Ch. 191..200

Chapter 191

Gravis looked to the horizon. There, he could see a lot of black buildings and lightning striking the ground.

It was the Lightning Guild.

Gravis had never intended to become an enemy of the Lightning Guild, but he couldn't help it. They had attacked him, and he had had to strike back. Yet, he never forgot his debt to Gorn. This whole thing was actually a bizarre situation for him.

He wanted to help the Lightning Guild, yet they wanted to kill him. Though, were they wrong in doing that? Not really. He had killed tens of their disciples, after all. This whole thing could create a whole debate about the rights and wrongs of both parties.

Gravis was already inside the Guild Master's and the Vice-Guild Masters' Spirits. They hadn't talked to him yet, which either meant that they weren't happy about him being there, or they didn't recognize him. 'Well, then let me be the initiating party.'

Inside the Lightning Guild, the Guild Master and the Vice-Guild Masters were talking with each other, trying to guess the identity of the new person. There were a lot of confusing things about Gravis.

"I don't know who that is. I've never seen him before. His cultivation could also, at best, be described as weird," said one of the Vice-Guild Masters.

The Guild Master was rolling some steel-balls in his hands and creating annoying, cracking noises with them. Luckily, the Vice-Guild Masters were already used to that sound. "His whole cultivation is so strange," he said to the others.

The two Vice-Guild Masters nodded. "Yeah. He obviously has a Spirit, which means he is at the Spirit Forming Realm, yet the Magic I feel from him is like he is at the third level of Magic Gathering," said

one of the Vice-Guild Masters. They could only feel the Energy passively stored inside Gravis' body. His dantian only had lightning, after all.

The other one nodded in affirmation, "But I also feel an indescribably powerful and vast amount of lightning in his body. I have never seen anything like it," he said.

"He should be from the Lightning Sect, but I have never met someone like him. I haven't even met someone with a similar cultivation as him," said the Guild Master. "I wonder, is he a new Spirit Forming Realm expert? But then what's up with his weird cultivation? On top of that, I also feel like I've seen him before. Though, I can't place my finger on it."

The other two also nodded. "Yeah, he does look familiar, but I am not sure who he is."

"Hello, Guild Master," Gravis sent to the Guild Master of the Lightning Guild at that time. "I've come to repay the deaths of the disciples I have killed and to repay the resources that the Proxy-Lightning Guild has granted me."

The Guild Master forwarded this voice transmission to his two Vice-Guild Masters, and they all looked at each other in confusion. The person had said that he had been in a Proxy-Lightning Guild, which would mean that he had to have been part of their guild, at some point. What confused them even more was him saying that he had killed several of their disciples. No lightning disciple had killed several of their disciples in recent decades. The only time this happened was…

"Gravis!" shouted the Guild Master.

The other two looked at the Guild Master, and then their eyes widened. "Yeah, he does look like Gravis," said one of the Vice-Guild Masters. "What happened to him? His cultivation is so weird, yet I feel immense danger from him. It's like my instincts are telling me not to fight him."

The Guild Master nodded solemnly. "I feel the same. Just a couple of months ago, he had been at the fourth level of Magic Gathering, yet now, I feel like I can't even fight him. He is becoming incredibly powerful, incredibly fast."

One of the Vice-Guild Masters looked down in thought. "I am thankful that you stopped us from attacking him, back then. If we had failed, our whole guild might've been destroyed."

The Guild Master nodded again. "Yes. Originally, I had planned on releasing a bounty on his head when it was revealed that he wasn't a Heavenborn, but he rose to power that quickly, that it's already too late for that."

The Guild Master sighed. "The best decision might just be to accept his repayment and let bygones be bygones. Rules are dead, while people are alive. It might not be fair to the dead disciples, but we can't do anything against him anymore."

"I know that you probably don't want to speak to me," Gravis said with another voice transmission after he didn't get an answer for several seconds. "I'll just leave my repayment here, and you can collect it. Now, the only open debt, that I still have with your guild, is Gorn's death. I won't ever forget that, and I will repay the whole Lightning Sect in the future. Just wait for me."

BOOM!

The earth exploded as one cubic-meter of gold hit the ground. Such a vast amount of gold weighed nearly 20 tons! This was more than enough as repayment. "Goodbye," said Gravis as he quickly left the area of the Lightning Guild again.

The three people couldn't even process what had happened. Was this a whole cubic-meter of gold? Heavens, where did Gravis get so much gold? With this gold, they received enough money to temper the bodies of over 25 disciples to the tenth level of Energy Gathering. Gravis had given them way more than necessary.

"Should we… take it?" asked one of the Vice-Guild Masters.

The Guild Master sighed but didn't know what he should feel right now. Was it okay for them to accept this? He had said that they should just accept it, but he hadn't expected the repayment to be this big.

Yet, when he thought back about how many of their people Gravis had killed, he felt like this was the absolute bare minimum that Gravis could do to repay them. With this gold, they could give the families of the dead disciples a worry-free life. It might not bring the dead back, but it, at least, was something.

"We accept it," said the Guild Master. Suddenly, a lot of different things appeared beside him, and then the gold vanished. The Guild Master had to clear his Spirit Space first, and he pointed at the miscellaneous items on the ground. "Bring those to the storage rooms. I will keep the gold for now."

The two Vice-Guild Masters nodded and retrieved the multitude of things. They trusted their Guild Master. He was very close to lightning, and lightning hated deceit. He would never pocket this gold, at least not if he still wanted to keep control over the majority of his lightning.

The Vice-Guild Masters left, and the Guild Master looked outside his window, into the direction where Gravis went. "I'm looking forward to your eventual repayment of Gorn's death."

The Guild Master sighed again. "Gorn, you not only stayed in the mind of an incredible genius but also helped the whole Lightning Sect more than you could have ever hoped. If you can see this, I think you should be happy right now," the Guild Master mumbled to himself.

Meanwhile, Gravis was already traveling to his next target. Throughout the last couple of days, he had eaten a lot of body tempering pills like they were candies. Yet, when Gravis put another pill into his mouth, he noticed something.

"Oh, my body is about to advance!"

 

Chapter 192

Gravis sat down when he felt his body advancing. He checked his Spirit Space and noticed that he only had around 50 body tempering pills left. "Wow, I really ate a lot of those pills. Spirit Forming Experts probably have to work for many years to get enough wealth to upgrade their bodies."

Gravis retrieved all the remaining pills and started stuffing them into his mouth. 'No reason to keep them. Might as well just take all of them now,' he thought, stuffing his face with pills. If anyone else saw this, they would grow incredibly angry. Every single one of those pills was costly, yet Gravis was just stuffing them into his maw.

Gravis felt his body heat up, and his breath quickened as well. He concentrated and felt a barrier inside of him. Gravis narrowed his eyes and looked at the barrier with concentration. "Break!" he shouted, and the barrier exploded. As the barrier broke, his breathing grew even faster. His heart beat furiously in his chest.

Blub Blub!

Black bubbles appeared on his body as the body used the additional air to push some black stuff out. Gravis' clothing was ruined immediately. After around five minutes, everything stopped, and Gravis took a deep breath.

"Hurr," Gravis retched as a thick smell of shit burst through his nose because of the deep breath he had just taken. Shortly after, he even barfed out some half-digested pills. Gravis immediately destroyed his clothing with lightning and jumped away.

BZZZ!

Gravis immediately used his lightning to destroy the black stuff around his body, but it didn't work. Those impurities that his body expelled had been part of his body, and therefore, also had his lightning resistance. He couldn't destroy them with lightning. Gravis retched again as he smelt himself. He

quickly checked the surrounding 50 kilometers with his body but didn't see any water. Yet, he saw something else. 'This has to do!' he shouted to himself in his mind.

Gravis burst forth with all his physical speed and reached a small sand area a couple of kilometers away. This sandpit was in the middle of a forest, which would make anyone suspicious. Of course, there was a good reason to become suspicious about that.

Gravis jumped into the sandpit, using his full power to dig.

SHING CRACK!

A middle-grade Energy Beast used its pincers to attack him, yet its pincers cracked as they hit Gravis' steel-like body. Gravis had already noticed this beast before, but he couldn't care about it right now. He used his lightning to move forward in the sand, making the sharp edges of the sand rub all over his body.

The beast jumped out of the sandpit, shocked by the physical power of this intruder. It was an ant lion, and they used sand for hunting prey. Normal ant lions hunted in the desert since there was plenty of sand, but such a strong beast didn't need natural sand to hunt. It was an Energy Beast in tune with the earth element, so it could create its sandpit wherever it wanted. Right now, it only watched its sandpit with anxiety. What was the plan of the intruder?

