds were not idiots. They knew that he would go there at some point. Yet, what they didn't know was that he now had a fast and powerful bird accompanying him.

They wouldn't expect him to arrive from the sky, and if he didn't have Skye with him, he would have never dared to go there.

Skye continued flying happily, while Gravis guided it to the Heaven Sect.

 

Chapter 113

Gravis and Skye flew for multiple days. Even though Skye flew very fast, even creating a sonic boom at the start of their flight, the Middle-Continent was just too big. The Core-Continent was a circle, while the Middle-Continent encompassed the Core-Continent in a bigger circle. The Outer-Continent did the same with the Middle-Continent.

Gravis and Skye were currently south of the Core-Continent, and they were flying to the south-east of the Middle-Continent. Every major guild had one of their headquarters in the north, east, south, and west of the Middle-Continent, while the Heaven Sect only had two. One was in the south-east of the Middle-Continent, while the other was in the north-west.

In comparison to the whole lower world, this distance was not significant, but for Gravis and Skye, it was still a distance of over 100,000 kilometers. Without Skye, Gravis would have taken over two weeks to get there. Yet, with the help of Skye, they only would've needed three days, if they hadn't taken a break for a full day.

After four days of traveling, they finally closed in on the Heaven Sect. "Skye, this can get really dangerous," Gravis cautioned. "I doubt that they already know about the death of their hit-squad, but they will maybe still have some people in the ninth level of Energy Gathering."

Skye released a quiet affirmative caw. Gravis had been talking a lot with Skye in the last couple of days, and it started to understand more words that Gravis spoke. Gravis especially taught it about the power system of humans in their one-day break.

He had shot a weak lightning bolt with the power of someone on the first level of Energy Gathering at Skye and told it: "First Level of Energy Gathering." Skye was confused initially, but then Gravis shot a stronger one and said that it was from the second level. He did that until the fourth level, where Skye started feeling some pain from the lightning bolts.

After that, Gravis used nearly all his power to produce one lightning bolt on the fifth level, which he shot at a tree, which was pulverized very quickly. Then, Gravis started saying one level after another until it reached the ninth level. Skye didn't get it at first, but it finally understood when Gravis managed to get it to remember the numbers from one to ten.

Getting Skye to remember numbers took over an hour, and then Gravis used his lightning again to demonstrate the power system of humans. Remembering how the numbers sounded, Skye started to get the concept. It then started demonstrating the whole thing with its wind and then pointing at the corresponding written number on the floor.

Gravis grew ecstatic when Skye understood, and he then started to give Skye more context in regards to the levels. Gravis made Skye remember Escura and pointed at the six. Then he made Skye remember Silvio and pointed at the seven. He also made Skye remember about the others and pointed at the eight.

Skye was not stupid and could guess the power of those levels. It guessed that it could take on one person on the seventh level, but it would be difficult. It also saw the two stronger levels and understood that those people were more powerful than it.

Gravis had, by now, created a whole spreadsheet with stick figures and their levels beneath them. Gravis then also drew a small bird and a big bird. Skye quickly realized that those two drawings represented its parent and itself.

Gravis then drew a lot of example match-ups involving Skye and its parent. He painted a number of figures opposite of the bird paintings with the corresponding level beneath them. After that, he would violently cross out the side who would die.

Gravis showed that Skye's parent could kill one person on the ninth level. When he had drawn two on that level, Gravis demonstrated his uncertainty and didn't cross out any side immediately. Surprisingly,

Skye grabbed a stick in its beak and crossed out the human side. It completely trusted in its parent strength.

When Gravis drew three people on the ninth level, he stopped Skye from doing anything and crossed out the big bird. Skye screeched angrily, but Gravis managed to calm it down. Gravis continued doing examples, and Skye was never happy when his parent lost in a fight.

Yet, slowly, Skye started understanding the power of someone on the ninth level of Energy Gathering, when Gravis showed that if Gravis and Skye fought together against one, they would die. Skye understood then how powerful someone at the ninth level of Energy Gathering was.

At the end of their learning session, Gravis made a new drawing of a person, which was bigger than all other drawings. He wrote "Spirit Forming" beneath the person and repeated the word multiple times. It was imperative that Skye understood this word. Skye was unsure of the significance of this person since it had never seen the associated words before.

Gravis painted the big person again, on the opposing side of the entire meter-long spreadsheet of fights and examples. Gravis pointed at the person, and then at everything else. He always did that when he had drawn an example fight.

BOOM!

Gravis threw a violent lightning bolt at the whole spreadsheet that destroyed everything but that one drawing of the person in the Spirit Forming Realm. Skye shivered, and its eyes widened. It had never come in contact with anyone with such power. Gravis pointed one last time at the big person and repeated "Spirit Forming".

Skye remembered the word very clearly, and it would never forget this word. This was a genuine danger to its life. Gravis had invested hours into his teaching of Skye because Skye needed to know

which fight it could win, and which fight was assured death. Beasts attacked any human they saw, regardless of the human's strength. Only something like a Will-Aura could deter a beast.

Getting back to Gravis and Skye as they were closing in on the Heaven Sect, Skye completely understood the danger that someone at the ninth level of Energy Gathering possessed. Due to all the information that it had learned, it knew that they couldn't fight someone on that level. They could only flee.

"Fly higher, Skye," said Gravis, while shooting a small lightning bolt into the sky. Skye understood and climbed as high as it could, which was about five kilometers. When they reached that height, they started closing in on the Heaven Sect, which was, by now, visible on the horizon.

Gravis didn't know that close to the Heaven Sect, in a tent, a stone lighted up when Gravis shot his lightning bolt into the air. A person looked at the stone, and his Spirit started encompassing everything in a ten-kilometer radius. He quickly saw Skye, and his Spirit also saw Gravis.

"The betrayer has arrived!" the person shouted loudly, increasing the volume of his shout with his Spirit, so it went to each corner of the camp. "He is riding on top of a Hurricane Hawk at an altitude of five kilometers. Shoot him down!"

Gravis felt it when the person's Spirit washed over him. It felt like death-itself was looking at him, and Gravis clenched his teeth. "Spirit Forming," he said to Skye, and Skye shuddered slightly. Gravis went close to its head and pointed at the person on the ground.

Skye and Gravis both knew that this would not be easy.

 

Chapter 114

Realizing the danger they were in, Skye started speeding up even more. Gravis had said that they would be safe as soon as they reached the building on the horizon. Gravis was not part of the Heaven Sect yet, and the guilds could still kill him without punishment, for now. Everyone was outside of the Heaven Sect's property, and they surely wouldn't dare to do anything as soon as Gravis reached the building.

The person in the Spirit Forming Realm, down below, was a new disciple that had recently broken through. If he managed to kill Gravis, he would receive a lot of Energy Stones, and that would help him when he would eventually go to the Lightning Sect in the Core-Continent. Even if another person managed to kill Gravis, he would still get at least 50% of the eventual earnings because he held down the fort in front of the Heaven Sect.

There were still around ten kilometers to go before Gravis reached the Heaven Sect's property, and disciples from the Lightning Guild quickly started following Skye from down below. Those disciples were taking a massive risk in attacking Gravis. If Gravis died before he reached the Heaven Sect, they would all be fine, but if he reached it and joined them, things could get ugly.

