Ch. 201..210

"So, what will you be doing now?" asked the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild.

Gravis stretched his neck, creating some satisfying cracks. "I'll stay near the Fire Guild for some days and then leave. You fire cultivators might be aggressive, but I prefer that over this hypocrisy. Wanna join me?" asked Gravis with a casual smile.

The Vice-Guild Master only smiled bitterly. "No, thanks. I am too old for all this excitement. I'll just stay here and do my job. Thank you for the offer, though," he said.

Gravis shrugged. "Alright, suit yourself. Have fun!"

With that said, he left for the Fire Guild. This whole thing with the Earth Guild had taken longer than expected, but it was actually better this way. Gravis had tested a lot of things and managed to extend his arsenal of fighting techniques. Gravis also finally got to fight people at the Spirit Forming Realm. Even though they had been pretty weak, the fight still gave him a lot of information.

What if they had been at the Seed Stage with fitting weaponry? At that point, Gravis would have probably needed to activate his Will-Aura. The level suppression would still allow the experts to move, but they would still have been weakened by over 30%. Yet, Gravis wouldn't have been able to crack their defenses like that. He would have probably needed to use his weapon to exhaust their Energy at that point.

On top of that, their stronger elements would have probably also allowed them to use other attacks. As soon as they had noticed Gravis' powerful body, they had probably already abandoned all thoughts of injuring him with their element. Though, it would have been different if they had been at the Seed Stage. It would have also become nearly impossible to block or parry their attacks.

What had surprised Gravis was their apparent vulnerability to lightning. The magnetism of lightning had been very useful against their weapons. His lightning also allowed him to outspeed them. Lastly, it was

also very strong when attacking them. By all intents and purposes, lightning seemed to counter earth, which was weird. Usually, one would think that earth would counter lightning, but apparently, that wasn't the case.

When Gravis had left, the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild sighed to relieve some stress. Then, he went over to the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild. He had to report to them what had happened.

When he arrived, he saw them sitting down, concentrating on healing. By now, they looked way better. Taking healing pills required the user to concentrate on distributing the healing effects. That was why no one took healing pills during a fight since they wouldn't have any concentration to spare.

"What did he do?" asked the Guild Master stoically as he noticed the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild return.

"He kept his word," said the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. "He walked into the guild, collapsed the entrances to the residence caves, and then walked out again. The belongings inside the homes were not damaged, and no one was injured. He has done what he said. He only annoyed the guild."

BANG!

The earth before the Guild Master exploded as he furiously punched it. "Bullshit!" he shouted enraged. "This is not a mere annoyance! This is a humiliation! He walked into our homes, destroyed our stuff, and then left like he owned the place! How can we keep our heads straight when some nobody can just waltz into our home and destroy our stuff!?"

The Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild also clenched his teeth in anger, fury radiating from his eyes. He was of the same opinion. Gravis had gone too far! He had to pay!

"So, what will you do?" asked the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. "You can't beat him."

Battle-intent raged inside the Guild Master's eyes. "I can't," then he clenched his teeth, "but the Earth Sect can!"

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild lifted an eyebrow. "You are going to involve the Earth Sect because of this? Isn't that a little too drastic? No one got injured or killed."

The Guild Master's eyes narrowed in anger as he looked at the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. "Silence! You don't understand the ways of our earth! Keep yourself out of this matter!" shouted the Guild Master in anger.

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild furrowed his brows. "Don't act like I haven't helped you all for over 50 years. I even nearly see myself as part of the Earth Guild. Your matters are my matters."

The Guild Master looked at him for some seconds, then sighed. "I know, but if you see yourself as part of us, then you should realize why we can't let this slide," he explained, a little calmer now.

Now, it was the Vice-Guild Master's turn to sigh. "Earth doesn't bend," he said.

"Earth doesn't bend," the Guild Master repeated with a nod. "I'll report this to the Earth Sect. When he arrives in the Core-Continent, he will pay for this humiliation!"

Gravis didn't know that he had made an enemy out of the entire Earth Sect by doing this. Would he have still done the same if he knew that this would happen? This question had a complicated answer.

Usually, he would have avoided doing something like this. Provoking slightly stronger people would offer good tempering, but provoking another peak power of this world was stupid in his eyes. He would have probably only asked for some compensation.

Yet, with him being closer to lightning than ever before, all of this had changed. The lightning inside his mind demanded revenge for all transgressions. When Gravis had repaid the Wind Guild and Lightning

Guild, he had already noticed that controlling his lightning had become even easier. Open debts had been paid, and enmities avenged. As his conscience cleared, the control over his lightning smoothened.

The closer Gravis got to lightning, the more the state of his conscience mattered. People that had helped him deserved repayment, while people that had antagonized him deserved revenge. By actively going against his conscience, he would form a disconnect between himself and his lightning. Controlling it would become harder and, maybe, he would even lose his immunity to it if the disconnect became too significant.

This unprecedented affinity towards lightning gave him many advantages, yet those advantages came with some restrictions. His Elemental Synchronicity had vanished, and the state of his conscience became more crucial than ever before. On top of that, there was no going back. His mind had already formed, and an unbreakable dependency on lightning had been created.

Right now, to him, lightning was literally the only way left.

There was no other way.

 

Chapter 202

"It's ready. Please come over so we can test it!" a voice appeared in Gravis' head. It was the voice of the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild, who had been forging Gravis' board for the past two days. In those two days, Gravis had remained close to the Fire Guild, relaxing and thinking about different stuff. It felt good to take a break.

"Coming," sent Gravis back as he stood up from the branch on which he currently sat. Gravis stretched himself and then walked over to the Fire Guild. The Vice-Guild Master, together with the visiting Vice- Guild Master of the Earth Guild, was already waiting for Gravis at its border. The Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild didn't know about what had happened in the Earth Guild. If he did, he might not have forged the board.

As Gravis arrived, he saw the Vice-Guild Master hold the creation. The board was completely silver with four black wheels. Obviously, they had used a different material for the wheels. Gravis didn't question it. Those two knew more about forging than him, so they probably knew what they were doing.

At the back end of the board, Gravis saw it curve upward. The curvature was a little over 90°, creating a wall, which bent a little over the board's backside. The wall was round, and Gravis could imagine his leg fitting right into it. The height of the wall went to about Gravis' knee.

"It looks amazing," said Gravis with an excited smile. Finally, he no longer had to ride on the shaft of his saber. This board should be able to increase his speed even more.

"Try it first before you praise it," said the Vice-Guild Master with a laugh, though his expression betrayed his feelings. He was obviously happy about Gravis' praise. He threw the board over to Gravis, who quickly caught it.

Gravis was a little surprised by the weight. This thing probably weighed over 200 kilograms. Though, in comparison to Gravis' body, it was not that heavy. The stronger a body grew, the denser its muscles

became. Right now, Gravis weighed over a ton. It was understandable that the board was heavy since it had to resist Gravis' weight while moving with insane speeds.

Plonk!

Gravis threw the board to the ground, noticing it bouncing a little bit. The springs were doing their job. Gravis jumped onto it, and the board bobbed a little bit. It made no sounds of cracking or screeching, which showed that it had no problems resisting his weight.