Meanwhile, Gravis was quickly moving around in the sand, using it as a whetstone to grind all the dirt away on his body. The ant lion watched as Gravis moved back and forth in its sandpit and grew confused. What was the intruder doing?

After around two minutes, Gravis jumped out again. His skin was perfectly white, and no black stuff could be seen anymore. Gravis smelled his body, and his nose wrinkled. "I can still smell it, but it's bearable," he said.

Gravis quickly retrieved his stuff and put on more clothes.

At least, he would have. Sadly, it seemed like he had just destroyed his last pair of clothes. On top of that, he had destroyed his robes from the Heaven Sect when he had changed his clothes. He had thought that he would never need them again. Like this, he stood around, naked.

Then, Gravis took note of the ant lion, which was warily watching him. "Oh, sorry about your home. Seems like you have to make a new one," he said. Gravis quickly left in search of more clothing.

Some time after Gravis had left, the ant lion calmed down and went back to its sandpit. Yet, it stopped when it smelled something. It let out some insect-like noise and walked away from the pit again. Its sandpit smelled nasty, and now it had to create a new one. It glared into the direction where Gravis went to and let out more noises. If it could speak like a human, it would call him an asshole.

Meanwhile, Gravis was inspecting the new power of his body and came to an interesting conclusion. "This is interesting," he said to himself. "Beasts have a way more powerful body than I had initially thought. When I had been in the Body Tempering Realm, my body had been stronger than a high- grade Demonic Beast at the end. Yet, right now, my body is only equal to a high-grade Energy Beast, even though it is equal to the initial stage of Spirit Forming for humans."

A high-grade Energy Beast was, regarding its Realm, about as high as an eighth level Energy Gathering human. Yet, their bodies were around as powerful as someone with a body equal to Spirit Forming. Apparently, the gap between the bodies of beasts and humans only increased the further he progressed.

"I wonder," Gravis mumbled. "Would I need to reach the middle of the Unity Realm with my body to equal a high-grade Spirit Beast's body? Their physical power seems to just get crazier and crazier."

Gravis was right. Heaven created Beasts so that they could function as tempering experiences for humans of the same realm. Demonic Beasts get access to Energy when they become Energy Beasts,

yet their Energy was way weaker than the Energy of humans. How could they function as tempering like that? Thus, Heaven increased their physical power even more.

When people reached the Spirit Forming Realm, they received access to finer control and further concentration of their Energy. Like this, they would become better at defending, attacking, fleeing, and became way more versatile. Spirit Beasts received some knowledge, but that wouldn't be enough to close the distance between the new weapons of Spirit Forming Experts. Therefore, their bodies became even more powerful. Around 95% of a beast's power came from their physical power alone.

Starting at the higher Energy Gathering Realm, it became straight-up impossible for humans to temper their bodies to the same level as the corresponding beast. If humans could equal the physical power of such beasts, the whole point of tempering would vanish. The beast had to be able to put up a fight.

Gravis didn't know all this, but he had some suspicions.

After some minutes of running, he finally found a town coming into contact with his Spirit. "I can buy some clothes there," he said as he got a little bit closer. After he walked for several kilometers, the whole town was inside his Spirit, but he was still many kilometers away. He didn't walk into the town. Even with his powerful will, he would feel embarrassed by walking around naked inside a town.

He quickly checked the town with his Spirit for clothing and found a clothing store. He checked out some good clothes and retrieved them. "I'll buy some clothes," his voice appeared in the attendant's head, who quickly jumped up in fright. "Here's some gold!"

A small cube of gold appeared at the counter, frightening the attendant even more. Gravis quickly put on a silver shirt and some silver pants, ignoring the attendant. "Might as well change my clothing to match my eyes and hair," he mumbled. Of course, this time, he bought a lot of spare clothes, including some other colors, if he felt like wearing them.

Without paying the town any more attention, he left for his next target. He had paid way more than those clothes were worth, so the store shouldn't be angry about him "taking" some clothes.

His next target was relatively close, and he would only need about an hour to arrive there.

 

Chapter 193

After around an hour of traveling, Gravis finally arrived at his goal. Yet, in that one hour of travel, he remembered something peculiar. "I'm 17 now!" he had said.

Yes, Gravis had been in this lower world for nearly a year, and he recently had his birthday. It irked him a little that there was no one around with whom he could celebrate his birthday, but he only had to remember his goal. As soon as he reached the Unity Realm, he would be back with his family. The thought about his birthday had only been just that, a thought. He quickly focused his mind again at his current goal.

Initially, he hadn't had a reason to go here. Originally, Gravis only had four targets in the Middle- Continent, but his new movement technique made Gravis decide on this new goal.

Gravis looked at the gigantic volcano and the many houses. This was the Fire Guild.

Why did Gravis decide to come to the Fire Guild? To explain that, one would need to understand how the Fire Guild made their money.

Different Elemental Guilds had different specialties in earning money.

The Wind Guild made most of their money by renting or selling Energy Beasts. Of course, such a powerful beast wouldn't let themselves be worked like slaves, so those Energy Beasts were less for transportation or work and more for protection. The people that bought or rented those beasts had to treat them like their ancestors, basically. Otherwise, the beast would get angry.

The Water Guild infused their Life Energy and water into different plants, therefore creating incredibly expensive and powerful natural treasures. The Water Guild made their money by selling those herbs. They were also pretty good alchemists.

The Darkness Guild had the most controversial way of earning money. They ran an assassination business. One must never forget that there were a lot of towns and cities with their own nobles and people with high status. Jaimy's past was an excellent example of that. His clan had been an auxiliary clan of the Lightning Guild, and they had fought long feuds with other such clans. The assassinations of the Darkness Guild were precisely for people like that. Of course, their services were expensive.

The Light Guild mainly worked as healers and protectors. They took many towns under their name for protection and collected taxes. Of course, a sick or injured person could also go to the Water Guild for healing, but their prices were multiple times higher. The reason for that was that the water disciples used their own Life Energy to heal, which exhausted them tremendously. That was why most people still went to the Light Guild for healing. The Water Guild was just too expensive.

The Lightning Guild had many smaller ways to earn money. Due to their honest bearing that hated deceit, the disciples were often hired as guards for deliveries, protectors, and surprisingly also as a bank. If someone wanted to keep their belongings safe, there was no better place than the Lightning Guild. No matter how expensive the thing was, it would always stay untouched as long as it remained in the Lightning Guild.

That left the Earth Guild and Fire Guild. How did they earn their money?

Interestingly, they both earned their money the same way. They were the leading figures in creating equipment. In order to forge excellent equipment, one needed supremely tempered materials and high control over fire. Of course, the Earth Guild and Fire Guild only had one of those aspects each, which would not be enough to make them the overlords of forging.

But, of course, the guilds knew that. So, they have long created an agreement that 30% of their own disciples good in forging would reside in the other guild. Like this, they always had a combination of someone who knew how to control the earth and someone that knew how to control fire at the same

time. Of course, such a luxury service where two forgers had to dedicate their time to a single item cost just as much.

Gravis decided to go to the Fire Guild for precisely that reason. His newly created movement technique was fast but looked stupid and left a considerable trail in its wake. Anyone could track him by following that trail.

On top of that, it was a pain in the ass if there was just a slight elevation in Gravis' path. The grip of his saber, which obviously couldn't cut, was still above ground, which meant that it hit any minor elevation. Gravis had been thrown off his saber many times due to that. He needed an alternative.

Gravis quickly checked the guild with his Spirit and found the Guild Master. After he met the Guild Masters of Lightning and Wind, he already knew that he had to take the initiative in telling them who he was.

"Hello, Guild Master," he sent to the Guild Master. "You might not recognize me with my new look, but I am Gravis. You know, the guy who had offered life and death tempering about a week back."

Initially, the Guild Master was observing Gravis carefully, trying to figure out who he was. Luckily, Gravis' voice transmission came quickly, and a light of recognition shined in the Guild Master's eyes.

"Oh, Gravis!" he sent back. "You've truly changed. You've also reached the Spirit Forming Realm in only a little more than a week. Honestly, if I hadn't seen you fight previously, I wouldn't believe that your strength increased that quickly. What brings you here?" asked the Guild Master.

Gravis smiled politely. "Thank you for your kind words, Guild Master. I came to request the forging of an unusual object. May I enter?" Gravis asked.

The Guild Master grew interested in what Gravis had said. The forging of an unusual object? This would be interesting. "Wait a moment," the Guild Master sent back. "I'll inform the person responsible

for those things."