The Heaven Sect required strength and pride from their disciples. Heaven would give them tempering experiences and enemies they could win against, and that, of course, included enmities that the disciples had created. Right now, Gravis couldn't fight anyone from the Lightning Guild who guarded the Heaven Sect. Everyone was, at least, at the eighth level of Energy Gathering.

Surprisingly enough, there were actually also people from the Fire Guild, but they couldn't compare to the forces of the Lightning Guild. Just like Flern had said, the Fire Guild wanted to use Gravis as tempering for their disciples, and they also used him to weed out the disciples who weren't up to par. So, the Fire Guild only sent disciples in the sixth and seventh level of Energy Gathering. If the disciples they had sent were too strong, then that would defeat the whole purpose of tempering.

The disciples of the Fire Guild had heard the words of the Spirit Forming expert of the Lightning Guild, but they weren't intending on shooting Gravis down. Shooting Gravis from afar was not a fight and wouldn't help in their tempering. They simply watched as the disciples of the Lightning Guild started shooting their lightning into the sky.

Many lightning bolts reached Gravis and Skye, and Skye did its best to evade those bolts. It was challenging to hit Gravis since he was over five kilometers away and was also moving with incredible speed. Over 80% of all attacks didn't even arrive at their surroundings.

Skye managed to evade all the other lightning bolts. The speed of the lightning attacks increased with the additional strength of the attacker. Still, even at the ninth level of Energy Gathering, those attacks were nowhere close to the speed of actual natural lightning. If those attacks were just as fast as natural lightning, Gravis could only wait for his death.

Skye avoided every single attack, even if some of them weren't easy to evade. By coincidence, some of the attacks arrived together to block nearly every direction. Gravis' luck was showing its full effect in that scenario. How could so many attacks arrive with such excellent timing while the disciples could only blindly shoot?

It was already a miracle that 20% of the attacks reached his surroundings. Skye was moving over 400 meters per second, and hitting a small area of around 50 meters from five kilometers away was incredibly difficult. If Gravis went to the Heaven Sect without Skye, he would have long since died.

After several seconds, only five kilometers were left until Skye would be directly above the Heaven Sect. Gravis had a chance, and he grew excited. Safety was close! Gravis still counted as a Heavenborn in the Heaven Sect's eyes, and they wouldn't allow anyone to hurt him, no matter their reason. The Heaven Sect was the hegemon of this world, and no one dared disrespect them.

Gravis guessed that even if all sects combined their strength to attack the Heaven Sect, the Heaven Sect would still come out victorious. The Heaven Sect had the backing of Heaven, and no one in this world could go against Heaven. Heaven might even ignore its own rules to strike some sects that attacked the Heaven Sect.

Heaven was also not allowed to communicate with the mortals, even if they were its children. Of course, Heaven regularly ignored that rule and gave the Heaven Sect lots of missions to complete. The Heaven Sect had to know whom they should kill, after all.

Yet, Gravis was sure that his father forced Heaven to abide by its rules if it involved Gravis. Heaven wouldn't dare to expose Gravis in this situation. Strength was everything, and Heaven was the strongest in this world. It could do whatever it wanted, even if it broke its own rules.

But there was always someone stronger out there, and Gravis' father had way more power than this lower Heaven. Gravis knew that his father could slap this Heaven into oblivion without even moving, and that was why Gravis was so sure that Heaven wouldn't break its rules. If Gravis reached the Heaven Sect, he would be safe for a long time.

"Alright, everyone. You all had your chance, and you failed," shouted the Spirit Forming expert and readied some lightning in his right hand. "Now, it's my turn!"

The expert shot his lightning into the sky, and it was way faster than all the others. The lightning quickly closed in on Gravis, but the expert misjudged Skye's speed, and the lightning would miss at this rate. The expert didn't care, because there was no reason to aim properly when attacking Gravis. He was a Spirit Forming expert after all, and what was it that made people in the Spirit Forming realm so powerful?

It was their Spirit, which exponentially increased their control over their element. Everything with their will could be controlled inside of their Spirit Domain. His lightning was shot by him, which meant that itnoveldrama

had his will imprinted on it, and thus, allowed the expert to control his own attack remotely.

His lightning bolt quickly changed direction and shot straight towards Skye. Gravis had learned a lot about the Spirit Forming Realm in his theoretical classes in his homeworld, so he also knew that those experts could control their attacks remotely. He had long prepared himself.

When the lightning reached a distance of 60 meters, Gravis quickly concentrated his Will-Aura on it, shaking the will. It was impossible to destroy the will in an attack, and Gravis could only shake it slightly to distort the will for a second. The attack would still continue, but controlling it from a distance was nearly impossible in that scenario.

This was another advantage that someone with a Will-Aura had over someone without one. This advantage would only show itself in the Spirit-Forming Realm because only people at that level would be able to control their attacks remotely.

The Will-Aura didn't decrease the attacking power of the attack or its speed. It could only hinder the control. That was also why using one's Will-Aura on an attack was senseless while fighting against people in the Energy Gathering Realm. They couldn't control their attacks remotely, either way.

Gravis quickly used all his strength to throw his saber upward, which created a counterforce that forced Skye downwards. The lightning bolt passed over their heads, and both of them could feel its sheer power. If it hit them, they would surely die.

The expert looked at Gravis, and his eyes widened when he noticed that his control of the attack weakened. He had not expected that Gravis' Heavenly Pressure was already this powerful. With such a domineering Heavenly Pressure, Gravis counted as an immense genius, even for a Heavenborn.

The expert clenched his teeth, and his fury erupted. He could already see what would happen in the future. Gravis would probably quickly reach the Spirit Forming Realm, and would then challenge the

disciple to a life and death battle. The bad part about that was that the disciple had to accept this challenge. The Heaven Sect would enforce its rules, and it didn't matter if the Lightning Sect accepted or not. The duel would happen.

The expert got his control back a second later but ignored his previous attack. It was faster and better to shoot a new one. He quickly shot two lightning bolts at Gravis and angled them to hit him directly. The Spirit Forming expert was only in the first stage of the Spirit Forming Realm: The Seed Stage.

At such a great distance, he could only control one attack at a time. He might be able to control multiple attacks in total, but he had to switch his control around to do that. It could be compared to a one-armed person who had to activate two levers. The person could only activate them one by one.

The expert angled the attacks so that one would hit Skye directly, while he controlled the other one to prepare for all eventualities. Gravis would have to dodge the first attack, and the expert could angle the second bolt to hit Gravis' new position.

"I doubt that you can evade this one!" the expert said with clenched teeth.

 

Chapter 115

Gravis saw the attacks coming, and he quickly thought of a plan. Gravis could control his Will-Aura very delicately, and he was able to quickly distort both wills in the attacks. The second attack wouldn't be able to hit them while they had to evade the first one.

BZZZT!

A long line of lightning connected Gravis and his earlier thrown saber, which was still shooting away with a lot of force. Gravis grabbed Skye as best as he could and then used the power of his earlier throw to pull Skye and himself to his saber, which quickly pulled them higher. The first lightning bolt missed them, while the second one flew wildly away.

Gravis' saber came back into his hand, and their ascent stopped. It was hard for Skye to fly at this height, and it quickly plummeted to its old height. Skye was breathing heavily due to its exertion. Flying on that speed, on that height, was difficult. The higher the height, the lower the density of the air.