Gravis stood on it and leaned back a little bit. He noticed that it was more comfortable standing on it when he turned his body to the side. Gravis felt his right calf come into contact with the wall at the board's back and felt that it snugly supported him. The wall had the perfect angle to support Gravis' leg. He had no doubt that the board would be able to support his acceleration.

"It's perfect," said Gravis with excitement.

"Of course it is," said the Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild, speaking for the first time. "We have fine-tuned it for nearly half a day. If we couldn't even do that, we might as well never forge again."

Gravis nodded with a smile. "Thank you. I'll try it now," then he looked at them with a questioning look. "Should I try my full power right from the get-go?" he asked.

The Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild nodded with a smirk. "That's what it's designed to do."

"Alright, here goes," said Gravis and then shot lightning to the front.

SCRRRRRR!

The board leaned backward, and its back hit the ground, creating a grating noise as it started moving forward. Gravis nearly fell off, and the only reason he didn't was that the lightning's magnetism kept pulling the board forward.

"No! No! Stop!" shouted the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. Gravis retrieved his lightning, and the board straightened again. "If you shoot the lightning to the front, the magnetism of it will pull it diagonally up, therefore grating on the ground. You need to summon lightning on the ground so that the board gets pulled forward and a little downward."

Gravis facepalmed. Why hadn't he thought of that? Usually, he was so creative with his lightning's usage. Well, even smart people made dumb mistakes sometimes. Gravis stopped the board and then followed the instructions. He summoned lightning at the ground, a couple of meters in front of him.

WHOOOOSH!

The board kept its balance, and Gravis felt his right leg getting pushed violently. He lost his balance but managed to keep himself on the board by leaning on the wall.

SCRRRRRR!

The magnetism wasn't enough to counteract Gravis' entire weight getting pushed to the board's back. Therefore, the board tilted back again. Gravis pushed his weight forward again, straightening the board. He hadn't summoned any new lightning, yet the board still moved. The wheels were doing wonders.

Gravis readjusted his position so that most of his weight rested on his left leg, which stood on the board's front. Then, he summoned more lightning.

WHOOOSH!

This time, the board didn't tilt. Gravis still felt the violent shove of the wall on his right calf, but this time, he had been prepared. The board shot forward as Gravis remained on it. Slowly, Gravis summoned more lightning, making the board accelerate even more. He was still not used to keeping his balance

on the board, but he had superb coordination. In mere seconds, he grasped the right way to keep his body stable.

As Gravis summoned more lightning, the board sped up, and soon, Gravis was moving far faster than ever before. He also learned how to turn. He only had to readjust his weight to one side, making the board turn slightly. Sadly, sharp turns were impossible since the inertia would make the board and him topple.

Gravis circled the Fire Guild as his speed increased more and more. At some point, Gravis felt some kind of force hindering his body from moving faster. He was a little surprised by that. "Is that the sound barrier?" he said, but his actual voice sounded incredibly weird in his ears. He guessed that he was probably moving too fast to hear the sound of his voice and only felt the vibration of his vocal cords in his ears.

As Gravis continued traveling, he felt the force stopping him become stronger. Gravis summoned more lightning to make his board speed up even more.

BOOOOOM!

Gravis felt a kind of explosion, and the force stopping him vanished. With the force vanishing, his speed skyrocketed. He continued summoning lightning with a mad smile. He wanted to see how fast he could go!

His surroundings were a complete blur by now, and if he hadn't had his Spirit, he might've lost track of them. Thanks to his Spirit, he was able to keep watch over his surroundings and his route. Gravis continued speeding up until it was no longer possible.

He was already constantly summoning lightning at his front, yet the air resistance pushed hard against his body. By now, he was leaning completely forward, his right foot basically already standing at the

bottom of the wall. By all intents and purposes, Gravis was kneeling on the board with his right knee.

Gravis had circled the Fire Guild a couple of times now, and he had already noticed the shocked and excited expressions of the two Vice-Guild Masters. The board was working perfectly. As Gravis passed them, he shouted, "It's wonderful!"

The Vice-Guild Masters heard a high-pitched and very fast "It'swo", which quickly became slow and low pitched until they only heard "ooooonnndeeerfuuuuuulll". First, the two Vice-Guild Masters were confused by the sound of Gravis' voice, but they quickly understood. They laughed at Gravis' weird voice.

"Everything to your satisfaction?" the Vice-Guild Master transmitted to Gravis with his Spirit.

"Perfect!" sent Gravis back.

"Happy to hear. What will you call it? It's a new invention, after all." asked the Vice-Guild Master.

Gravis thought for a while. "Jimmy," he sent back.

The Vice-Guild Master opened his eyes widely in surprise. Jimmy?

"Hehe, only joking," sent Gravis again.

"I think I'll call it a Lightning Board."

 

Chapter 203

It had been two days since Gravis first tested his new Lightning Board. During that timeframe, he rode around nearly all day, trying to get used to it. He learned how to turn better, accelerate faster, and fight while on his Lightning Board.

Though, fighting while on the Lightning Board was complicated. Melee attacks were nearly impossible to perform, and any big swing had significant consequences for Gravis' balance. On top of that, not being able to do sharp turns took away Gravis' flexibility. Gravis could probably only use the board for chasing people or fleeing from them.

But Gravis didn't mind it that much. His body and lightning were already perfect for instant acceleration and sharp turns. If he also concentrated his lightning on his feet, his acceleration would even become unreasonably fast. The Energy cost for that was rather high though, but he guessed that there was no one able to accelerate as quickly as him on his level.

What about the wind element? Sure, the wind element was generally considered as the fastest one, but Gravis was an outlier in that field. His Destruction Lightning was a little over double as powerful as natural lightning, which made him about just as fast as someone with the wind element. On top of that, other cultivators weren't able to explode their condensed element beneath their feet. Their feet would explode into bloody chunks, even if they had a powerful body equal to their Realm.

The only thing that allowed Gravis to do that was his immunity and absorption of lightning. If his Spirit hadn't been tempered by lightning, he wouldn't have been able to do that, even if he still had his Elemental Synchronicity. The Elemental Synchronicity would have made his body ignore the lightning's damage, but that would have also significantly weakened the effect of its blast, therefore slowing the acceleration.

Because of all these reasons, Gravis didn't care about him not being able to use the board for direct fighting.

After these two days of testing, Gravis' other four boards had been finished. The first one took the longest since they had to design and forge it from the ground up. The following ones were produced faster, with more ease and finesse.

"Thank you," said Gravis as he put the four new boards into his Spirit Space.

"No, thank you," said the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild. "Designing this and looking at its effect gave me a lot of inspiration and motivation. Maybe I can manage to design similar things for the other elements. One question though, are you fine with me selling this design to other people?" he asked.

Gravis shrugged. "I don't mind. You designed it after all," he said nonchalantly.

The Vice-Guild Master smiled and summoned a cube of gold. "Thank you. As repayment for that, I'll give you your gold back."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "I have paid you for your work," he said. "Your work is finished, so this gold belongs to you now. I won't take it back."

The Vice-Guild Master laughed slightly. "Hehe, I think you don't understand what you have done for me just now," he said. "This design will revolutionize how Spirit Forming Experts move. If I sell that design to our Fire Sect, I will get over ten times that amount. I am actually giving you way less than what you deserve."