"Thank you, Guild Master," sent Gravis back.

Not five seconds later, Gravis got his answer. "Hello, Gravis. You want to commission something from our forge?" asked a voice inside Gravis' head.

Gravis was a little surprised that someone at the Spirit Forming Realm contacted him directly because of something as simple as forging. With his Spirit, Gravis looked over at the spot where this Spirit originated and saw someone wearing a Vice-Guild Master's robe hammering away at a weapon. Apparently, this Vice-Guild Master was a qualified forger as well.

"Hello, Vice-Guild Master. Yes, I have a peculiar request. It is kind of hard to describe," Gravis sent back.

The Vice-Guild Master smiled slightly. "Interesting. Come over to my place. I'll be done in around ten minutes. Then, we can discuss as long as you want about this object. I am always interested in special commissions."

Gravis went over to the smithing hall, passing many disciples on the way, who looked at Gravis strangely. It was incredibly rare for outsiders to walk around inside their guild. All the forging commissions were either discussed outside of the guild or came in via letter.

Gravis didn't mind the looks and quickly weaved through the crowd. With his Spirit, he knew where everyone was and had no issue in dodging the thick crowd.

Suddenly, a disciple basically sprinted into the middle of the road, blocking Gravis' way. Gravis hadn't seen that one coming, and they collided.

THUMP!

Gravis tried to stop, but he couldn't stop himself completely. He hit the disciple, who quickly fell over. The disciple groaned a little and rubbed his head. Then, he stood up with anger in his eyes and looked furiously at Gravis.

"Watch where you're going, you blind fuck!"

 

Chapter 194

"Tch, here he goes again," said one of the onlookers to another one in disdain.

"Yeah, I sometimes even wonder if he is actually part of our guild," another one said.

The issue of why those disciples didn't like that particular one was what he was famous for doing. This was not the first time this disciple had done something like that. He would run out of a blind spot and purposefully collide with people. Then, he would grow angry and demand compensation. He had actually earned a lot of money from doing that because no one wanted to offend someone from the Fire Guild. The other disciples looked down on him because of this dirty, shameless habit of his.

"Do I look blind to you?" asked Gravis evenly.

"Ye-"the disciple wanted to speak immediately but stopped. That was often how it went. He would call the person a blind fuck, and then they would often counter with them not being blind. He would then say that they looked blind because of their dog-eyes, and then he would tell them his status, making the other side retreat. Like this, he could get compensation.

Yet, when he looked at Gravis, he realized that something was not right. The issue was that Gravis actually looked like he was blind. His eye color was silver or grey, depending on the person one asked. On top of that, it looked like his eyes had received several cuts. Gravis looked blind from his point of view.

This was not how it was supposed to go. Did he actually block the path of a blind person? All the drive of the disciple left him as he felt genuinely guilty. He had no problems doing that to other people but doing that to a blind person actually made him feel guilty.

"Hey, I'm sorry for calling you blind, okay?" he said apologetically. "But you really need to watch… ehm… you should look out for… fuck… you need to be more careful on the street," the disciple said, fumbling over his words.

"Do I look blind or not?" asked Gravis again, this time, with more heaviness in his voice.

The disciple didn't know how to act. Gravis sounded like a non-blind person would speak in this scenario. The disciple didn't know what to say for a second. He does look blind. Why was he asking?

"Hey, I'm sorry for blocking your path, okay?" he said.

This was all Gravis needed to hear. Only people with a Will-Aura could feel the Spirit of others when they were in the Energy Gathering Realm. This disciple, obviously, didn't have a Will-Aura. Therefore, the disciple didn't know that he had just blocked the path of a Spirit Forming expert. His evasive attitude could only mean one thing. He thought Gravis was blind.

Gravis looked into the sky with a sigh. "So I actually look blind," he lamented. This proved that his concerns hadn't been baseless. He really didn't look forward to future encounters like that. After some seconds, he looked at the disciple again. He wanted to punch him in the stomach and just be done with this, but he got another idea.

Instead of punching the disciple, Gravis rubbed his chin in thought. 'This should work, right?' he thought. After a second, Gravis looked into the disciple's eyes again. "Hey, what did the unconscious person say to the blind person?" he asked.

WHOOM!

The earth under the disciple got pushed down by an invisible dome, and he fell over, unconscious.

"Exactly!" said Gravis.

Gravis had thought about the way he could utilize his Will-Aura with his newfound Spirit. With his Spirit, he could release his Will-Aura anywhere he wanted. Sadly, he wasn't able to compress it yet. If he released his Will-Aura just like that, he would destroy the surrounding kilometer of the guild.

So, why not just activate the Will-Aura in the air? Like this, only the bottom of the ball-shaped Will-Aura would hit anyone. He tried that just now, and it had worked. The bottom had hit the disciple, making him unconscious, while none of the others felt it. Gravis smiled in satisfaction.

The other disciples looked in shock at what had happened. How did the earth beneath the disciple get destroyed? Why did he suddenly lose consciousness? Gravis didn't even move! Everyone was too shocked to react to Gravis' lousy joke.

Gravis looked around to the other people, hoping they understood his joke, but he was disappointed when no one reacted. "Ah, fuck that," he muttered and quickly left the area. He didn't want to remain there.

The other disciples looked at Gravis leaving with unreal speed and took deep breaths. This expert was mysterious and powerful. They must not offend him!

"I get it!" one lone disciple shouted while laughing, eliciting strange looks from the others.

Gravis quickly arrived at the smithy. It was a rather tall tower in the form of a hammer. Gravis admired the building for a little bit and then entered. When he went inside, he only saw a hall with many different forging equipments strewn around. He also didn't see any banks or chairs to sit. 'Not even chairs?' he thought.

Yet, there was nothing he could do. He wasn't about to make a scene because he had to remain standing for some minutes. Gravis walked to a wall and leaned on it, closing his eyes. He might as well use the time to think further about battle applications for his new control over lightning.

Like this, around five minutes passed until the door to the inside of the forge opened. The Vice-Guild Master, that Gravis talked to earlier, came out, smiling at Gravis. "Hello, Gravis. Please follow me to a side-room," he said, beckoning him to follow. The Vice-Guild Master had long black hair and red eyes.

His eyes looked friendly yet hid deep explosiveness inside them. If he got angry, he would probably lose all rationality.

Gravis left the wall and followed the Vice-Guild Master. They walked up some stairs and went into a side room. In here, Gravis could see four chairs and a table. This was probably a place for negotiations. They both sat down on one chair each. "Alright, so tell me about your unusual request," the Vice-Guild Master said, taking out some paper and writing utensils.

"Alright, so, where to begin," Gravis started saying. "Since I've reached the Spirit Forming Realm, I noticed that I could use the magnetism of my lightning to move forward. Unfortunately, my lightning is too strong, thus creating an instantaneous acceleration that always throws me off my saber when I want to ride it."

The Vice-Guild Master didn't know what Gravis' goal was in telling him that, but that only showed that this was really an unusual request. He continued listening in interest.

"I basically want something magnetic that I can ride on without falling off," Gravis said.

"Oh, that's interesting," said the Vice-Guild Master. "Did you have anything particular in mind?"

Gravis nodded. "Yes. I need something like a small magnetic board with wheels. For stability purposes, it should have four wheels, one on each corner. I don't want something like a handlebar since I want to keep my hands free for any unforeseen events. It should also have something like an elevated railing or wall at the back. Like this, I can brace myself on the board when it accelerates."

The Vice-Guild Master tapped his chin in thought with the pen. "I think I get what you want," he said. "The Lightning Sect uses a similar method of transportation, but a little different. Most of them use a spear, so we only put a small wheel at the back of their spear. Like this, they ride on their spears while it remains on a 45° angle. For stability, they hold the spear's shaft. Though I like your idea better."

The Vice-Guild Master started drawing on the paper until he finished a draft. He showed it to Gravis, and Gravis' eyes widened. This was precisely what he wanted! It was a small board made of metal, maybe half a meter long. It had four wheels on its corners, making it pretty stable.

Gravis grew even more surprised as he saw some springs at the bottom. Gravis was pretty smart, so he quickly realized why they were there. These springs would allow him to jump and land with the board without destroying its wheels.

The backside of the board had an about 20-centimeter-tall small wall. With this, he could lean his whole weight on it when it accelerated. When the board drove forward, he could make a jumping motion to make the board jump with him, thanks to the springs. Like this, he could ignore any minor elevation.

Gravis nodded with a smile. "This is perfect!" he said.

The Vice-Guild Master also smiled. "Alright, so how durable should it be?" he asked.