"Skye, use your wind next," Gravis said to Skye, who understood what he meant. They had kept the flexibility of its wind element a secret so that they could evade more attacks. If Skye had used it since the beginning, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore.

The expert saw his attacks missing again, and his eyes narrowed further. A sea of lightning appeared around him, and he finally stopped underestimating Gravis. He shot eight lightning bolts at once and filled all of Gravis' surroundings with them. Gravis couldn't possibly evade those, right?

"Now!" shouted Gravis, and Skye's speed increased by 30%. The lightning missed, but the expert quickly controlled one lightning bolt after another to shoot at Gravis' new location. The bolts had not reached a distance of 60 meters before, so Gravis hadn't been able to distort their will.

The lightning chased Skye, and Gravis quickly distorted its will when it came close enough. Then, Gravis jumped off Skye with his full power, violently throwing Skye down while he soared upwards.

Skye had issues to get its balance back, but the lightning missed both of them. Skye used its wind element to stabilize its flight and to also throw Gravis back onto its back.

The lightning continued flying forward for a whole second due to its distorted will. The expert screamed in rage and used all his spiritual power to showcase his control. The lightning bolts hit each other and then exploded into a gigantic net of lightning, a hundred meters in size.

Gravis looked at it with narrowed eyes, and Skye tried to avoid it by diving below it. The net followed Skye's height, and when they started getting closer to it, the net shot forward. By now, the expert had realized the area of effect of Gravis' Will-Aura, and he made the net shoot towards them before it reached the area. Even if Gravis distorted the will of that attack, the net was still too big to evade. He had him!

Gravis grabbed one of the spears on his back and threw it forward, while it released lightning violently. Gravis, of course, also distorted the will of the net. Skye dove further while the lightning in the spear hit the lightning in the net. The whole net quickly shot into the spear, and the spear got reduced to ashes. An Energy Weapon was not able to keep so much lightning.

BOOM!

A big explosion took place, and lightning ravaged the sky. Gravis jumped a little to absorb part of the lightning explosion since Skye didn't have such a great lightning resistance. His whole body burned, and he could feel the lightning ravaging his body. Luckily, the lightning was not concentrated. Gravis' body was ravaged, but he managed to protect his organs with the attack's absorbed Life Energy.

Yet, the shockwave hit both of them, and they were thrown down violently. Skye used the full power of its wind to keep Gravis by its side, and they started falling towards the ground in an arc. They looked like a big meteor, which was about to hit the earth. Thankfully, they were pretty high up, which meant that they wouldn't hit the ground anytime soon.

The expert gasped in surprise when he saw that his net didn't stop them. Even worse, their speed increased due to the shockwave, and they were plummeting to the Heaven Sect. The other disciples watched with fury, surprise, shock, and hatred. The betrayer had to die!

The expert quickly shot lightning like he was crazy, making more nets. Sweat started pouring down the expert's face since controlling so many attacks was taxing to his newly evolved Spirit. He had never used his Spirit so much before. His concentration started going down while his eyes reddened. If he let Gravis escape, then his death was inevitable in the future!

Skye had gotten its balance back and started flying around in zig-zag-patterns, while Gravis distorted the wills in all the singular lightning bolts. When a new net was created, he would throw over another weapon to make it explode. The difference this time was that Gravis made Skye fly over the explosion to gain more height and speed.

Another explosion occurred, and, this time, Skye received the brunt of it. Skye's flesh exploded in some parts of its body, and it slowly lost its feathers. Remaining in the air became more difficult. After this explosion, they couldn't fly above any explosion anymore since Skye probably couldn't tank another hit.

Another explosion occurred above them, and Gravis used the last of his backup weapons, which also promptly exploded. His body received another hit, and some flesh also exploded from it. Gravis was heavily injured, and he could, maybe, only take one more explosion.

The expert was breathing heavily and sweating buckets. Gravis and Skye were so close to the Heaven Sect, and his Spirit was also slowly getting used up. By now, Skye's height was only around two kilometers, but due to Skye's higher speed, the distance between it and the expert was just as big as before. Skye lost some height but gained some distance.

The expert used one last net to shoot at Gravis, wasting the last bit of his Spirit. After this, he couldn't remotely control any more attacks. Seeing the approaching net, Gravis was forced to use his saber. He

threw it away, just like the other weapons, and its fate was the same as all the backup weapons. His saber exploded, and Gravis' body got ravaged one last time.

All his muscles tore, and most of his organs were severely burned. Gravis quickly used the absorbed Life Energy of the attack to heal his most vital organs. Without the Life Energy from the attack, he wouldn't have survived. Gravis and Skye plummeted uncontrollably towards the ground, and the expert grew panicked.

Gravis and Skye were only a couple hundred meters above the ground, and they were about to hit the ground like a meteor. The expert released nearly all his Energy and shot another ten bolts at Gravis and Skye. His Spirit was used up, and he couldn't control his attacks anymore, but he could still shoot his lightning, like people in the Energy Gathering Realm.

Skye used its last wind to keep them from crashing too hard on the ground, but that also meant that they were sitting ducks. Most of the lightning bolts would miss them, but there was one lightning bolt that was about to hit them. Gravis couldn't take another explosion, and he also didn't have any more weapons to throw. If he wanted to stop the lightning, he had to stop it outside of his Will-Aura's area of influence. He only hoped that the Spirit Forming expert had used up all his Spirit.

Gravis took his ring off his finger. The ring had been given to him by his father, and Gravis knew that it wasn't some supreme treasure. It could only show his status to other people, nothing else. Yet, the ring had been created in his homeworld, and Gravis could only gamble on its hardness.

Gravis threw the ring at the lightning bolt, and the lightning bolt exploded. His ring survived the encounter, but it shot widely into the distance. Luckily, the explosion was far away enough that Gravis didn't get hit by the explosion. His gamble had worked, and the Spirit Forming expert hadn't been able to control his attack anymore.

BOOM!

Gravis and Skye hit the ground and rolled for a while. Skye had stopped their fall enough for them to survive, but it was still painful. They stopped after some meters, and both laid on the ground, a hundred meters away from the Heaven Sect's building. Yet, Gravis released a sigh of relief. They were inside the Heaven Sect's walls, which meant that they were also inside its territory. No one would dare to be arrogant here.

Gravis relaxed and nearly lost consciousness, but he kept himself awake just with his willpower. Skye and Gravis laid there for several seconds until…

"Die!" shouted the expert as he jumped over the wall and shot a lightning bolt at Gravis. Gravis' mind stopped working as he saw death approaching. The Spirit Forming disciple of the Lightning Guild dared to attack him inside the Heaven Sect? Gravis had not expected that, and only a deep fear of death remained in his mind. There was nothing he could do anymore but hope that the Heaven Sect was not empty right now.

SHING!

A gigantic spire of ice appeared in front of Gravis and redirected the lightning into the ground. Shortly after that, an absolutely apocalyptic pressure encompassed the expert of the Lightning Guild. His face whitened, his breathing stopped, and his eyes shrunk to pinpricks. He was not able to move anymore!

"What guts, to attack someone in my Heaven Sect," commented Aion nonchalantly, as he walked out of the door.

 

Chapter 116

Gravis could finally release a sigh of relief. He was safe now. The peace that he and Skye were striving for had finally arrived. They would still need to strive for their own strength and resources, but they were at least not hunted anymore. With this, they could finally take a breather.