Gravis thought about this and nodded. After that, he pocketed the gold. "You're right. Thank you for your honesty! Consider all debts settled with this gold cube."

The Vice-Guild Master nodded again. "Sounds good. Thank you!"

Gravis summoned one of the Lightning Boards and stepped on it. "I'm off," he said. "Bye!"

"Goodbye!" said the two Vice-Guild Masters as they waved.

With that, Gravis shot off into the distance. While traveling, he kept admiring the scenery. He would probably not return to the Middle-Continent. He had stayed here for about six months, and now he would leave. This was the last time he could look at it.

He thought about the different people he had met. He remembered Skye, its parent, the big tree, the Heaven Sect, Wendy, her father, all the Elemental Guilds, and Aion. The south-eastern branch of the Heaven Sect would be rebuilt, and Aion would remain there as its branch manager. Skye was probably still flying around the Middle-Continent, tempering itself by battling other beasts or humans that attacked it.

As he said goodbye to the Middle-Continent, Gravis remembered something. Only three debts were remaining. Two of those could only be fulfilled in the Core-Continent. Those were the repayment of Gorn's death, which required him to make the Lightning Sect rise, and the debt he still owed Joyce back from when she helped him earn money in the Hunting Guild.

The last debt was Jaimy. Gravis doubted that Jaimy had already reached the Core-Continent. Gravis was already growing at unprecedented speeds, and he doubted that Jaimy was cultivating faster than him. According to logic, Jaimy should be somewhere in the Middle-Continent.

Yet, neither the intelligence department of the Heaven Sect nor the Lightning Guild had found him. If not even the Heaven Sect could find him after months of searching, then where was he? Aion had told Gravis that they had been searching for him, but he had never appeared.

Gravis was 100% sure that if Jaimy went to any major guild or city in the Middle-Continent, he would have been spotted by the Heaven Sect. So, that only left three possibilities.

One possibility was that he lived in the secular world in the Outer-Continent, away from all the struggles of cultivation.

Another possibility was that he cultivated in isolation, away from civilization.

The last possibility was that he was already dead. Though, what about his brother in that case?

Gravis immediately dismissed the first possibility. Jaimy's hunger for revenge and power was genuine, and he wouldn't stop cultivating because of that.

Gravis also dismissed the second possibility after some thought. Jaimy had thought Gravis dead, and news of him being alive should only have appeared weeks later. On top of that, Gravis had been branded as a criminal during that time. Jaimy would have had no reason not to go to the Lightning Guild. Even if he had appeared only once, the Heaven Sect would have taken note of that. Yet, he didn't.

That only left the last possibility. Was Jaimy dead?

If so, how did he die that quickly? There should have been no issue in reaching the Lightning Guild for him. After all, he had been in the Energy Gathering Realm. He also had an average amount of Karmic Luck. There shouldn't have been any unlucky accidents…

"Wait," said Gravis as he stopped his Lightning Board. Then, he narrowed his eyes and looked into the sky. "Did you kill Jaimy and his brother, Heaven?" he asked.

 

Chapter 204

Gravis waited a little. Of course, there came no answer.

Gravis thought about this situation some more and concluded that Jaimy had probably died, together with his younger brother. This lower Heaven had watched Gravis constantly, always overseeing everything that happened. When Jaimy had failed in killing him, he had basically helped Gravis in some bizarre way.

This whole incident with him, him throwing Gravis into a ditch, making him insane with anger, and even killing Gorn, had increased Gravis' power. Gravis remembered that Heaven had planned, at the time, to never give Gravis any enemies. It had given him all the resources that he needed, a Guild Master as a friend, and his whole life in this lower world would have gone down smoothly until he reached the Spirit Forming Realm.

Gravis didn't like thinking about Gorn's death in a positive way, but the impact that it had on Gravis' power was significant. Gron's death had sent the Lightning and Fire Guild to kill him, which granted Gravis more tempering for his battle experience and will. Without Gorn's death, he wouldn't have been able to create a Unity Will in the Energy Gathering Stage.

Gorn's death had been one of the consequences that Jaimy's action had brought. Of course, Gravis and even Gorn himself were not without fault.

Additionally, Jaimy's actions had also forced Gravis into a mad struggle for power. Without Gravis' insistence on breaking his body and recreating everything, he wouldn't have been so shameless to demand more lightning from Gorn. At that point, Gravis would have only been able to condense natural lightning. In a weird way, Jaimy's actions had pushed Gravis to power.

Was Gravis thankful to Jaimy? Of course not! Jaimy had tried to kill him. Even though he had failed, he had still mutilated Gravis and even forced him to live off of shit for a while. Something like that couldn't be forgiven.

Yet, one couldn't ignore the positive effects that Jaimy had brought with his failed assassination. This lower Heaven had lived longer than Gravis and also knew much more. When everything had happened, it saw that Gravis would survive and knew that Jaimy had granted Gravis some "wonderful" tempering for his will.

Increasing Gravis' will was the last thing that this lower Heaven wanted to see.

Gravis had learned a lot about the personality and temperament of this lower Heaven. It had been deathly afraid when that one bandit had talked even remotely bad about his father. Back then, it was evident that his father wouldn't have done anything. Yet, Heaven had still killed that bandit just for that. This showed that when some emotions reached a specific threshold, this lower Heaven would ignore logic and act out based on its emotions.

When it had sent all the beasts in the Basin of Nature at Gravis, it had proven that fact. By directly controlling the beasts, it had already broken the rules of the highest Heaven. Gravis' father had all the right to execute that lower Heaven right then and there. Of course, with this lower Heaven being like this, it had ignored that consequence.

Another interesting point was that Gravis' father hadn't killed this lower Heaven when it had tried to strike him. Gravis knew that his experience and wisdom didn't even come close to his father's. Actually, as Gravis thought about it, his father might have even been delighted about the conduct of this lower Heaven. Without it knowing, this lower Heaven had sent tempering experiences to Gravis. Wasn't this precisely what he needed to progress on his path to power?

It was rather ironic thinking about this. This lower Heaven thought that Gravis was dancing on its palm, while it itself was dancing on the Opposer's palm.

What of the times when it withheld Energy Beasts so that Gravis couldn't temper himself? At first, it had seemed that this was an effective method, yet what if that had never happened? If Gravis had ample

opportunities to kill beasts, he would have been able to increase his power drastically. His will would have also risen even quicker.

Though, some things would have been different. With the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, Gravis would have been able to expedite his training speed like this. Yes, Energy Beasts didn't give much Energy, but they did, at least, give some. Gravis might have reached the Spirit Forming Realm before the yearly visit to the High Priest.

At that point, he would've reached the Spirit Forming Realm sooner. This might seem like a net- positive, but Gravis wouldn't have had the opportunity to increase his physical power. After all, he had gotten most of the body tempering pills from fighting other guilds. The fight with Red, specifically, had even increased Gravis' will tremendously.

There were a lot of eventualities that Gravis thought of, but he always came to the conclusion that he wouldn't have been as strong as now if Heaven hadn't repeatedly meddled with Gravis' business.

What if Heaven had never involved itself at all?

Gravis' will probably wouldn't have been as powerful as it was right now. He would have also never achieved his Destruction Lightning and, therefore, wouldn't have tempered his Spirit with it. Gravis' battle-power would have probably only been above average at that point.