"I don't want it to get destroyed by a random blast from a Spirit Forming expert. It needs to remain intact. Also, I will need five of those, in case one of them gets damaged. I think you can imagine how much speed and force they have to be able to endure since I am a lightning cultivator at the Spirit Forming Realm," Gravis explained.

The Vice-Guild Master nodded. "No problem. We will need to make these boards about as hard as Spirit Weapons, though we don't need to include Formation Arrays. With this being a special request, we also need to forge it without any already created forms or molds. Do you have enough money for that?"

Gravis nodded. "I pay with gold. Is that okay?"

The eyes of the Vice-Guild Master narrowed a little in a bitter expression. "I think you might not understand how much this costs. This comes to about the price of two full Spirit Weapons. You would need over a hundred thousand gold coins to pay for that."

Gravis thought about this. "Could you tell me the equivalent in smelted, pure gold? Due to space restrictions in my Spirit Space, I smelted all my gold coins down into a cube."

The Vice-Guild Master lifted an eyebrow but quickly started calculating. After some seconds, he answered. "That would be a cube with the dimensions of 30x30x40 centimeters. Do you have so much gold?"

Gravis quickly cut a cube of gold off with those specifications and summoned it.

CRACK!

The table broke as the gold hit it. Gravis had forgotten how heavy so much gold was. "That should be enough, right?" he asked.

The Vice-Guild Master was first shocked but then grinned.

"That's enough. I'll get right on it!"

 

Chapter 195

The Vice-Guild Master quickly called a smith from the Earth Guild over, and they started forging. The smith from the Earth Guild was, surprisingly, also a Spirit Forming Expert. Gravis was quite surprised when he saw that. The elemental guilds generally only had three experts at the Spirit Forming Stage.

Did that mean that a Vice-Guild Master from the Earth Guild was inside the Fire Guild? If that were true, it would probably also mean that one of the Fire Guild's Vice-Guild Masters was in the Earth Guild. This showed how interconnected the two guilds were.

Gravis was also happy that his board would be forged by the most experienced and strongest smiths in the Fire Guild. It was definitely worth the high price. Gravis went outside to wait for them since there was no reason in him waiting inside the smithy. This would probably take a while. Speaking of taking a while, Gravis decided that he should probably ask how long this would take.

Gravis asked the Vice-Guild Master, and he answered that since this was something completely new, they would probably take around two days to finish the first one. Deciding that there was no reason for him to just twiddle his thumbs for two days, Gravis went ahead to finish his last task in the Middle- Continent. Two days were more than enough for that.

He told the smiths that he would return in around a day and then left the Fire Guild. His next target was pretty close, and he only needed around two hours to get there. With the exception of robbing the wealth of the Heaven Sect, this was the task he looked forward to the most.

After two hours of running, Gravis finally arrived at his target. It was a gigantic mountain with a cave that was guarded by two people in earthen-yellow robes.

It was the Earth Guild.

Gravis had not forgotten how they had tried to annoy him into oblivion, and he was looking forward to annoying them back. Killing them? This possibility didn't even cross his mind. Some dickish behavior

didn't warrant a genocide. Also, this would be way more fun.

Gravis quickly looked into the Earth Guild with his Spirit and noticed three people at the Spirit Forming Realm. As he had thought, one of the Spirits of the experts radiated a fierce fire, which meant that this guy was from the Fire Guild.

"This has nothing to do with you, so just stay to the side," Gravis sent to the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild staying in the Earth Guild.

Of course, this expert had already felt Gravis' Spirit and had been guessing why he was here. He quickly received Gravis' message, making him narrow his eyes. An expert at the Spirit Forming Realm wouldn't send such a message if they didn't have some enmity with the Earth Guild. This might be a problem. The Fire Guild needed the Earth Guild to help with their forging.

Even worse, the expert felt Gravis' Spirit, and he absolutely didn't like what he had felt. The will of a person resided in their Spirit, so feeling the Spirit also gave people an inkling of the will. The expert had never felt a Spirit with such a powerful will before. On top of that, the cultivation of the person was incredibly weird.

Other people could only feel the Energy inside Gravis' body, which was not even close to the amount someone would have in their dantian when they reached the Spirit Forming Realm. When Gravis had visited the Lightning Guild, his body had still been at the tenth level of Energy Gathering, which had given the illusion that Gravis only had as much Energy as someone at the third level of Energy Gathering.

With his breakthrough, the inherent Energy inside his body had increased, now being about as much as someone at the seventh level of Energy Gathering would have. Someone with a formed Spirit that only had the equivalent Energy of someone at the seventh level of Energy Gathering? This seemed unreal to the expert, which made him even more cautious.

Sadly, none of the present people cultivated lightning, making it impossible for them to feel the enormous amount of lightning inside Gravis' dantian. If he could feel that, most of his questions would be resolved.

"Please excuse my rudeness, powerful stranger, but the Earth Guild is important to our business. I can't just step to the side when someone wants to hurt it," the expert sent back politely. In his mind, he had just stepped into a situation where he would most likely die, but he didn't back down. He was from the Fire Guild, and the Fire Guild always fought!

Gravis groaned. "Don't worry. No one will die today," Gravis sent back.

First, the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild was shocked but then sighed in relief. "I'm glad to hear that, but what are you planning on doing?" he asked again.

Now, Gravis smirked. "You don't have to worry about that. You might enjoy what you will see soon."

By now, the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild had forwarded Gravis' messages to the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild. They had to remain unified.

"What do you want to do to my Earth Guild?" sent the Guild Master of the Earth Guild to Gravis, aggressively. Obviously, Gravis was not here for something good. On top of that, he showed disregard to the Guild Master by not contacting him first.

Gravis laughed slightly. "Guild Master, you might not recognize who I am," Gravis sent over. "I am Gravis, the Heavenborn that has visited your guild about a week ago. However, I have cast aside the mantle of Heavenborn. I am just Gravis now."

The Guild Master thought back, but he wasn't sure about the event that Gravis referenced. He remembered that someone from the Heaven Sect had come to visit, but they had quickly left. At that

time, he hadn't paid much attention to the situation. As long as the Heaven Sect didn't come with official business, he didn't care.

"I do remember that you have visited us before, but I don't know why that would make you return with enmity to us. Why are you here?" he asked again with a severe voice.

Gravis smirked. "When I last visited, your guild did a great job of being as loud and obnoxious as possible. Your guild wanted to annoy me as much as possible so that I would leave. Back then, I only came to look around and maybe trade a high-grade Energy Beast Core, yet your guild purposely gathered many disciples around me to annoy me away. You think I didn't notice?"

The Guild Master narrowed his eyes. He remembered that the guild was rather loud for a while on that day, but he hadn't minded. So that had been the reason. Yet, that didn't answer his question. "I'll ask again. Why are you here?"

Gravis narrowed his eyes slightly with a smile. "Of course, I came to annoy you back!"

 

Chapter 196

The three experts didn't know what they should think about that. On one point, apparently, some of their disciples had "annoyed" the new arrival, and he only wanted to annoy them back. Inherently, there was nothing wrong about that.

Yet, on the other side, this was wholly different if Gravis annoyed them back. The disciples of the Earth Guild had been inside their own guild. If they did something minorly wrong here, it was still understandable. It was their home, after all.

Previously, Gravis had walked inside, and he hadn't been stopped from leaving. The Earth Guild wasn't required to accept every visitor into their house. It was their property, so, of course, they could also throw the visitor out.

Yet, if Gravis, as an outsider, came into their guild and did whatever he wanted, it would be a humiliation! He did not live here, yet he wanted to barge into their property and home to antagonize them. This was a humiliation! Could they still lift their heads in front of others when random people could just walk into their home and arrogantly humiliate their disciples?

"Even if they have been unfriendly to you, you were the visitor while they were in their home. It is our right to throw out visitors! I won't allow you to humiliate us!" sent the Guild Master to Gravis.

Now, Gravis felt a little annoyed. "There is a difference between telling someone that they should leave, and purposely inviting them into your home and then being as big of a dick as possible. If you had wanted me to leave, you shouldn't have allowed me to enter in the first place!" Gravis sent back.

The Guild Master sneered. "So? We are the Earth Guild, part of the Earth Sect, and we accept every path that anyone had chosen! We agree to talk with anyone, even if we don't want to. Don't turn the respect we have shown you, by inviting you in, into a devious plot!"

Deep inside, the Guild Master knew that his guild shouldn't have done that. They should have been honest from the very beginning. Yet, he couldn't allow Gravis to just come in and humiliate them. Even if he believed otherwise, he had to remain stalwart now! He had to protect his guild from humiliation!