The expert from the Lightning Guild looked with terror at Aion. He wanted to say something and defend his actions, but he couldn't say anything, no matter how hard he tried. Aion's heavenly pressure made him unable to even speak.

Aion smirked and lifted his right hand. A green ball of water appeared on his hand, and it shot at Gravis and Skye. Gravis wasn't panicked, because he could feel the Life Energy radiating from the water. The water hit their bodies and quickly entered.

Gravis felt how his body was screaming in ecstasy and how it started ravenously absorbing the Life Energy. All his wounds, scars, broken skin, torn muscles, and scorched organs were pushed out of his body. Healthy skin, muscle, and organs rapidly grew and replaced the old ones. From a state of near- death, Gravis' body got fully healed in less than a minute.

Gravis slowly stood up, looking at his "old body", which was lying around him. He could see all his previously injured body parts laying on the floor, while he had been fully healed. That was a bizarre sight. Gravis looked over to Skye and also saw how it shouted in excitement, as the same happened to it. Just like that, all their injuries vanished. The water element was really incredible in healing.

The expert from the Lightning Guild didn't even notice how Gravis and Skye got healed. He only felt deep fear for his life, and he tried his absolute best to beg for his life. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, it was futile. Aion looked at Gravis with a warm smile and nodded.

Even if Gravis felt great right now, he wouldn't forget to be careful. No one knew that he was not a Heavenborn, and he had to keep the act up. If Aion found out, Gravis wouldn't even know how he had died. Gravis bowed slightly to Aion in thanks.

Aion turned back to the expert from the Lightning Guild, and his warm smile transformed into a cold smirk. "Trying to murder someone in the Heaven Sect. You truly have humongous guts," he commented, waiting for the expert to answer.

The expert tried to answer, but couldn't. Aion simply continued looking at him. "You have no defense for your actions? Well, this makes it simpler," he said calmly. A couple of bright yellow rings on Aion's waist started rising into the air, seemingly by themselves. Gravis knew that Aion was controlling those rings with his Spirit.

The rings started slowly rotating in the air, and a layer of sharp ice appeared at their edges. After some seconds, six rotating ice rings flew around Aion. Aion just smiled at the expert of the Lightning Guild. "Let me send you off."

SHING!

The rings shot forward, and every ring cut through the body of the expert of the Lightning Guild. The expert couldn't move, and the rings sliced his body into multiple parts. He had never thought that he would die here when he had accepted the mission to cut off Gravis' path towards the Heaven Sect. This was supposed to be an easy mission! This was supposed to be easy money!

BOOM!

Gravis' eyes widened as he saw the Energy of the corpse explode out. This was not normal! Usually, all the accumulated Energy in a corpse would return to nature via the natural way of decomposition. The Energy would slowly seep out of the corpse as it vanished into nature, yet the Energy of this corpse had immediately exploded outward!

Gravis could see and feel the Energy in the air thanks to him being an Energy Gathering Realm cultivator, and what he felt now, shocked him deeply. Most of the Energy flew towards Heaven, while

around 10% flew towards Aion. Gravis watched as those 10% of Energy vanished into Aion's body. What was happening?

Aion sighed in comfort and then turned to Gravis with a smile. "I've been waiting for you, junior brother!" he said with excitement. Gravis quickly regained his bearing and bowed politely.

"Thank you, senior brother," he said.

Aion nodded and started walking to the building, but stopped when he remembered something. He turned towards the walls. "Starting today, Gravis is no longer a wanted criminal," he said, and his voice got carried into the distance. All the disciples of the Fire Guild and Lightning Guild in the surroundings heard it and sighed in regret. They nearly had him!

The mood of the disciples was a mixture of frustration, rage, hatred, and helplessness. If they were stronger, then who could stop them from getting their revenge? This whole failure only strengthened their resolve to become stronger.

Back in the Heaven Sect, Aion turned back with a grin. He walked towards the building, but stopped and looked at Skye with interest. Skye felt all its feathers stand up in fear. It had seen how powerful the Lightning Guild's expert was, and it had also seen how effortlessly Aion had killed that expert. It knew that if Aion wanted so, Skye would die.

Skye took a step back, lowered its head, and looked to the side. Aion saw the sign of submission and released a short "Oh?". He started rubbing his chin in thought and continued looking at Skye. Skye grew increasingly uncomfortable but didn't dare to say anything.

After a while, Aion turned to Gravis. "That's an impressive Hurricane Hawk you got there, junior brother," he praised and then walked to the building. "It can fly around anywhere, but it is not allowed to come into the building. Try to make it understand."

"Of course, senior brother," said Gravis. He hated acting this subserviently, but he had no choice right now. He was not strong enough yet, so he had to accept this humiliating acting. Only with strength, could he gain the ability to ignore everyone else.

Aion stopped at the door of the Heaven Sect and turned to Gravis, waiting for him. Gravis went over to Skye and ruffled its feathers. He was happy that Skye was still alright, and that they were out of danger, for now. Gravis explained that it could not come into the building, and it quickly understood.

Gravis gave Skye one last rub and then went over to Aion. Aion didn't mind the waiting and still waited with a relaxed attitude. Now, Gravis could finally take a good look at the Heaven Sect.

The whole Heaven Sect in the south-east of the Middle-Continent only consisted of one big building. The building was a gigantic, white castle. Gravis furrowed his brows, because, even though the castle was big, it couldn't possibly fit more than a hundred people.

It probably also had storage space and other non-livable rooms inside, which would make the space even more cramped. The building was impressive, but the whole Heaven Sect here consisted of only this one building? Even the Proxy-Lightning Guild had more space.

Gravis walked closer, and Aion opened the doors grandly.

"Welcome home!"

 

Chapter 117

Gravis followed Aion as they walked through the Heaven Sect. All the decorations that Gravis saw were lavish. Nearly every decoration was made out of gold or Energy Stones, and an expensive, bright- red carpet went through the whole building. Expensive chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and lots of well-drawn paintings adorned the wall. Gravis guessed that not even a king would have that much money.

Aion saw how Gravis was looking around and laughed. "We are Heavenborn and therefore blessed by karmic luck. The money is just rolling in, and we don't even know what to do with it," he explained. "Even though we invested so much into our decorations, our storages are still fully packed with more wealth. We have no idea what to do with it. It's even crazier in our headquarters in the Core-Continent."

Gravis looked around and felt utterly disconnected from reality. He never had wealth at his disposal, and Heaven always stopped him from gaining more. The only exception was the time back in the Proxy-Lightning Guild. Normally, He had just enough to increase his strength, and he only got those resources by risking his life.

Gravis couldn't empathize with the luck and all the wealth that the Heaven Sect had. They were lacking nothing and had everything, and he had never felt anything like that. When he was younger, he lacked strength and the permission to cultivate. When he started cultivating, he lacked resources to increase his strength. He had always lacked something that stopped him in his way forward. He couldn't emotionally process that he now "belonged" to such a tycoon sect.

Of course, Gravis had to play it cool not to awaken suspicion, and outwardly showed a sense of pride. He was acting like everything here was thanks to him. Gravis felt disgusted with himself since that contradicted his core beliefs, but there was nothing he could do against that right now. He needed strength. Beggars couldn't be choosers.