All the hardships that this lower Heaven had forced on Gravis made him the monster he was today. Destruction Lightning, a Unity Will, an unprecedented affinity towards lightning, and a body equal to the Spirit Forming Realm. All of these powers had been achieved out of necessity to survive.

Without some of these, Gravis would probably still reach the Unity Realm, but what of the realms after that? Maybe there would be a bottleneck in the future that required one or several of these things to

push through. Without this lower Heaven, he would have probably still ascended, but his foundation wouldn't have been nearly as sturdy.

As Gravis thought of all this, he felt like he understood this lower Heaven more. It was basically trying its best to stop him but always failed spectacularly. Now, Gravis was also over 90% sure that Jaimy was dead. Killing Jaimy out of anger seemed to fit this lower Heaven very well.

Gravis took a deep breath and sighed. 'Seems like one of my debts had been settled without me even knowing,' he thought. Jaimy had tried to kill Gravis and had died at Heaven's hands. This could be considered as Heaven taking revenge for Gravis. Another spectacular failure from its part.

Gravis jumped onto his lightning board again and continued his journey. This whole thing had been a brief intermission, but an important one. Another restraint on his conscience had vanished like that.

Now, only two debts remained.

 

Chapter 205

Gravis traveled for another hour until he reached the Wind Wall. As always, the Wind Wall looked imposing and breathtaking, even with his newfound power. Gravis currently stood around five kilometers away from the Wind Wall, looking at its splendor. Though his emotions quickly changed from awe to cautiousness.

'I haven't noticed this before, but my Spirit can't reach the other side of the Wind Wall,' he thought as he furrowed his brows. 'If I still had my Elemental Synchronicity, I could probably ignore this Wind Wall, but right now, it's blocking my Spirit.'

When his Spirit hit the Wind Wall, it was torn apart and was scattered by the violent wind. As soon as part of his Spirit got torn off and left the main part of his Spirit's affected area, he lost every connection with it. When he had left for the Middle-Continent from the Core-Continent, he hadn't paid attention to that. At that point, he had been too busy caring about everything else. Especially the loss of his Elemental Synchronicity had weighed on his mind during that time.

'My Spirit's area is already many times bigger than the area of other cultivators, yet this Wind Wall still blocks it. This changes things tremendously,' he thought, furrowing his brows even more.

Why was he so affected by the Wind Wall blocking his Spirit?

If he were an ordinary cultivator, he might not have cared. As soon as he crossed the Wind Wall, he would be able to use his Spirit normally again. The problem with all this was that Gravis' enemy was this lower Heaven. Wouldn't this be a perfect spot for an ambush?

Yet, another thought appeared in his mind. He was in the Spirit Forming Realm now, so only cultivators with a higher level than him were a danger. This lower Heaven already had had difficulties controlling Energy Beasts. As for humans? That was even more difficult. What could Heaven even do to him right now?

Gravis calmed down as he had these thoughts. Heaven wouldn't be able to make such powerful beasts and cultivators move to such a specific location. Even if it had managed that, it would have needed them to start moving around a day ago to make the time fit. Gravis had made a break on his journey, and even now, he was waiting before the Wind Wall. The timing of Heaven, if it managed to do that, would be way off.

On top of that, he stood only five kilometers in front of the Wind Wall. A supremely powerful Heavenborn would have already used their Elemental Synchronicity to look through the wall. A Heavenborn that could kill him with confidence would need to be at Sapling Stage, at least. If there were such a person, they would have already noticed Gravis by now. Yet, no one had attacked him.

Gravis rubbed his chin in deep thought. 'I haven't been attacked yet, so that means that if there is an enemy, it won't be a super powerful Heavenborn. That means it could either be several semi-powerful Heavenborn, one very powerful cultivator who is not a Heavenborn, or several semi-powerful normal cultivators.'

'The worst-case scenario is a Heavenborn at the sapling stage, but the chances of that are minuscule. After that, it would be a normal cultivator at the Tree Stage, though those are Sect Leader level characters. None of those would appear just for me. Also, I have never offended any Elemental Sect. Even if I did, the Sect Leader wouldn't personally go out to kill me.'

Gravis nodded his head. 'The only possible, real danger would be several Heavenborn at the Seed- Stage or several normal cultivators at the Sapling Stage. There could also be just nothing. No reason to wait!'

Why not retreat and enter the Core-Continent from another spot? If there were a real possibility of an overpowered Heavenborn or cultivator to appear, Gravis would have done just that. That was because he couldn't fight those. Yet, several strong people were fightable. Could he die by entering the Core- Continent like this? Of course, but he needed genuine tempering. Dying was always a possibility.

Gravis closed in on the Wind Wall and quickly entered. He used his lightning to keep himself straight. Gravis quickly managed to jump out at the other side of the Wind Wall, and his Spirit encompassed the surrounding 50 kilometers again. Yet, he didn't need his Spirit to see what was in front of him.

Several people sat at a campfire just a hundred meters away from him. They had all talked with each other calmly until they had felt Gravis' Spirit. Everyone turned towards him, and Gravis actually noticed some familiar faces.

There were five people in total, all at the initial stage of Spirit Forming. Gravis released a hidden sigh. Even if they were enemies, as long as they remained at the initial stage, his Will-Aura would make all of them helpless. On top of that, he had not offended those people, except for one. He even knew three of them.

The three people he recognized were all Vice-Guild Masters of different Elemental Guilds in the Middle- Continent. One was a Vice-Guild Master of the Wind Guild. Gravis had met him two times. Once, when he went to the Wind Guild for Wendy, and another time when he had revisited them.

Another person that he knew was the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild, who lived in the Earth Guild as a forger. He had watched as Gravis fought the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Master just some days ago.

Speaking of, the other person was surprisingly the Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild, whom he had beaten black and blue. Judging by his face, he was not happy seeing Gravis. His face had already transformed into an unrecognizable grimace.

Gravis didn't recognize the other two people, but it was easy to guess who they were based on how their Spirits felt. One was a woman with waving blue hair with a tranquil expression. Her Spirit felt comforting and soft to Gravis, which meant she was either the Guild Master or Vice-Guild Master of the

Water Guild. Though, based on the other three all being Vice-Guild Masters, Gravis guessed that she was also one.

The last person was a black-haired man, wearing black robes and a mask. The mask was completely white and blank at the front, even covering his eyes. Well, not using one's eyes wouldn't be so bad in the Spirit Forming Realm. They had their Spirits after all. Gravis guessed that this person was a Vice- Guild Master of the Darkness Guild. His Spirit felt greedy and patient.

"Hey there, Gravis!" sent the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild, waving his hand. "Remember how I asked you where you would be going? I wanted to surprise you!"

Gravis lifted his eyebrows. Surprise him? "You wanted to surprise me? Did you all wait for me?" he asked, walking closer.

"Tch," spat the Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild. "I wouldn't have come if I knew that you were the person we were waiting for. Sear said that we were waiting for one of his friends to discuss our experiences. Who knew that his friend would be you?" he said with disdain.

Sear was probably the name of the Vice-Guild Master of the Fire Guild since he was the only one knowing that Gravis would appear here. Gravis didn't particularly care about what the Vice-Guild Master of the Earth Guild said. To him, it was only the squabbling of a weakling.