Gravis laughed. "Interesting!" he shouted into their minds. "You've done something wrong, yet won't accept reparations for your guild's action! How very 'earth-like' of you! You won't accept it when you are wrong and blame others. You'd rather break than bend! Under normal circumstances, I would admire an attitude like this, but not when it is in combination with hypocrisy!"

"How dare you!" shouted the Guild Master and one Vice-Guild Master in outrage. The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild had smartly kept himself away from this. Gravis had already said that no one would die, so he wouldn't mind just watching from the sidelines.

"How dare you humiliate the temperament of our Earth like this!? The only reason why you can still spout such insults is that I don't want to destroy our home by fighting you here! Leave and never return! The Earth Guild and the Earth Sect no longer welcome you!" the Guild Master shouted in aggression.

Now, Gravis decided to expand his original goal of coming here. He had only intended to annoy the guilty disciples, yet the upper echelon of the Earth Guild showed him a supreme display of hypocrisy. The lightning inside his mind abhorred hypocrisy, and it grew angry. As the lightning grew angrier, Gravis also grew angrier. The lightning was influencing him.

Yet, in comparison to back when he had still been in the Proxy-Lightning Guild, Gravis still retained his rational mind and had noticed this happening. Even though he grew angry, he still decided against killing them. A disagreement, even if justified, was not reason enough to kill people. There were other ways to release his anger.

"Sure," Gravis said with an arrogant sneer. "I'm outside right now. Both of you can fight me at the same time! I promise on my life that your Earth Guild won't get damaged by our fight!"

The eyes of the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master shone with battle-intent. This arrogant youngling had just reached the Spirit Forming Realm and thought himself invincible already! The Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master had been in the Spirit Forming Realm for many years and were both at the peak of the initial stage.

The only reason why they hadn't reached the Seed-Stage yet, was because their Will-Aura wasn't powerful enough. Yet, they still had been in this Realm for decades, making them very familiar with their power. Someone who had recently broken through, like Gravis, had no chance against them. On top of that, they were two, while Gravis was alone.

"You asked for it!" shouted the Guild Master and burst out of the guild. The Vice-Guild Master followed him in anger while the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild also slowly followed. This was actually really interesting to him. He rarely saw Spirit Forming experts fight.

Gravis retreated for several kilometers. He had promised that their fight wouldn't damage the Earth Guild, and in comparison to those hypocritical assholes, he would keep his word!

Gravis stopped when he was at a distance of 20 kilometers. There was no way that the Earth Guild would get damaged from this distance. Like this, he waited for them to arrive.

Two minutes later, they finally arrived, seething in anger. Gravis simply sneered at them. "Took you long enough. How can someone at the Spirit Forming Realm be this incredibly slow?" he spat with disdain.

Of course, Gravis knew that the earth element was the slowest element. He had only said this to release some anger and to enrage them even further, which worked.

The Guild Master shouted and retrieved several items. He now carried a massive club in his right hand, nearly two meters long, while he carried an imposing, tower shield in his left hand. The Earth Guild was

famous for their defensive and counter-heavy fighting style.

They would block attacks with their powerful defense and counter at an opportune moment. The opponent only had to make one mistake. When they committed that mistake, the disciples of the Earth Guild and Earth Sect would attack with all their power, injuring the opponent heavily, at the very least. The disciples of the Earth Guild often won with only a single attack.

Surprisingly, the Vice-Guild Master retrieved a thinner but even longer shield and a nearly three-meter long lance. The Vice-Guild Master placed himself behind the Guild Master and put the lance on the Guild Master's shoulder. Like this, he could stab his weapon forward, which increased both the defense and offense of their combination. The shield was placed behind him, protecting their backs.

Gravis saw this and smiled with battle-intent.

'Finally, some proper targets to test my new powers. Just watch me play you to death!'

 

 

Chapter 197

Gravis looked at the two people with a smile. He waited for them to do something, but they didn't move. The only thing they did was glare at him. Gravis waited for ten seconds, and still, nothing happened.

"So, you gonna do something anytime soon?" asked Gravis, bored.

"Didn't you want to fight? Come on, attack!" shouted the Guild Master.

Gravis raised an eyebrow. "You were the one saying that if it weren't for damaging the Earth Guild, you would attack me."

The Guild Master remained silent and stoic, just keeping his shield and weapon ready. To him, there was no sense in speaking any further. He only had to wait for Gravis to attack, then he would show him!

"You know," said Gravis. "It would be really easy for me to return to the Earth Guild right now and do what I want to do. You wouldn't even be able to catch up," he stated.

"You wouldn't!" shouted the Guild Master. "You are cultivating lightning, and you said you would fight us. You won't go back on your word. No one who cultivates lightning does."

Gravis was a little surprised but understood what the Guild Master meant. That was actually true. Basically, everyone that cultivated lightning would go through with what they said, and Gravis was no exception. Though, there was one thing…

"You're right," he said, "but I didn't specify the order, you know."

The two experts remained stoic, but Gravis saw some hesitation in the Guild Master's eyes. The Guild Master realized that he could not stop Gravis if he wanted to go to the Earth Guild. This had been a significant oversight.

"Are you a coward!? Would you actually flee from a fight that you provoked? I don't think so. You are a Spirit Forming Realm cultivator, so I know that you will honor your words!" shouted the Guild Master in a bit to keep Gravis here.

Gravis lifted an eyebrow. "Now, the funny thing is, I know you're playing me," then Gravis smirked, "but you're right! I won't leave as long as you two can still move."

The expression of the two people remained the same, but inside, they sighed in relief. Their biggest worry had vanished. Now, they only had to wait for Gravis to attack. They were best at defending, and their fighting style relied on counterattacks. Gravis attacking them was the best-case scenario, to them.

"You two are pretty good targets," Gravis said and jumped back a little so that around 50 meters were between them. "So, I hope you don't mind me testing my attacks on you. Don't crumble too quickly, alright?"

BANG BANG BANG!

Lightning appeared all around the two Spirit Forming experts from the Earth Guild. Explosive thunders rumbled throughout the surroundings, but they kept up their stoic appearance. Yet, inside, they were sneering at him. Gravis was wasting his Spirit and Energy by summoning all this lightning. The more he wasted, the better. As soon as his Energy reserves fell to 20%, they would attack him.

BZZZZZZZZZ!

All the lightning in the surroundings angled towards them and unloaded itself into their shields. Gravis was a little surprised when he saw a dome-shaped barrier appearing around the two people. He also noticed that the gigantic shield of the Guild Master shone with many Formation Arrays. This was probably one of the functions of the shield.

The lightning violently circled them while unloading all its power into the shield. Yet, the dome held firm. Gravis watched this for some seconds but then stopped. Uncoordinated attacks like that only wasted Energy. Of course, Gravis had wanted to test their defense first.

One shouldn't forget that Gravis had Destruction Lightning. His Lightning was over twice as powerful as the lightning of ordinary lightning cultivators. Such an uncoordinated attack from him, which only used Energy and only a small bit of Spirit, was already as strong as a concentrated attack from another lightning cultivator. Gravis was actually happy when he saw their defenses hold.

Yet, the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master were shocked. "This lightning is strange," transmitted the Guild Master to the Vice-Guild Master. "Just blocking this small bit has cost me 5% of my Energy."

The Vice-Guild Master took a hidden, deep breath. It would be understandable if the lightning had been concentrated, but he had noticed that there wasn't much control involved. Now, they both started taking Gravis seriously.

"Don't panic," transmitted the Guild Master. "I doubt that he can produce such powerful lightning without end. He must have used some compression method. Methods like these waste a lot of Spirit. He is probably only putting up a front. I'm betting, inside, he is actually nervous. Just be patient and stalwart! Like this, we will win!"

The Vice-Guild Master sent an affirmative answer back. He shouldn't have lost his cool like that. At some point, Gravis would need to attack them in melee range. Elemental attacks were not enough to breach their defense!

BZZZZZZ!

Lightning appeared around Gravis, but this time, it didn't attack them. Instead, it started being compressed into a long spear. Gravis wanted to test their defense gradually. If he wanted to win, he

would only need to release his Will-Aura. They wouldn't even be able to move under its influence. Yet, winning wasn't his priority. He wanted to test his attacks.

He would fight against other Spirit Forming experts in the Core-Continent, so this was a perfect moment to see how powerful their defenses were. In the Core-Continent, if he were to use an attack that didn't breach his enemy's defense, he would unnecessarily waste Energy. Yet, if he used an incredibly powerful attack, even though a medium one would've been powerful enough, he would also waste Energy and Spirit. He had to find the right balance.