Aion smiled at Gravis as they continued walking. "We can have everything, but we also have to do our work," he continued. "Do you first want to relax for a while or go straight to work?" he asked as he looked at Gravis.

When one was continually lying, even an innocent question reeked of danger, and Gravis was unsure how to answer right now. "I am unused to something like this," Gravis said. "Heaven has always granted me lots of enemies and opportunities. That's how I managed to become so strong, so quickly. I heard that will is very important from others, and maybe Heaven has helped me with that?" Gravis asked with an unsure tone. He had decided to mix truth with lies.

Aion just laughed. "No, that's not what Heaven was doing, but I can't fault you for not knowing. It's your first time here, after all," Aion said with a smile. "Will is important for normal cultivators."

Aion turned around to Gravis and smirked at him. "But, it is useless to us."

Gravis was surprised. "How so? Everyone stronger than me always said that the will was one of the most important things for cultivators," Gravis asked innocently. "How is it different for us?"

Aion just continued smiling as he walked. "Have you ever heard of the concept behind a Will-Aura?" Aion asked.

"Will-Aura?" Gravis asked confusedly and then thought about his answer.

"One of the disciples of the Lightning Guild, who have hunted me, had shown something similar to my Heavenly Pressure. Is that a Will-Aura?" Gravis asked as he remembered the leader of the hit-squad from the Lightning Guild. Gravis had immediately felt his strong will when he had looked at him.

Aion nodded. "That's right! A Will-Aura is something similar to our Heavenly Pressure, yet it can never reach our power. When a normal cultivator goes through enough life and death calamities, their will

becomes so strong that it can manifest as a domain around them. Everything inside of that will be suppressed, similar to our Heavenly Pressure," Aion explained.

"But for us, it is impossible to have a Will-Aura," Aion continued with a smile. "Our Heavenly Pressure is a Will-Aura conferred by Heaven, and we receive it when we step into the Body Tempering Realm. When your cultivation increased, you have probably also noticed your Heavenly Pressure growing stronger, right?"

Gravis nodded.

"Heaven always gives us a Will-Aura according to our cultivation realm. That is what we call Heavenly Pressure. It is a Will-Aura, but it is not ours," Aion explained and then started laughing with pride. "And whose will can compare with the will of Heaven? No one! Our Heavenly Pressure is always the strongest!" Aion said with pride.

Gravis looked surprised and ecstatic. "Heaven is so powerful that our Heavenly Pressure is always the strongest? So, no one can have a stronger Will-Aura than me?" he asked in acted excitement.

Aion smiled, but still rubbed his chin in thought. "Practically, yes, but theoretically, no," he said, and Gravis looked at him in shock. "Heaven grants us the strongest Will-Aura that our bodies and mind can manage. The reason why it is not stronger is that, as you know, keeping up our Heavenly Pressure uses up our concentration."

Aion turned to Gravis with a smile, as they continued walking, side by side. "Heaven could, theoretically, give you a Will-Aura as strong as the strongest person in this world, but you couldn't keep it up for even a split-second, before your concentration runs out," Aion continued explaining.

"Heaven is, of course, the wisest and thus always grants us the perfect mix of intensity and concentration usage. A Will-Aura, on the other hand, does not require any concentration. So, theoretically, someone could have the strongest Will-Aura in the world in the Body Tempering Realm."

Aion laughed disdainfully. "But how hard is it to create such a Will-Aura? You have to know that creating a Will-Aura requires many genuine life and death calamities. The word, genuine, is the most important word in that sentence. You can't create a Will-Aura artificially."

Gravis looked confused. "But couldn't guilds, sects, and big families groom people with a strong Will- Aura?" he asked.

Aion nodded. "Theoretically, yes, but think about the cost," he patiently explained. "They would need to get enemies for their heirs that are not too weak or too strong. Then, the heirs would need to win continually. Some big sects have tried it in the past, and about 99% of their heirs died before they could manifest their Will-Aura. Can you imagine the amount of resources they had to pump into that endeavor?"

Gravis was now genuinely interested. "That sounds astronomical," Gravis remarked. "But what about the ones who managed to form their Will-Aura?" he asked.

Aion smiled disdainfully. "They have the weakest, newly-created Will-Aura, and in comparison to ours, their Will-Aura doesn't increase by itself. So, of those who have managed to create one, most died while training their will further, while the remainder didn't increase it. Up until the middle of Magic Gathering, they reigned supreme, but then they started meeting others who had established their Will- Aura by themselves. Just like that, they fell from the top to slightly above average."

Aion laughed again. "Of course, none of that includes us. As soon as we reach Magic Gathering, our Heavenly Pressure is just as strong as their Will-Aura, and it only grows stronger. We are always at the top because we are Heaven's children."

Gravis showed a proud expression. "So, there are no people with stronger Will-Auras than ours, right?" he asked, excitedly.

Aion continued smirking. "Of course, and if someone appears with a supremely strong Will-Aura, Heaven tells us, and we go kill them. No one is allowed to be stronger than us!" Aion proclaimed with pride.

Gravis mimicked Aion's expression and posture, but inside, he felt a shiver of fear. If Heaven could completely act as it pleased, Gravis would have already been killed. Only the constant pressure from his father forced Heaven to abide by its own rules, which it normally, regularly broke without a care. If Gravis didn't have his father behind him, Heaven would have already told the Heaven Sect about him. Gravis might not have any karmic luck, but he felt lucky that he had such a strong father!

"So, why did Heaven send me so many strong enemies, then?" asked Gravis innocently.

"We might not need to temper our will, but we still need battle experience. Without battle experience, we can't show our full power, and if we can't show our full power, we would be a disgrace to Heaven."

Aion smiled warmly as he looked into Gravis' eyes. "It seems like Heaven spoils you, especially. It has always granted you so many strong enemies. Just look at that guy from the Lightning Sect, who came here. But Heaven knows your strength and will never send something that you would die to."

Gravis was surprised. "You know about all my enemies?" he asked.

Aion nodded. "We have our eyes and ears everywhere. Our Heaven Sect has the biggest information network in the world, and nothing escapes our sight. I know everything that happened to you after you left the Lightning Guild. I was happy when I heard about you because I saw Heaven's hand behind everything in your life."

Aion laughed loudly. "It is actually funny. Think about it! If Heaven hadn't wanted you to survive, then how could you have survived a hit-squad with multiple people at the eighth level of Magic Gathering? Without karmic luck, how could you have ever reached your home, our Heaven Sect? Heaven has

granted all your opportunities because it knew that you would survive!" Aion proclaimed with pride and happiness. Gravis was a Heavenborn, and his glory was also Aion's glory.

Outside, Gravis smiled, but inside, he felt terrified. He didn't feel disdain for Aion's false believes but felt terrified about his argumentation. What Aion had said sounded very convincing, and everyone who didn't know the truth would completely believe him. It sounded very logical and very natural, yet it was the complete opposite of what had actually happened.

Everyone that read about Gravis' fights and enemies would say that Gravis would die. Gravis was always the weaker party in an actual fight and that he "coincidentally" always survived, would make people believe that there was something behind that. It all seemed too coincidental. If Gravis didn't know the truth, even he would believe Aion.