"I actually don't mind," said the Vice-Guild Master of the Darkness Guild. "Gravis has killed a lot of my disciples, yes, but he had shown incredible cunning by doing this. On top of that, everyone already knows that he is not a Heavenborn. His cunningness has earned him my respect."

Gravis was a little surprised. He had thought that the Darkness Guild would hate him for the disciples that he had killed. Apparently, he had been mistaken. Though, it was no surprise that everyone already knew that he was no Heavenborn. He had basically told everyone he talked to.

"I also don't mind," said the Vice-Guild Master of water with a gentle voice. "I have heard a lot about him, and I am interested in getting to know him," she said, playfully winking at Gravis.

'Is she coming onto me?' Gravis thought in surprise.

"I also don't mind," said the Vice-Guild Master of wind, "I consider Gravis a friend. With him joining, our discussions will only get more interesting!"

Sear looked at what everyone had said and smiled. "four for and one against Gravis joining. So it's approved," he said. Then, he stood up and walked to Gravis, offering his hand.

"Do you want to join the Cultivation Discussion?" he asked with a smile.

 

Chapter 206

Gravis wasn't quite sure what Sear meant with Cultivation Discussion. "What's this Cultivation Discussion that you're referring to?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Sear laughed slightly. "It's actually pretty simple," Sear said while gesturing towards the others. "Have you wondered why we are talking like this even though our guilds should be at war?"

Gravis nodded. "That would've been my next question. Logically, you should be at each others' throats."

Sear looked at the others who were all busy doing their own things. "We are actually all old friends."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "How would you find friends with your guilds constantly warring with each other?"

Sear smiled slyly. "You see, we were already friends before we joined our respective Guilds."

Now Gravis looked at them with surprise. "Before you joined your guilds? Wouldn't that mean that you have all known each other before you even left the Body Tempering Realm?" he asked incredulously.

Having friends was nothing surprising, but five people that had met as Body Tempering cultivators and all managed to reach the Spirit Forming Realm seemed a little unreal. What were the chances of that happening?

When Sear saw the surprised expression of Gravis, he started laughing. "I know, right? We were just as surprised as time progressed and our power increased. Who would've expected five people from the Outer Continent, from the same city, to all manage to reach the Spirit Forming Realm? I sure didn't!"

Gravis could only nod in confirmation. This was basically a miracle.

Sear laughed slightly and scratched the back of his neck. "We didn't want to let our guilds destroy our friendship, so we all met and created this Cultivation Discussion. Every couple of months, we leave our guilds and meet up. When we meet, we just casually talk and tell each other what had happened recently."

Gravis looked to the ground in thought. "Aren't your Guild Masters suspicious about you all vanishing at the same time?" he asked.

Sear smiled. "They know what we're doing," he said with confidence.

Gravis lifted his head and looked into Sear's eyes. "They do? And they're fine with it?" he asked.

Sear nodded. "Sure. As long as we don't discuss anything sensitive about our guilds, everything goes," Sear then turned towards his friends with a smile. "Right now, we are not Vice-Guild Masters but just some friends." Then, Sear turned back to Gravis. "So, you in?"

Gravis rubbed the back of his neck in awkwardness. "Wouldn't that destroy the whole point of your get- togethers? I don't come from the same city as you guys, and I am kind of an outsider here."

Sear turned away and looked at the green Core-Continent with a smile. They were currently on a green meadow with lots of different animals running around. "Well," Sear started saying, "that would be true, but as our strength progressed, our goals also started shifting."

"What do you mean?" asked Gravis.

Sear then turned back to Gravis. "Say, what do you think is the point of cultivation, Gravis?" he asked.

Gravis was surprised by the question. Others might think of it as a question as profound as the question about why they were alive, but to Gravis, the answer seemed too obvious. "To gain power," he said.

The answer didn't face Sear. "And why do you want power?" he asked.

"For freedom. I don't want to be under anyone's rule or suppression. I want to grasp my own destiny," Gravis said with conviction.

Sear laughed slyly. "It seems like you know what you want, but why do you require this freedom in the first place? What is making you not free right now?" he asked.

Gravis had an answer to this question as well. "Other people," he said, not wanting to say Heaven since this would open a whole new can of worms. "Humans are greedy, and people kill for resources and wealth. The saying 'a beggar carrying gold is a crime' exists for a reason. If you have something that others desire and not the ability to protect it, you will lose this thing and also probably die," Gravis explained.

Sear winked and lifted his right index finger. "Exactly!" he said. "To protect yourself, you need power, and for power, you cultivate, but what if the other people never attack you, no matter how powerful you are?"

Gravis' eyebrows flew up in surprise. It wasn't that he had never thought about that, but that this answer seemed too naïve in his eyes. "This is impossible," he said with a deep voice.

Sear just continued smiling. "Says who?" he asked.

"Humanity's inherent greed for power, and logic," Gravis immediately answered.

"I can't disagree with you there," said Sear. "We can't change the inherent greed in people, but with enough power, we can suppress it."

Now, Gravis knew what Sear meant. "So," he started saying, "by making this Cultivation Discussion, you try to get more like-minded people. With more people sharing the same goal, you want to create an

organization that enforces peace. Is that right?" he said.

Sear was a little surprised that Gravis connected all the dots with so little information. "Yeah, that's exactly what we want," he said. "We are still weak now, but we will become more powerful with more people. I saw that you are a person outside of any guild, so I guessed that you should understand our goal. That's why I invited you."

Gravis wasn't impressed. "While I agree with your goal, I don't see it being achievable," he said directly. "Even if you manage to get everyone under one banner and become more powerful than the Elemental Sects, you still have the Heaven Sect to contend with, and they have the backing of Heaven itself."

Sear didn't seem surprised by the answer. "What if Heaven is backing us?" he asked.

Now, Gravis was surprised again. "Heaven is backing you? How would that even be possible?"

Sear only smiled. "Have you ever thought about why Heaven allows people to cultivate and to ascend?"

Gravis, obviously, knew the answer. He knew the answer better than anyone in this lower world. Yet, he shook his head. He wanted to know more about what they thought.

Sear smiled like he knew something that Gravis didn't. "Think about it. If Heaven didn't want people to ascend, why wouldn't it just strike anyone down that reached the peak of Spirit Forming? This would be such a simple solution. Considering all this means that Heaven wants powerful cultivators. I'm not sure why, but I don't see any other reason. The current state of the world, which favors the strong, also confirms this."

Gravis simply nodded.

Sear stopped smiling for the first time. "Yet, what of the countless talented people that died due to uncontrollable circumstances?" he said. "Due to luck, stronger people coveting their treasures, and betrayal, those talented people die young. They would have had the talent to reach the Unity Realm, yet their journey had been cut short."

Sear looked into Gravis' eyes with motivation. "If we manage to unify the world, we can protect those talents and give them a safe environment to grow. Of course, people will still die. Life and death tempering is an inevitability on someone's path to power, but we can, at least, give everyone fair fights. No betrayals, no stronger people coveting the things of weaker people. I think, like this, we can increase the number of ascenders. I think Heaven would like that," he said.