After around two seconds, the lightning spear was successfully created. Wild lightning aggressively charged around its inside and outside, creating multiple peals of thunder each second. All the beasts in the surroundings had already left the vicinity. The intensity of the thunders announced Gravis' power to the surrounding kilometers.

The two experts from the Earth Guild also felt nervous now. They felt the danger inside the spear and felt that this spear might break their barrier. They had to release their trump cards.

WHOOM!

They both activated their Will-Auras, stacking them on top of Gravis. Gravis felt a pressure pressing into him, yet he stopped himself from activating his own Will-Aura. The two wills made it hard for Gravis to move. If he wanted, he would only need to release his Will-Aura to suppress them completely, but what was the point of that? He was here to test his attacks.

The lightning spear was also suppressed, its lightning moving slower. On top of that, Gravis noticed that keeping the lightning spear condensed required him to continue compressing it. Usually, after the lightning spear finished condensing, he wouldn't need to invest anything to uphold its structure. Yet, the addition of the two Will-Auras required him to use more Spirit. If he stopped giving Spirit to the lightning spear, it would scatter and unload into the surroundings.

'Interesting,' Gravis thought. 'I didn't know about that. I also remember that I had been able to break the will on attacks. Right now, I am carrying the lightning spear in my hand, therefore connecting it with my will. I wonder what would happen if I let it go.'

Gravis threw the lightning spear into the air, checking what would happen to it. As soon as it left his hands, it started getting weaker, and he lost control over it. Before it could land back into Gravis' hand, it exploded.

BOOOM!

Violent streaks of lightning shot out like shrapnel, bursting through multiple trees and piercing the ground. Many of them also hit Gravis and the two experts, but they didn't achieve much. The streaks of lightning that hit Gravis were just absorbed while the ones hitting the defensive dome didn't damage it in the slightest. The only thing that was destroyed was the surrounding one hundred meters. Loud sounds of exploding and falling trees filled the air.

'Interesting,' Gravis thought. 'The attacks that that one lightning disciple had used when I tried to get to the Heaven Sect were not compressed, so they hadn't dissipated into the surroundings. Compressing lightning makes it more volatile. It makes sense that it would also be more violent if control over it had been lost. Aion's ice probably doesn't have this issue since ice is not as volatile as lightning.'

The two experts were dumbfounded by what Gravis had done. First, he had created a mighty lightning spear and then just tossed it into the air, wasting it. Why was he wasting his Spirit and Energy like this?

Meanwhile, Gravis was still thinking. 'A passive activation of a Will-Aura won't stun the will inside an element. Yet, the will inside my spear immediately got disrupted as soon as it left my hand,' Gravis thought as he turned his gaze to the two people. 'Are they deactivating and activating their Will-Auras in rapid succession? That would actually work. Truly interesting.'

The two experts had, by now, stopped understanding what Gravis wanted. Why was he wasting his Spirit and Energy like this? Why didn't he activate his Will-Aura? Why was he just standing there, doing nothing? Was he actually treating them as testing dummies?

The anger in both of them increased as they received that thought. Gravis was treating them like they didn't exist! They had never felt such total disregard!

When Gravis' Energy ran out, they would show him!

 

Chapter 198

After some seconds, Gravis finished thinking. His attention returned to the two people from the Earth Guild, who still stood in the same position. Gravis admired their patience in some way. Even when he showed complete disregard, they had still waited patiently. Others would have gotten so angry that they would have attacked by now.

"Anyway…" Gravis said and trailed off.

BZZZZZZ!

Gravis condensed another lightning spear. Every condensation of such a spear cost Gravis around 10% of his lightning and 20% of his Spirit. Together with the upkeep of the earlier spear and the miscellaneous attacks at the beginning, he had used up around 25% of his lightning and 45% of his Spirit. Yet, he didn't care.

"I'm coming," said Gravis with a smile.

BOOM!

The explosion did not come from the lightning spear, but from Gravis bursting forward with all his power. His body had become incredibly powerful, and when he used his full acceleration, he would destroy the surrounding ten meters of earth. If his lightning spear would dissipate when it left him, then it just had to remain inside his hand. He reached the two people in no time at all.

The eyes of the two experts widened in shock. 'Fast!' they both shouted in their minds. Yet, they were prepared for Gravis. They had waited for this for several minutes by now. After Gravis threw his attack, they would counterattack!

Yet, Gravis never threw his spear. He came closer and closer until he was only five meters away, but he didn't throw his spear even then! The eyes of the two people widened again. Was Gravis suicidal?

Resisting one's own element was a prerequisite of using it, but that didn't hold true for concentrated attacks using Spirit. A concentrated explosion of one's element still damaged the attacker severely.

Sadly, they didn't know that Gravis was utterly immune to lightning. Even worse, he was not only immune to lightning but actually absorbed it. This was the same ability that the physical manifestation of lightning had had. Yet, in comparison to the manifestation, Gravis wasn't able to control lightning, which had a will inside it.

The reason why this manifestation had been so threatening was, for one, its ability to absorb lightning, but that wasn't the actual danger. The real danger had been that the manifestation could command all lightning in the world to come towards it. Gravis didn't have this ability. Without this, he couldn't steal Heaven's lightning, as long as it didn't attack him first with it.

By exploding the spear close to him, he could even absorb around half of it, basically cutting the cost in half. Gravis closed in, and the two experts braced for impact.

BOOM!

Gravis slammed the lightning spear into the barrier, and it immediately exploded, destroying the surroundings. The sound of the explosion damaged the two experts' ears since it had been so close, but the sound was the least of their worries right now. The explosion was way more powerful than they had thought, even if their Will-Auras had weakened it.

The barrier immediately crumbled, which allowed the lightning to directly attack the Guild Master's towering shield. The Vice-Guild Master pulled his weapon back and was entirely focused on holding the Guild Master's back, infusing Energy into him. Using the shield to block an attack was way more expensive regarding Energy than using the barrier.

CRK!

The shield cracked, which actually surprised Gravis. Yes, his saber would probably also crack if it stoically blocked such a powerful attack, but this was a shield! It was supposed to be able to handle something like that!

What Gravis didn't know was that this shield was only supposed to block attacks of the initial stage of Spirit Forming. Making a shield was supremely expensive, and why would the Earth Guild Master of the Middle-Continent require a shield to block something so powerful? Cultivators at the Seed-Stage didn't exist in the Middle-Continent, after all. There was no reason to spend so much money on something like that.

Gravis' fully concentrated attack, together with his Destruction Lightning, had reached the power of a concentrated attack of someone at the Seed-Stage. The shield was not made for something like that. Thus it cracked. Some of the Formation Arrays got damaged, which required the use of even more Energy from the user to counteract.

After around two seconds, all lightning vanished. Gravis had initially been stopped at a distance of around two meters from the two people, but they got pushed back so hard that they now were at a distance of about 50 meters again. Gravis rubbed his chin in interest. 'I expected a stronger defense.'

Meanwhile, the Guild Master was breathing heavily while the Vice-Guild Master was frozen in place. If the barrier hadn't been broken, the Guild Master would have "only" needed around 25% of his Energy to resist that attack. Sadly, with the barrier broken and his shield damaged, he had used up over 55% of his Energy. On top of that, him needing to distribute the Energy to counteract the Formation Array's failing also cost him a lot of Spirit.

He looked at the casually standing Gravis with a shocked gaze. "What… are you?" he asked. He was sure that Gravis wasn't in the Seed-Stage. He would have felt that from his Spirit. On top of that, the Energy inside of Gravis had never moved, not even when he had condensed the Lightning Spear. From what the Guild Master had seen, it looked like Gravis just created lightning out of nothing.

Of course, that wasn't true. The Energy that the Guild Master felt was only the inherent Energy inside Gravis' body. Naturally, Gravis didn't use that Energy but the lightning inside his dantian. Sadly, the two people weren't able to feel the lightning inside of him.

Step. Step. Step.

Gravis started walking over to the two shocked people with a grin. "I think I have tested my Energy attacks enough. Let's see how good you are at blocking melee attacks," he said.

They both narrowed their eyes. Gravis was getting closer, which also opened an opportunity for them to counterattack. They only had to hit him once.

Gravis stopped when he was only one meter away from the towering shield. Yet, nothing happened. "Even now, you're not attacking?" Gravis asked.

Both experts said nothing. Yes, Gravis was inside their range, but as long as he kept being vigilant, they wouldn't be able to hit him. They had to hit him when he attacked.