'No wonder everyone believes in Heaven's fairness. If someone rises, Heaven wants them to rise. If someone dies, Heaven wants them to die. That explanation basically attributes everything that happens to be under Heaven's will,' Gravis thought.

'Probably nearly everyone in this lower world shares this belief. If I continue down my path, I will probably become the enemy of everyone,' Gravis continued thinking in severity.

'Then let the whole world be my enemy!'

 

Chapter 118

"So, anyway," said Aion as he went back to the original topic. "Do you want to start working immediately or first relax for a couple of days?" he asked.

Gravis looked at Aion with burning eyes. "Heaven has sent me a lot of opportunities, and I want to repay it. I want to work!" Gravis said. Gravis was unsure what work the Heaven Sect even had. What were they supposed to do?

Aion smiled and nodded. "Alright, then let's first go to the storage area," he said as he changed their direction. Gravis followed, and they walked through multiple thick doors until they arrived at a reception desk, which was unoccupied. Aion didn't seem to mind and walked around the desk to a door behind it. He opened the door.

RUMBLE!

As soon as Aion unlocked the door, a wave of gold pushed the door open and flowed out. Gravis had to shield his eyes from the sudden bright shine of gold. Gold was absolutely everywhere, and when Gravis looked into the door, he could only see a wall of gold. Aion saw this and groaned.

"Ugh, every time with this damn gold!" Aion grumbled in annoyance. The gold around him started floating, and a path was created through the wall of gold. The storage room was so full that one had to dig through the gold. Luckily, Aion was in the Spirit Forming Realm and could just create a space for them.

Gravis' mind was a wild mess right now. He had thought that Aion was joking when he had said that the gold was even bursting out of their storage rooms. Aion was, apparently, very serious when he had said that. The gold was literally flowing out of the door. They were not walking through the storage room but digging through it. Gravis was surrounded by gold, and without Aion, he would have already been buried.

After a while, Aion unveiled a bookcase behind a wall of gold, and Aion started looking through the books. He quickly found what he was looking for and threw the book over his shoulder, to Gravis. Gravis caught it and looked at it. The cover of the book looked like a cloudy sky, and the title of the book read: "Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique".

"That's our cultivation technique," said Aion, as he turned back to Gravis. "Only our Heaven Sect is allowed to train in that cultivation technique. This was bestowed to us by Heaven, and it was meant to be used by us. Everyone not from the Heaven Sect that trains in this gets destroyed by Heaven."

Gravis looked at it and could guess its worth. This was probably the best cultivation technique in this whole lower world. "You are giving this to me, just like this?" Gravis asked.

Aion just laughed. "You're our junior brother, and every Heavenborn in the Heaven Sect trains in this technique. Why shouldn't I give this to you?" he asked jokingly.

Gravis looked through the book and read through crucial parts of it. What he read made him feel that all of this was unreal. Heaven had suppressed him all the way and never allowed him to gain anything easily. It used everyone and everything to leave Gravis with as few cultivation resources as possible.

Yet, now, Gravis had basically used Heaven's most reliable pawn to get something that was probably worth more than everything he had missed out in this world. Gravis felt a deep feeling of irony about this situation, and he started smiling.

He wasn't smiling because of this book, but because Gravis had finally taken something from Heaven. Was this one of Heaven's schemes? Gravis was 100% sure that it was not. Something this valuable would never be used as a gambling chip, even if Heaven was 99% sure that Gravis couldn't survive its scheme. The Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique was just too powerful.

What did it do?

Did it have immense attack power? No.

Did it have an unbreakable defense? No.

Did it have an unsurpassable speed? No.

Did it increase Gravis' fighting strength in any way? No.

The Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique only did one thing. It allowed the cultivator to absorb 10% of the Energy of a slain enemy. That was what Aion had done when he had killed the expert from the Lightning Guild. 90% of the Energy went back into nature, while Aion absorbed the remainder.

Why was this so powerful?

The strength of a cultivator was divided into two categories: The Cultivation Realm and the Battle Strength.

A cultivator needed both of those things to succeed. If someone had a high Cultivation Realm, but no Battle Strength, they would be suppressed by everyone else in that Realm and couldn't compete for resources. If that person needed that resource, then other people on a similar Realm would likely also need that. Like this, the person without battle strength would see their path forward blocked.

Battle strength, on the other hand, referred to the strength of a cultivator relative to his Realm. Of course, someone a major Realm higher than the cultivator could just overpower the cultivator. Yet, those people would typically not get involved in the resource fights of people of such level. Those resources were useless to them.

How did one increase their Realm? One had to go into seclusion and consume a lot of resources.

How did one increase their battle strength? One had to fight powerful enemies to increase their will and battle experience. A Will-Aura counted towards battle strength.

Those two concepts were separately trained. Yet, the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique combined both aspects into one. It allowed someone to increase their Realm by killing enemies.

Gravis was absolutely sure that Heaven did not intend for him to get this book since resources were one of the strongest weapons that Heaven used to keep Gravis weak. By giving Gravis this book, Heaven would only destroy one of its most potent weapons.

Were there side-effects that Heaven could use to sabotage Gravis with that technique? No! Gravis' will was already too strong, and Heaven could not influence him directly. The Energy that this technique created would also not be changed in any way since it was just normal Energy.

This book enabled Gravis to lessen Heaven's power over him since Heaven could no longer suppress him with cultivation resources. Gravis also had a lot of enemies with the Lightning Guild and Fire Guild, and Gravis saw how Heaven slowly lost its grip on him. Gravis' eyes burned with battle intent.

'I'm slowly escaping your control, Heaven. I bet you are absolutely furious right now, but you don't dare to show it,' Gravis thought. 'Just you wait. This is just the beginning!'

As time progressed, Gravis started to win against Heaven more and more. Gravis had been utterly helpless against Heaven's schemes in the beginning. The Basin of Nature was his first win against Heaven. His second win was when he had outsmarted Heaven by keeping Skye's parent around. Now, this was his third win.

'You are losing your control over me,' Gravis thought with battle-intent as he looked at the ceiling of gold.

'Just wait for me!'

 

Chapter 119

"Catch," Gravis heard a shout from his front, which tore him out of his reverie. Gravis saw a saber flying at him and quickly caught it. He looked at the saber and was stunned by its beauty. It was completely black, similar to his Void-Stone saber, but compared to that, this new saber had a lot of fine Formation Array lines going through its body. It was an Energy weapon and an incredibly impressive one at that.

Gravis looked up from the saber and at Aion, who just smiled at him. "Why? I can understand the cultivation technique since everyone trains in it, but why the saber?" he asked confusedly.

Aion chuckled a little. "That is a personal present from me," Aion said. "You have seen the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, so you should know why I am grateful to you."

Gravis thought for a second and then knew what Aion meant. "You mean that guy from the Lightning Guild?"

Aion nodded. "Exactly. He is at the same level as me, which means that killing him granted me quite some Spirit. The Cultivation Technique also works with Spirit, by the way," Aion explained lightheartedly. "It's hard finding Spirit Forming cultivators out here in the Middle-Continent, so I am actually quite thankful for your help."

Gravis smiled bitterly. "But I have done nothing. I have not helped you in killing him."

Aion just laughed. "Even though we are the strongest sect in the world, we still have to abide by Heaven's rules. Heaven is fair, and I am only allowed to kill cultivators that have broken the rules. If that guy hadn't jumped into the sect, I couldn't have killed him."