Gravis thought about this for a while. What Sear had said was true. This would truly increase the number of ascenders. Yet, what about those ascenders after they had reached the middle-world? Sear didn't know about the structure of the different worlds. He probably didn't even imagine that there were even higher worlds than the middle-worlds.

If someone had only fought fair fights, they wouldn't be used to unfair fights or retreating from a crisis. The chances of them dying in the middle-world would be multiplied. The number of ascenders would increase, yes, but way fewer people from this world would ever reach a higher-world.

This whole thing was a short-term solution. It was basically exchanging one tempered person for five greenhouse flowers. The world was like this because only a hardy and challenging environment would produce true geniuses.

Geniuses might be born, Gravis was a good example of that, but true geniuses had to be created. If someone was very good at cultivating and had a powerful will, their chances of reaching more power were higher, but that would stop at some point. Only by surviving countless unfair crises would

someone become a true genius. A true genius knew how to react perfectly to every changing circumstance.

An excellent example of that was Gravis again. If everything had been fair for him in this lower world, Heaven wouldn't have meddled with his business. He wouldn't have been so experienced in fleeing or noticing hidden schemes. Gravis was sure that if someone had the same powers as him, he would still be able to scrub the floor with them. They hadn't gone through as much hardship as him, which made them less experienced.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," said Gravis after several seconds of silence.

Gravis' words stunned Sear. "You're not?" he asked incredulously.

Gravis shook his head. "Sorry, but that is not my belief," he answered. Explaining all this took too much time and revealed too much of his knowledge. Exposing the ways of Heaven was never a good idea. Speculation was one thing, but if Gravis told them the whole truth, Heaven might kill them to protect its secrets.

The only reason why Gravis had exposed so many things to Aion, back when Gravis had just achieved his breakthrough, was that Aion was already at a dead end as a Heavenborn. On top of that, his loyalties lay with Heaven. He wouldn't tell others about the things that Gravis had told him. These people, though, were different.

Sear seemed a little conflicted, but then only sighed. "Alright, if it is against your beliefs, I won't mind. Could you, at least, please promise us that you won't go against us in the future?" he asked.

Gravis nodded. "As long as you don't attack me, I don't care what you do."

Sear smiled again, but his smile was not as heartfelt as before. "Well, do you want to stay for dinner, at least?"

Gravis shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

 

Chapter 207

Sear brought Gravis to their campfire. The others had listened in on their conversation, so they already knew what had happened. Though, they didn't seem to care much about it. Sear and Gravis both sat down at the campfire, and Gravis noticed that there were multiple pieces of meat being cooked over it.

The Vice-Guild Master of water noticed Gravis eyeing the meat and smiled. "They'll be done in a few minutes. We all went out and hunted a Spirit Beast together, so this is good stuff," then she winked at Gravis again, "You can have some of mine."

Gravis smiled a little. "Sounds good. Thank you," he said. Right now, Gravis was actually a little happy. He didn't have many opportunities to just talk with some people, so he was rather happy to eat with people who weren't out for his head.

"So," Gravis started speaking, "are you actually doing something other than just eating and talking, or is this a simple get-together?" he asked.

"After we've eaten," the Vice-Guild Master of Darkness started speaking, "we discuss what has happened in the last couple of months and share experiences that we have learned. We talk about how we manage our guilds, exchange experiences on how to educate the younger generation, and experiences on how to further temper our wills."

"Oh? What do you mean with that last thing?" Gravis asked with interest.

"As you know, we have already stopped searching for life and death tempering," he answered evenly. "Our survival has become our highest priority, so we are not ready to put our lives on the line. In these discussions, we exchange ways to increase our will without life and death tempering. There are always alternatives."

Gravis thought about this and nodded. "Yes, that's true. I have a good example of that."

Sear looked pleasantly surprised at Gravis. "You are ready to share such personal experiences?" he asked.

Talking about tempering experiences and how someone managed to rise to power needed a lot of trust. Others might find weaknesses in that or use it for their own gain. Knowledge and experience were worth more than Energy Stones to these cultivators. That was why Sear was surprised.

Gravis nodded nonchalantly. "I don't mind," he said.

The others, except for the Vice-Guild Master of earth, smiled. "Then go ahead, and thank you," said Sear.

"When I was still inside the Heaven Sect," Gravis started explaining, "I have learned a technique that allows someone to push Magic into their Spirit before reaching the ninth level of Magic Gathering."

The others looked at Gravis with skepticism. "What's the point of that? Even if you manage to succeed, you would be the weakest Spirit Forming expert in existence and even ruin any of your future prospects," asked the Vice-Guild Master of wind.

Gravis smiled slyly. "I know, but there is another use for this technique," he said.

"Another use?" asked Sear in wonder. "What use?"

Gravis leaned back. "What's the reason why people need a Will-Aura to reach the Spirit Forming Realm?"

"Tch," spat the Vice-Guild Master of earth, "You need that to resist the unreal pain and to stabilize your Spirit. Everyone knows that."

Gravis didn't mind him. "Exactly. Now tell me what things can increase your will?" he asked again.

This time, it was the Vice-Guild Master of darkness who answered. "Life and death tempering, physical pain, emotional pain, and a change of personal outlook." After saying that, his demeanor changed, and he fell into deep thought.

It wasn't only him who fell into deep thought. Sear and the Vice-Guild Master of wind also fell in thought. The other two had no reactions. It seemed like they didn't get it yet.

Gravis smirked more. "Exactly! So, if you can push Magic into your Spirit, it will give you immense pain. You don't have to push through to Spirit Forming. You only need to put in as much Magic as you can handle and then continue with your life."

Now, the other two also got it. "This is an incredible method," said Sear after a while and then turned to Gravis with a severe look. "I don't think you know how incredible that is. With this, we can increase the number of Spirit Forming experts by multiple times. This is also a perfect way to avoid the deaths of many cultivators. This method is perfect for our purpose."

Gravis nodded with a smile. "That's why I told you about it. Take it as repayment for the food and your company," he said.

The people all thanked Gravis, except for one obvious person, and they also shared some of their experiences. Even though these cultivators were all many times older than him, Gravis already knew everything that they "found out". He went through too much shit, making all these things obvious for him. They all talked happily for about 20 minutes.

"Food's done," said Sear as the multiple sticks of meat flew towards a big plate. "Gravis, you choose first. You gave us the greatest contribution, so the honor should belong to you."

Gravis smiled, and a medium-sized piece of meat flew to him. The others also quickly chose their pieces. Food wasn't really necessary at their levels. The Energy that they passively absorbed kept their

bodies in top condition. To them, food was enjoyable, but not essential for survival. They all ate in comfortable silence.

After several minutes, Gravis finished eating. The others, except for the Vice-Guild Master of water, were already finished. It seemed like they wanted to get back to other business. Why else did they eat the food this quickly?

After everyone had finished eating, they continued talking. The topic shifted from methods for will- tempering to how to educate their disciples. Gravis didn't have any experience in that, so he kept mostly quiet, just listening. He also learned many new things. Gravis was mostly alone in his journey, which didn't let him gain much social experience. Gravis' curt sentences, short answers, and direct questions showed that.

Though, in Gravis' mind, these things were not really important. Learning social norms and customs might be important in the secular world, but to him, only power was important. Socializing was nice, but it didn't help in his journey to power. Yet, he was still interested in the discussed topics.