Gravis remained there for a couple of seconds until he smirked arrogantly. "I know what you're planning," he said slowly. "You're waiting until I use my saber as an attack so that I can't block with it, right?"

The two experts weren't shocked by this. It was rather obvious, but it didn't matter that Gravis knew what they were planning. He had to attack them to win. There was no way around that.

"But I wonder…" Gravis said and trailed off. "There is a fatal flaw in that tactic. Have you tho-"

SWISH!

The Vice-Guild Master's spear suddenly stabbed at Gravis, who swiftly and casually stepped to the side. He went through too many life and death fights to fall for such a surprise attack. Normally, Gravis

would immediately counterattack since a dodged attack would create an opening, yet he didn't. He wanted to play with them some more.

"Don't interrupt others. It's rude!" Gravis said with a sneer.

The Vice-Guild Master gritted his teeth but readied himself again for another strike. He had to wait for an opportunity.

"Anyway," continued Gravis. "As I was saying, that tactic has a fatal flaw. You counterattack when I attack with my weapon, right?"

They didn't answer.

"So, what if I don't attack with my weapon?"

BANG!

Gravis kicked the shield with his full power, keeping his saber ready for a block. A thunderous sound reverberated into the surroundings as the experts were pushed back for over a hundred meters. Gravis had an incredibly powerful body. Judging by how far they have been shoved with this kick, Gravis found out that neither of the two had a body at the Spirit Forming Realm. Gravis was actually a little disappointed in that fact.

The two people were shocked again, something that had happened quite a lot today. This youngster had a body at the Spirit Forming Realm? Slowly, their confidence vanished. Judging by how energetic Gravis still was, they could infer that he still had a lot of Energy and Spirit. On top of that, he also had a powerful body.

Who were they kidding? Their tactic might have worked against someone normal at the Spirit Forming Realm, but not against someone who also had such a powerful body. Even if Gravis used up all his

Spirit and Energy, he could still fight them easily with his body. On top of that, a body's stamina was vastly superior to one's Energy or Spirit storage. Gravis could fight with his body on full power for hours.

They would have emptied their whole Energy storage multiple times over before Gravis' stamina was used up even once. What were they supposed to do?

"Let's continue!" Gravis shouted and then burst forward again.

BANG CLANK!

Gravis kicked the shield another time while blocking a stab from the spear with his saber. Earth cultivators had the ability to increase their weapons' weight, but that didn't even come close to counteracting Gravis' physical strength. Gravis got pushed back for five meters, while the two experts flew for another hundred meters. On top of that, the more someone increased their weapon's weight, the more Energy they had to invest, and the Vice-Guild Master had given his best, just now.

Gravis burst forward again.

CRK!

When Gravis came close, the earth under him suddenly gave way, making him lose his balance. This was one of the fighting techniques of the Earth Guild. The opponent would lose their balance and show an opening. After Gravis lost his balance, the Guild Master's gigantic club, which hadn't been swung until now, came crashing down on him.

CRRRR!

Gravis angled his saber above him, making the club slide to the side, creating an ugly grating noise in the process. If he hadn't had the advantage in physical power, this parry would have gone wrong. A

block used the whole body's power, including the placement of the bones, to be as stable as possible. A parry, on the other hand, required finesse.

"Oho, not bad," said Gravis with a grin, "but what now? That only works once, you know?"

The two looked at Gravis in panic.

They were running out of options quickly!

 

Chapter 199

Gravis looked as the two experts grew more and more panicked. Sadly, the earth was stalwart and would not bend. Of course, sad for them, lucky for him. Gravis wouldn't want them to just give up and run away. He had more things to test!

Step. Step. Step.

Gravis moved closer again, and the two experts' anxiety grew. They were running out of ideas. They couldn't think of any way to win. The power difference was just too vast!

Gravis walked until he stood two meters away from them. "How about this?" Gravis asked. "You can attack me once with your spear. I promise that I won't dodge or block. I wanna test something."

The eyes of the two experts shot open in shock. Not dodging or blocking? Wasn't this just suicide? The further the fight progressed, the more confused they grew. Wasn't Gravis taking them too lightly? They were in the same Realm, after all.

"You won't break your word?" asked the Vice-Guild Master from the back.

Gravis nodded. "I won't. You can unleash one attack, and I won't block or dodge."

The Guild Master looked at the Vice-Guild Master and nodded solemnly. "I don't know what he's planning, but I doubt that he will break his promise. Also, don't kill him. We have no life and death enmity, yet. If his plan succeeds and he has seen that you tried to kill him, we might actually die. This guy said that no one would die today. Remember?"

The Vice-Guild Master sent an affirmative answer back. The chances of killing Gravis were not 100%, and if this strike wouldn't kill him, they would most likely die. They had to stay cautious and not create a life and death enmity.

The Vice-Guild Master readied himself for a strike and infused a whole 30% of his Energy into the spear. The spear's weight became impossibly high, yet the Vice-Guild Master, as the manipulator, didn't feel it. Since his weapon was infused with his Spirit, he could ignore the added weight. If that weren't the case, he wouldn't even be able to lift his weapon.

The Vice-Guild Master pulled back his spear, ready to strike. Then, with all his power, he shot his spear forward.

SHING!

The eyes of the two experts widened in disbelief. The spear had stabbed through something alright, but it was not Gravis. They looked at the spear, as it stabbed diagonally into the earth below Gravis. What had happened?

Gravis smiled. "It works, hehe," he laughed.

What had Gravis done?

When they had both attacked him earlier, Gravis was surprised by the power of their strikes. He knew that they didn't have bodies at the Spirit Forming Realm, yet their attacks had been nearly as powerful as a physical attack of someone with such a body. By then, Gravis had thought about the usage of earth.

The Earth Guild was able to temper and compact materials. How did they do that? Gravis had thought about that and thought of a possibility. The only way they were able to release such powerful attacks without having such a powerful body was that they had somewhat influenced their weapons. It probably had something to do with the weapon's weight.

Gravis also remembered how he could manipulate his weapon with magnetism. So, why not use the magnetism to manipulate the weapon of his enemy? He had to test that! Of course, there was a

gamble in trying that. If the weapons were not affected by magnetism, his planned method wouldn't work.

If his plan didn't work, he would have just released his Will-Aura. They would be unable to move then. And even if the weapon hit him, as long as he didn't die instantly, he could just heal himself with his Life Lightning. Gravis had never been in danger.

So, what exactly did Gravis do?

When the Vice-Guild Master had pushed forward with his strike, Gravis summoned a lot of lightning on his feet, creating a magnetic field. The weapon moving forward got influenced by the magnetic field and changed its trajectory. The stab changed from a horizontal one into one going diagonally down. If his opponent had been prepared for that, he might have been able to counteract the magnetic pull. "Luckily", he wasn't.

Gravis also realized that, due to the added weight, this method was even more effective. The cultivators of the Earth Guild, obviously, weren't affected by their weapon's weight. Yet, when an external force pulled on the increased weight, that didn't matter since it affected the increased weight, not the base one. It could be summarized into one stupid phrase: The more spear there was, the more magnetism affected it.

If the spear hadn't been that heavy, the trajectory might have only been lowered slightly. In that case, it would have probably stabbed through Gravis' abdomen. Yet, that also didn't matter. He could just release his Will-Aura, retreat, and then heal himself.

"Luckily", everything went according to plan. What was even better was that Gravis didn't even use any Energy. The lightning had never left his feet. He just reabsorbed it into his dantian when he was finished.

The two experts were still absolutely shocked by what just happened. After some seconds, the Guild Master finally figured out what had happened. "Magnetism," he sent to the Vice-Guild Master, who then also understood what had transpired just now.

They had never fought anyone from the Lightning Guild, so they hadn't known that one could utilize lightning like this. By now, they lost all hope of winning. Yet, their unbending temperament didn't allow them to concede.

"Thank you for your cooperation," said Gravis with a smile. "We will now commence with the next test. Please put all your power into defending. If you don't, you might actually die." Then, Gravis jumped back so that he was at a distance of 50 meters again.

The two experts quickly went back into a defensive position. The Vice-Guild Master didn't even ready his weapon anymore. He had been gifted a free shot and still hadn't been able to hit Gravis. There was no point in readying his weapon anymore. He just braced himself for impact and supported the Guild Master from behind. This next attack could only be more powerful than the previous ones if Gravis warned them.

"I'll begin now," Gravis commented from a distance. After Gravis had tested some things, he had gotten even more ideas. The close-range explosion of his lightning spear made him realize that he could absorb part of his own attack, cutting the cost significantly. On top of that, his body wouldn't get injured, even if he made his lightning explode all at once inside him. This gave him a great idea.