Gravis sighed and accepted the saber. Even though Aion had been kind to him, Gravis always kept in mind that the Heaven Sect was his enemy. Just him saying that Heaven was fair reminded Gravis of that fact. Gravis had to act thankful, but he didn't need to overdo it. With that thought, Gravis put his

new saber onto his back without any bad feelings. For him, this could be considered as plundering his enemies.

He had already looked at the saber and judged that it was a peak-grade Energy weapon. This meant that this saber could even be used at the first level of Spirit Forming without it breaking immediately. Gravis had just thrown out his old saber to save his life from the Spirit Forming expert from the Lightning Guild and immediately got a new one.

Gravis chuckled lightly in his mind but didn't show it outside. 'Father was right. We might not have any karmic luck, but we can take from people with karmic luck. Through my deception, I managed to take two treasures from an organization with a lot of karmic luck,' Gravis thought.

Gravis knew that if Aion and the Heaven Sect ever found out the truth, they would have never given anything like this to him. They would have killed him instead. From the very beginning, it was inevitable that he and the Heaven Sect would become mortal enemies, and Gravis was continually treading on thin ice while being around Aion. Even though it didn't feel like it, one wrong sentence could doom him immediately.

Did Gravis feel bad for taking the stuff from the Heaven Sect? Maybe just a tiny bit, but not much. They were his enemies, after all, and Aion being nice didn't change a thing.

"Alright, let's get out of here," said Aion as he walked back to the entrance, the gold moving to the side by itself. Gravis followed Aion, and they quickly walked out of the door. A lot of gold was in the reception room, and Gravis wondered what they were even doing with all this wealth.

Aion used his Spirit and pushed all the gold back into the storage room. He then closed the door with a lot of force and locked it.

"Wait!" shouted a voice from the entrance of the reception hall.

Gravis looked over and saw a young man with fiery red hair and white robes with gold rims entering through the door. He wore the same outfit as Aion, just without the rings. The young man carried a big and full sack behind him. "I need to put this into the storage room," he said, looking at Aion.

Aion turned to him. "Cerb, is that another delivery of Magic-Stones?" Aion asked with furrowed brows.

Cerb walked closer. "Most of it, yes. I managed to exchange the gold for Magic-Stones, but on the way, I found an abandoned wagon that had huge amounts of gold in it, so I took that as well," he said with guilt.

Gravis was confused. Why was this man guilty if he brought in some gold? Aion, on the other hand, just sighed helplessly. "Stop bringing home all this gold, Cerb! We don't have any space for it! Why do you think I send you out to exchange all the gold for Magic-Stones?" Aion said, annoyed.

Cerb looked to the side. "I'm sorry. I know that I shouldn't bring more gold, but I just can't help myself," Cerb said with embarrassment. "I just see it lying there, and I feel sorry for the poor, abandoned gold."

Gravis felt utterly disconnected from reality right now. The Heaven Sect had so much wealth that it was even considered bad behavior to bring in more. Aion sighed again and massaged the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "It's okay. How much is it this time?" he asked.

Cerb looked up and emptied the sack full of gold and Energy Stones. Gravis could see hundreds of Energy Stones and thousands upon thousands of gold coins. Energy Stones were about as big as gold coins, so exchanging 1,000 gold for an Energy Stone would really help with the storage issue. Yet, judging by the gold coins that Gravis could see…

"You idiot!" shouted Aion. "That's even more gold than you have exchanged! Why do I send you to exchange gold constantly? It's to decrease the volume of gold! Yet, you come back with even more gold! That's it! The guild is not accepting any more gold from you! You took it, you keep it!"

Cerb's expression turned nervous. "But where? My room is even fuller than our storage!" he said nervously.

"Not my problem!" said Aion angrily. After Aion said that, the Energy Stones started levitating and flying towards him. When they reached Aion, they just vanished. "Here!" said Aion aggressively, as the door to the storage room burst open again. The gold in the storage flowed out again, and Aion made a whole cubic meter of it levitate. The remainder got pushed back, and the door closed again.

PLOMP!

The gold hit the floor in front of Cerb, and his face whitened. "Exchange all that, and don't come back until you do!" Aion remarked angrily. "And don't you dare exchange your own gold!"

When Cerb heard that, he fell onto his knees and looked devastated. What was he supposed to do with all this gold?

"Senior brother?" Cerb heard from his side and now noticed Gravis. He had never seen Gravis before and wondered who that could be. "I could take your gold," said Gravis carefully.

When Cerb heard that, he looked like his savior had arrived. "Really?" asked Cerb. "You would do that for me? But we don't even know each other! Why would you help me?"

Gravis remembered how Aion acted and followed suit. "Because we are brothers. Your glory is my glory, and your problems are my problems," Gravis proclaimed with a brotherly aura.

Gravis' sacrifice deeply touched cerb. "Thank you so much, junior brother," he said, honesty and thankfulness radiating from his voice. "I'll never forget this!"

Gravis walked closer, and his hands shook as they closed in on the gold. Cerb saw this and felt even more grateful. His junior brother was probably also oppressed by a mountain of gold, yet he still

deigned to help him.

"Stop!" shouted Aion, and Gravis froze. Gravis turned to Aion with a questioning look. "Heaven has made you poor for a reason! I might not know what Heaven is planning with keeping you poor, but how could our mortal minds comprehend the thoughts of Heaven? You are not allowed to take gold or Magic-Stones, Gravis!" Aion declared.

Gravis' outstretched hand clenched into a fist and shook even more, and his face scrunched up into a cocktail of emotions. After a while, he sighed and retracted his hand. "I'm sorry, senior brother Aion. I have nearly acted against Heaven," Gravis apologized through clenched teeth. "This won't happen again."

Cerb was thrown back into devastation and grabbed his hair in panic. The poor guy looked like he was close to having a mental breakdown. After some seconds, Cerb started listlessly taking out two sacks. He shoved his own gold into one sack while looking at the sect's gold before him. It seemed like he evaluated how many sacks he needed to carry that.

Cerb looked hopefully at Gravis and then at Aion. "Can our new junior brother help me? He can surely keep watch over me, so I don't bring more gold home," he nearly pleaded with Aion.

Gravis' eyes lighted up. He could surely get some gold by staying close to Cerb!

"No, Gravis already has another job," said Aion and both, Gravis and Cerb, deflated. "He's an executioner!"

Gravis' eyes narrowed, while Cerb looked confused. Cerb turned to Gravis and looked closer at Gravis' cultivation, which made Cerb, apparently, even more confused. "Our new junior brother is at the fourth level of Magic Gathering. We already have Adis on that level, and we don't need two in that range," commented Cerb.

Aion smiled slyly. "Gravis will work as a fifth level executioner. He can kill confidently two levels above his level," stated Aion proudly.

Cerb's eyes widened. "What?"

 

Chapter 120

Cerb turned to Gravis with wide eyes. "You can do that?" he asked in disbelief.

Gravis simply nodded. He was not surprised that Aion knew about his battle strength. Aion had already proven how good the information network of the Heaven Sect was. Gravis could also infer that Aion didn't fully grasp his battle strength yet, or else he would know that Gravis had already killed someone at the seventh level of Energy Gathering.