After about an hour of talking, they all didn't have many more experiences to share. After several seconds of silence, Sear stood up and dusted off his robe. "Alright, let's finish our mission," said Sear.

The others nodded and also stood up. Gravis was a little confused by what Sear had said. "Mission?" he asked.

Sear looked with a smile at Gravis. "Yeah, we all had a mission, which was just completed."

Slowly, Gravis narrowed his eyes. They had never talked about any mission. On top of that, they didn't share a common organization. Who would even give them a mission?

"Man," said the Vice-Guild Master of wind while stretching. "I haven't seen the second priest in a while. I bet he will be happy when we deliver the target."

Gravis' heart sank, and his eyes narrowed. Only the Heaven Sect had priests. And target? That could only be Gravis.

"So, you're all from the Heaven Sect?" Gravis asked with a deep, imposing voice.

The Vice-Guild Master of earth just smiled in disdain. "Don't get cocky. You're not scary anymore. The Lightning's Nemesis has, by now, already reached your organs. Just for your information, that's a poison. So, you're helpless in front of us," he said with an arrogant laugh.

The others continued packing their stuff and getting ready as if nothing had happened. Gravis also slowly stood up and watched them intensely. Every single one of them was calm and collected. This meant that all of them had been in on this. Gravis hadn't expected that.

Sear looked like he remembered something as he turned to Gravis. "By the way," he said, "you shouldn't activate your lightning. Activating your lightning would, at least, severely injure you. That's why the Lightning's Nemesis is called the Lightning's Nemesis."

Gravis only looked at Sear with narrowed eyes. The friendly guy had long since been replaced with a wicked snake in Gravis' eyes. "How does it work?" he asked.

Sear laughed a little and slapped Gravis' shoulder in friendliness. "Great that you can handle the situation this well. There's actually no damage in telling you. The Lightning's Nemesis is a poison created from a plant with the same name. They are pretty rare and only grow in areas where there's constant lightning around. They absorb the Life Energy in the lightning, which increases the purity of the Destruction Energy."

Sear lifted one finger like he was lecturing Gravis. "So, when the poison gets digested, the spores go into your organs and hibernate. If lightning comes closer to them, they absorb the Life Energy and grow. Though, that's not the dangerous part," Sear explained with fervent interest. "The dangerous part is that your natural lightning gets completely converted to purely destructive lightning, which would destroy your organs and body. That's why you shouldn't activate your lightning."

Gravis looked at Sear evenly.

"Is that so?"

 

Chapter 208

Why had Gravis not checked for poison?

There were two main reasons for this.

The first reason was that he had not met any such "snakes" before. Jaimy could be considered one, but he had attacked him out of nowhere, which was more like a direct attack. Gravis had never been subject to such indirect schemes like poison. Sear had also been very convincing with his lies.

Though, that was not the most significant reason. The biggest reason was that Gravis knew that his whole being was so atypical, that probably no poison in this world could affect him.

Poison that attacked the Spirit? His Spirit was full of Destruction Lightning, the purest form of destruction that existed. Anything that entered his Spirit would be annihilated.

Poison that attacked his dantian? His dantian was also not filled with Energy. It was filled with pure Destruction Lightning, just like his Spirit. The same reason applied.

Poison that attacked his will? Gravis already had a Unity Will. A Unity Will corresponded to the Unity Realm, which was the most powerful Realm in this lower world. That basically already counted as something above this world. Nothing would be able to damage his will in this world.

Poison that attacked his body? That was the biggest concern, but his Unity Will or Destruction Lightning could counteract any poison attacking his body.

Basically, no matter what poison was used, Gravis would be easily able to counter it. His whole being was too extraordinary to get influenced by a poison. When Gravis heard that he had been poisoned, he wasn't shocked or distraught, but happy. This would make others underestimate him.

Gravis looked at the others as they readied themselves to leave. "You do know that I have an exceptionally powerful body, right?" he asked Sear.

Sear laughed. "Sure, but we can just suppress you one at a time until your stamina runs out. At that point, we will just cut off your limbs and carry you. Though, that's troublesome, so please don't do that. It's just easier if you come with us."

Gravis didn't answer that statement. Instead, he asked another question. "So, are you all Heavenborn?"

Sear nodded with a smile. "Of course! You have remained in the Heaven Sect for a while, so you should know that the Heaven Sect has the best intelligence department in the whole world. Have you never questioned why it was this good?"

Gravis continued looking evenly at Sear. "Because there are high-level spies in every Elemental Sect?" he asked.

Sear nodded twice. "Exactly! Most Heavenborn are actually naturally created spies. Our Heavenly Pressure is weaker than the usual Heavenborn, but we can keep it up for way longer. This simulates a Will-Aura. Like this, we join the guilds and climb to highly ranked positions. We have no bottlenecks, after all," then Sear laughed slightly. "You would be surprised by how many spies we actually have. 70% of all Heavenborn are just hidden spies in other sects. Impressive, isn't it?"

Gravis thought in silence. This was actually incredible. He hadn't known that there were so many Heavenborn hidden in other sects. No wonder the sects and guilds couldn't keep secrets. Then, Gravis looked at Sear again. "How did you know which meat stick I would eat?"

Sear continued smiling. "We didn't. We poisoned all of them. You're the only one who cultivates lightning, so we don't care about the poison. We can just remove it with our element."

Gravis had already thought as much. That had been his suspicion from the beginning. "So, who gave you this mission?"

Sear rubbed the back of his neck with a smile. "Actually, this isn't really a mission. We just call it like that. The Heaven Sect has informed us about your status and what to do with you. When I met you in the Earth Guild, I asked you where you were going just for this. Informing the Heaven Sect would take a while since it's rather far away. If you had left like a week later, it wouldn't be us waiting for you, but a priest. We just couldn't inform them in this short time frame."

Gravis narrowed his eyes more. "So, the Heaven Sect doesn't know about my current whereabouts?"

Sear waved his hand nonchalantly. "No, it's only us. We wanted to surprise our teachers."

Gravis sighed deeply. "That's good."

BOOM BANG!

An explosion of pure lightning came out of Gravis' feet, accelerating him with the greatest speed possible. Gravis instantly reached Sear and punched with his fist, which immediately exploded with lightning. Sear's body exploded into uncountable small pieces before he could even react.

The other Heavenborn looked stunned at Gravis. They had been ready for him trying anything like this. They had even known about all the attacks he had shown in the Earth Guild. With only his physical body, he wouldn't have been able to be this ridiculously fast. Yet, what had happened? Wasn't his lightning disabled?

"Plan B!" shouted the Vice-Guild Master of Darkness. They all activated their Heavenly Pressure at once. The combined Heavenly Pressure pressed into Gravis, but he quickly countered with his Will- Aura.

WHOOOM!

The Heavenly Pressures were pushed back into their bodies, and the Heavenborn felt an unreal power pressing into them, making it nearly impossible to move. Gravis looked at them and saw that they had retrieved several pills. They were about to pop them into their mouths, but Gravis' Will-Aura stopped this.

The eyes of the Heavenborn widened with more shock. They couldn't even pop the pills into their mouths.

Crack.