BZZ BOOOM!

Gravis used his body's full acceleration to move forward, yet also concentrated lightning into his feet. He had gathered around 20% of his lightning into his feet, and when he burst forward with his body, he made the lightning on his feet explode too. Half of the lightning was immediately reabsorbed, while the

other half exploded into the earth, accelerating his body even more. His instantaneous acceleration was unreal.

In the blink of an eye, he reached his opponents before they could even react. If he hadn't told them to ready themselves, they would've been completely open right now. When he arrived, Gravis kicked the shield with a flying kick.

BZZ BOOM!

Just like he had used the lightning in his feet to explode as a means for faster acceleration, he now used the lightning in his feet to augment his kick. His speed, physical power, and lightning exploded all at once onto the shield.

CRACK!

The shield got obliterated into many fragments, some of them shooting into the body of the Guild Master behind it. The sound of the explosion reverberated for kilometers, destroying many trees in the process. The two experts flew for over half a kilometer, several bones already broken.

With this instantaneous acceleration and additional kick, Gravis had used around 20% of his whole lightning. This was the second most powerful attack Gravis could make, only surpassed by concentrating lightning into his weapon.

Meanwhile, the two experts landed, throwing up multiple mouthfuls of blood. Several of their bones had been broken, and fragments had even buried themselves into the Guild Master's body. By all intents and purposes, they couldn't move anymore. The only positive thing was that they were still alive.

Gravis saw this and nodded. "Alright," he transmitted to them, "I'm finished! I'll be going to the Earth Guild now. Bye!"

The two people were too preoccupied with the states of their bodies to care about that. They had nearly died. The only thing on their mind was surviving right now.

They were only happy that this nightmare was finally over.

 

Chapter 200

The visiting Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild had watched everything go down with shock. Gravis had practically played those two people to death. He hadn't used his Will-Aura and had used his weapon only once to parry an attack. Gravis' strength made his heart beat faster in nervousness. Someone like this could do whatever he wanted in the Middle-Continent. Why was he still here?

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild shook his head and quickly went over to the two heavily injured people. "Are you still alive?" he asked them.

"Barely," sent the Guild Master with his Spirit. Meanwhile, he coughed some more blood. Some shrapnel had pierced his lungs. After he said that, he retrieved some healing pills from his Spirit Space and ate them, also swallowing a lot of blood. The Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild did the same thing.

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

Fragments of his shield got pulled out of the Guild Master's body as he used his Spirit to remove them. More blood flowed, but the pill had enough nutrients and Life Energy to heal this. Slowly, his injured body started healing.

If he hadn't had some Spirit left over from the fight, he wouldn't even have been able to do that. His Energy, though, had been completely exhausted. The shield had absorbed all his Energy before it broke. If it hadn't, his body would have been distributed onto the surrounding kilometers.

The Vice-Guild Master was better off. He didn't have any shrapnel inside his body and had less broken bones. Yet, he was still in no condition to fight. In comparison to the Guild Master, though, he still had Energy left. He had used a lot to support his Guild Master, but everything had been over too fast.

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild nodded. "Alright," he said, "I'll go to the Earth Guild and look at what he is going to do."

"Go ahead," sent the Guild Master.

The Vice-Guild Master nodded and left for the Earth Guild. By now, he had decided that he wouldn't get involved with Gravis anymore, even if Gravis decided to massacre the whole guild. There was a difference between a life and death battle and suicide. When he had first seen Gravis, he still held a glimmer of hope. He thought that if they all fought him together, they could win. Now, he didn't think that anymore.

Meanwhile, Gravis had already arrived at the Earth Guild's entrance. Many disciples gathered at the entrance. They had noticed that their Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master had left the guild, but they hadn't seen Gravis since he hadn't appeared in public. He had, after all, only been speaking to the experts via his Spirit.

The disciples saw Gravis appearing and narrowed their eyes. Their leaders had just left the guild, and now an unknown person had arrived. Though, the new arrival only radiated Energy equivalent to the seventh level of Energy Gathering. His arrival was probably only coincidence.

Gravis came closer and was stopped by the guards as they pointed their weapons at him. The weapons of the guards were mostly spears or lances. "Halt! State your purpose!" shouted one of them, imposingly.

Gravis smirked and didn't stop walking, completely ignoring the weapons.

Clank Clank!

The two weapons hit Gravis' chest, destroying parts of his shirt by doing that, but nothing more. As Gravis continued walking, he automatically pushed the weapons to the side. None of the weapons or bodies of the people could injure him. One guard froze in shock, while the other one immediately acted. He narrowed his eyes and stabbed his weapon forward.

The added power of the disciple made his spear bend. It couldn't penetrate Gravis' chest, which made it bend more and more the further he walked until eventually…

CRACK!

The shaft of the spear broke in two, not able to stay in one piece anymore. The surrounding disciples jumped back, startled by the sound of the spear breaking. They opened their eyes in shock, watching Gravis apprehensively. What was going on?

"Enemy invasion!" shouted the leader of the guards. "Ready your weapons!"

"Halt!" a loud and imposing shout reverberated throughout their minds. The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild had arrived. "Don't attack him! He won't kill anyone."

The leader of the guards snorted. "You're not our Vice-Guild Master. We don't have to follow you!" he shouted imposingly. "Ready your weapons!"

WHOOM!

The Vice-Guild Master activated his Will-Aura in their vicinity, making a lot of people lose their consciousness. "I'm sorry, but I am doing this for the wellbeing of our guild!" he transmitted to everyone again. "You can't fight him!"

Gravis acted like none of this was his concern. It didn't matter if they retreated or attacked. He came here to annoy them back, and he would do just that!

Gravis continued walking as everyone who attacked him, including several people around them, lost consciousness. The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild was doing his best to protect their lives. If Gravis wanted, he could release his lightning into the surroundings, incinerating everyone present. Provoking Gravis was a bad idea.

The watching disciples noticed what had happened and created some space between them and Gravis. Yet, they still followed him from a distance. The only thing they could do was hope that Gravis wasn't here to kill them.

Gravis walked through the cave and arrived at the true Earth Guild after some minutes of walking. He was taking his time. When Gravis arrived, he looked around at the guild again. All the public buildings were built in the middle of the gigantic cave, while the disciples' homes were carved into the walls. The disciples of the Earth Guild lived in these small caves.

Gravis smirked. "Disciples of the Earth Guild," he transmitted into everyone's mind. The fear of the ones knowing about Gravis increased, while the oblivious disciples inside the guild felt surprised. "A little more than a week ago, I came with a peaceful visit to you. Yet, you have done your very best to annoy me as much as possible. Today, I will 'repay' you."

BZZZZZZZZ!

A lot of lightning appeared around Gravis, and everyone's faces went white. Would he kill them over something as minor as that? The lightning split, and thousands of smaller lightning bolts flew to the smaller caves at the walls. Yet, the lightning bolts didn't enter the caves.

BANG BANG BANG!

Thousands of bangs reverberated simultaneously as the lightning bolts hit the walls above the caves.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The entrances to the caves collapsed as a mighty rumble echoed throughout the guild. After several seconds, the sound stopped. The entrance to their homes had been buried. The actual homes behind the entrances were undamaged, Gravis made sure of that. The disciples only had to re-dig their caves.

It was not really damaging to the guild, and no possessions were lost. It was just annoying to free their homes of rubble.

"Alright," Gravis sent to everyone again with a satisfied smile, "I'm done! Have fun digging!"

The Earth Guild had only annoyed him, and his goal had always been to annoy them back. Killing them? Injuring them? Those possibilities didn't even cross his mind. He was no psycho. After finishing his work, Gravis looked around the guild with a smile and nodded. Then, he turned around and left the Earth Guild. 'Job well done!' he thought.

Most of the disciples had recovered by now. Most of them sighed in relief. Yes, getting to their caves required some work, but no one had been injured. This whole thing could have gone way worse.

Did they regret their previous actions? No, of course not! Their temperament and attitudes were stalwart and unbendable. They never committed mistakes! That was just how the temperament of earth was.

Gravis left the Earth Guild under the watchful eyes of the disciples. No one tried to stop him.

When Gravis felt the sunlight hitting his body again, he stretched casually. 'Alright, now I only need to wait for the Fire Guild to finish my board.'

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild stood beside the entrance, smiling bitterly at Gravis.

"Was that all that you wanted to do?" he asked.

Gravis continued smiling. "Yep!"

"Are you done now?"

"Yep!"