Gravis never had a comparison in the Energy Gathering Realm. He didn't know if there were other people in the Energy Gathering Realm who could jump ranks to fight stronger people. Apparently, that was pretty rare. Gravis guessed that all Heavenborn could probably jump one rank due to their Heavenly Pressure. Though, jumping two ranks seemed to be rare.

"Gravis," said Aion, as Gravis turned to him. "We have three regular jobs that we have to do. The first one," said Aion as he pointed at Cerb with his thumb. "Is exchanging gold for Magic-Stones. Our headquarter in the Core-Continent doesn't need gold, but Magic-Stones are useful. Cerb is our only person right now whose job it is to exchange gold for Magic-Stones."

Cerb was proud that he was the sole person responsible for that. "Though he is not particularly good at it," Aion shot him down, and Cerb didn't seem as happy anymore.

"What about the other two jobs?" Gravis asked.

"Another job is the scouting of new Heavenborn," Aion continued. "New Heavenborn don't know that they are Heavenborn and also don't know about our guild. Most of the time, Heaven tells our High Priest about a new Heavenborn that is ready to join us, though not always. You were one of those exceptions. Heaven has not told us about you, previously."

Gravis nodded. Why would Heaven tell them about him being a Heavenborn, when he clearly wasn't. Gravis was happy that Heaven seemed to be sloppy at times. If he were the only "Heavenborn" that

had not been announced previously, it would have been way harder for Gravis to worm his way into the Heaven Sect.

"So, those scouts get sent to the locations to retrieve our junior brothers and sisters?" asked Gravis.

Aion nodded. "Exactly. We are responsible for the south and the east of the Middle and Outer- Continent," Aion explained. "As you already know, the distances are far, and it takes a long time to go to their locations, find them, and bring them back. We have two sisters who are responsible for scouting, and they are very rarely here."

"I guess the last job is the job of an executioner?" asked Gravis.

Aion nodded again, but before he continued, he kicked some gold coins into Cerb's face. "Why are you still here? Go, do your job!" he shouted while pointing at the door. Cerb was listening at the side, but when he heard Aion shouting and felt the gold hitting his face, he quickly scrambled to collect the gold. Shortly after, he waved to Gravis and went out of the door.

Aion gestured with his head that Gravis should follow and also went out of the door. They walked down a hallway, and Aion continued his explanation. "We need to gather fighting experience, and we also need to do our jobs, which is to hunt the people who go against Heaven. An executioner's job is to hunt those criminals down and to kill them."

Gravis walked beside Aion and looked at him. "How do we judge someone to be a criminal?" asked Gravis.

"Either Heaven directly tells our headquarter and they inform us or a branch manager decides it," Aion pointed at himself and smiled. "I am the branch manager of this area of the Heaven Sect, by the way."

Gravis nodded. He had already guessed as much. Aion had already shown his incredible power in front of Gravis, and Gravis guessed that there was probably nearly no one in the Spirit Forming Realm in

this branch of the Heaven Sect. Suddenly, Gravis had a thought.

"Hey, senior brother," he said as they continued walking. "How come you came to find me and not someone else? Isn't that the job of the scouts?" Gravis asked.

Aion smiled. "Funnily enough, I heard about you in the guild meeting of the Middle-Continent. Every four years, the Elemental Guilds in the Middle-Continent gather and let their juniors battle for glory and money, of course, that excludes us. The Guild Master of the Lightning Guild in the south told me about you. By the way, if you didn't know, there are four guilds of each element in the middle continent, while there two for us."

Aion laughed. "I didn't remember your name in the dossiers about new Heavenborn, so I grew interested and suspicious. Going to that Proxy-Lightning Guild on the way home didn't take much time." Aion smiled and looked at the ceiling. "I am sure that Heaven has guided me to you."

'Yeah, I'm also sure of that,' thought Gravis. This was one of the ploys of Heaven to kill him, yet, in the end, it had benefitted Gravis. If Heaven hadn't sent Aion to kill him, then Gravis wouldn't have gotten into the Heaven Sect that easily. If Heaven hadn't sent Aion to Gravis, Aion might not have defended Gravis from the expert of the Lightning Guild. Aion might have decided that if Heaven wanted Gravis to live, he would have survived the encounter by himself.

"Then I am happy to be under Heaven's guidance," said Gravis with a smile. 'Yeah, as if.'

Aion nodded. They had been walking for a while and had also climbed multiple stairs. Yet, Gravis had not seen another person, except Cerb, so far. The Heaven Sect seemed luxurious but very empty. "How many people are in the Heaven Sect?" Gravis asked.

"Including you, we are eleven now," Aion said. "I am the branch manager. One disciple is responsible for the exchanges. Two disciples are responsible for scouting, and seven disciples, including you, are

responsible for executions." Aion looked like he remembered something. "We should get back to the topic, actually. We got sidetracked."

They stopped walking at the end of a hallway on the highest floor of the castle. "So, your job as an executioner is to kill criminals one level higher than you, but in your case, it is two levels higher. The reason for that is that you can't get any meaningful combat experience otherwise. On top of that, with the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, you can also increase your Realm like that. Though remember, the criminals put up a fight and can redeem themselves by killing you," explained Aion.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "They can redeem themselves by killing me? But haven't they been branded as criminals? How would that redeem them?" Gravis asked.

Aion smiled. "If the criminal manages to win against a Heavenborn, someone who has the highest karmic luck and Heavenly Pressure, then Heaven obviously doesn't want that person to die. We can't read the thoughts of Heaven, so we can only find out via this method. Heaven only talks to our High Priest, after all," Aion explained with patience.

Gravis nodded. "That makes sense," he agreed.

Aion also nodded. "We were missing someone to hunt the criminals at the sixth level of Magic Gathering, so you came at the perfect time. But before you can begin," suddenly, the door at the end of the corridor and another one in the middle of the corridor opened. "You first need to learn the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique."

Aion pointed to the door at the end of the hallway. "This is my office and living room. I am always available," Aion said and then pointed at the other opened door. "This is your room. First, learn the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique. That should take some days. One week later, come to my office, and you can start working."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "It shouldn't take that long to learn it."

Aion groaned. "You are new here," he said. "You don't need to stress yourself out. Just learn it and when you're done, go and talk to your senior brothers and senior sisters. You can also go out and play with your Hurricane Hawk, for all I care. Just relax for a week, and then we can start."

Gravis was a little surprised when he heard that. Aion seemed a little too frustrated with Gravis wanting to start earlier. He had also seemed a little too frustrated by Cerb bringing in more gold. Gravis wondered if this was due to his water element or due to Heavenborn not strengthening their will. 'He is acting kind of similar to that one Guild Master from the Proxy-Water Guild.'

"No problem. Thank you, senior brother," Gravis said.

Aion nodded and went into his office. Gravis also walked into his room, and he felt like he should be surprised about his room, even though he wasn't. Just like the rest of the Heaven Sect, this room was incredibly lavish and full of decorations. His bed was gigantic, and probably over ten people could comfortably sleep on it.

Gravis couldn't wrap his head around the fact that this was now his room. Even back in his homeworld, his room was rather spartan. As he thought about it, his father's room was actually also rather empty. Gravis wondered if this was so that cultivators didn't get enchanted by worldly wealth. If Gravis would have grown up in such a luxurious room with several servants, he might not have desired strength that much.

Gravis looked around the room and sighed.

"I'm not used to this."