A small cracking sound came out of the mouth of the water Heavenborn's mouth. This was the sound of a pill breaking. Gravis' eyes widened as he realized what had happened. She had been so careful that she already had a prepared pill in her mouth. Gravis immediately burst towards her with his speed.

WHOOM!

Her Heavenly Pressure's power increased as she broke into the Seed Stage of the Spirit Forming Realm. Gravis' Will-Aura focused most of its strength at her, lessening its power on the others. Gravis used his explosive movement again as he shot towards her with all his speed. While running forward, he retrieved his saber from his Spirit Space.

BOOM!

The water Heavenborn was able to move again, and she had retrieved a thin and long rapier from her Spirit Space. She managed to block Gravis' attack. Yet, in the next second, several things happened.

Crack crack crack.

The other three Heavenborn managed to pop their pills into their mouths, making them also reach the Seed Stage. Yet, something else happened. When the water Heavenborn blocked the saber, she

wasn't pushed back. One needed to know that Gravis had the most powerful body out of everyone present. So, how was she able to remain stable under Gravis' attack?

The answer to that was that Gravis didn't want to push her back. As his saber got blocked by the rapier, Gravis showed a smile. A dot of concentrated lightning at the saber's edge, which was not blocked by the rapier, lighted up. A fully loaded, violent streak of lightning jumped out of the saber, avoiding the currently blocking rapier.

BANG!

A tremendous thunder exploded into the surroundings as the violent lightning bolt hit the water Heavenborn's body. She couldn't even release a scream as her whole body got incinerated. This attack had been a result of Gravis thinking about how to utilize his saber with his lightning.

When he had attacked the barrier around the Heaven Sect, he had realized that he needed to place the concentrated dot of lightning perfectly on the part of the saber's edge that would hit the target. Like this, he would achieve maximum destructive potential. That, of course, was hard. Only with a stabbing motion would that be realistically achievable on a living target.

Yet, some disadvantages could become advantages in the right circumstances. If a weapon blocked Gravis' slash, he could release a fully loaded lightning bolt from melee range, creating an instantaneous second attack.

What about the Energy and Spirit consumption? This whole thing would take a lot of Energy and Spirit usually, but Gravis had, of course, already pre-loaded his saber. Like this, he could release a devastating attack without wasting any Spirit or Energy. Of course, that only worked once per fight since he had to reload it.

As Gravis absorbed the Energy and Spirit of the two dead Heavenborn, Gravis realized something. The Energy that entered his dantian was converted to lightning, refilling it completely. Yet, it didn't increase

the amount of Energy that Gravis' dantian could hold. The Energy only allowed him to refill his expended lightning.

A similar thing happened to his Spirit. The Spirit that entered into Gravis' mind was not absorbed but destroyed. Gravis couldn't absorb the Spirit, which made him furrow his brows. 'It seems like the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique doesn't work with my current body. Though, that makes sense. It's created for a normal body, and I don't have a normal body anymore.'

The good came with the bad, and the bad came with the good. This was a fundamental truth of the world. Yet, the technique was not useless. At least, it could refill his Energy, making it way easier to fight long battles with many opponents. As long as he killed people, he would never run out of lightning.

The other three had already broken through into the Seed Stage, and Gravis' moment of surprise was over. He had killed two people in that short time frame, but now, he had three enemies in front of him, which were one stage higher than him.

The stages in the Spirit Forming Realm were different from the stages in the Energy Gathering Realm. The strength of each stage didn't double, but quadruple. Gravis narrowed his eyes at them.

'This won't be easy.'

 

Chapter 209

Why did Gravis say that this fight wouldn't be easy? Weren't they just three people one realm higher than him?

If Gravis didn't have so much experience in fighting, he wouldn't think like this. He would think that this would be pretty easy, actually. Yet, due to his experience, he realized an important point.

Group composition!

In this world, strong people always followed one sect. These sects were based on the elements, and different elements had different strengths and weaknesses. So, if Gravis were to be attacked by a group of strong people, chances were incredibly high that they all shared the same weaknesses.

Earth cultivators were slow. Wind cultivators lost their biggest strength since Gravis was faster, and fire cultivators were terrible at defending and so on. It was hard for their comrades to counteract those weaknesses if they, themselves, suffered from the same ones. Yet, all this was different if he fought people with different elements.

Right now, he stood before three people with three different elements. If Gravis tried to outspeed and outsmart the earth cultivator, the wind cultivator would cut him off with an attack. If Gravis tried to kill the wind cultivator first, the earth cultivator would block the attack. One also couldn't forget the darkness cultivator.

Back when Gravis still had his Elemental Synchronicity, the stealth of the darkness cultivators was useless against him. Yet, now he had no direct counter against that. Gravis had to keep one eye out for the darkness cultivator. If he didn't, he would be the target of a devastating assassination.

If they were at the same level, Gravis could quickly kill them, but the level suppression of their Heavenly Pressure made this problematic. His Will-Aura was barely able to fight the three Heavenly

Pressures to a standstill, and that was already considering their weakened intensity due to them being spies and not fighters.

Gravis watched them with narrowed eyes, as they did the same. They had already taken out their weapons. The earth cultivator, just like back in the Earth Guild, had taken out his spear and long shield. The wind cultivator had retrieved a very long and thin longsword. Meanwhile, the darkness cultivator took out two daggers.

BANG WHOOSH!

The darkness cultivator took out some kind of metal ball and threw it towards the ground. The ball exploded and released a humongous amount of black smoke, which quickly gathered and darkened the surroundings.

BZZZ!

Gravis released some minor lightning into the surroundings, which destroyed a lot of the smoke, but it quickly regathered. The density had been slightly lowered, but in order to really destroy the smoke, he would probably need to waste around 50% of his lightning. Was that worth it?

If this were Gravis' only enemy, it would definitely be worth it, but he wasn't. On top of that, his enemy might feel more secure like this, which could create an opportunity for Gravis. It might be riskier, but risks came with rewards.

Gravis already lost track of his enemies. It seemed like this stuff was disrupting his Spirit. A bomb like this was probably incredibly expensive. Gravis guessed that probably no one, except the darkness cultivator, could see the surroundings. Though, the darkness cultivator could just tell them where Gravis was since he probably wasn't affected.

Gravis waited patiently, his weapon already reloaded. Normally, he always took the initiative, but not this time. Running blindly into the darkness could be an issue. Gravis slightly turned his head to keep the surroundings in his vision.

BANG!

Gravis immediately attacked to his left with his weapon. Two daggers blocked his attack, but the darkness cultivator got shot away from the impact. Ordinary cultivators wouldn't be able to see the slight, suspicious movement of the smoke, but Gravis could.

This had nothing to do with Gravis' experience, for once. This time, it was all thanks to his new eyes. Being able to focus on everything at once was a huge help. He had seen the minor movement of smoke and had acted immediately. Normally, Gravis would immediately follow up to gain the initiative, but this time was different.

SWISH!

A cutting wave of wind flew at Gravis, which he quickly evaded. Judging by the Energy it released, this was a released, ranged attack from a Spirit Weapon. If Gravis hadn't kept watch over his surroundings or followed the darkness cultivator, he would have been hit. His body wouldn't have been able to resist such an attack.

BOOM!

Gravis immediately used his body and lightning to accelerate with his maximum speed. He ran right into the direction of the wind. He knew that the earth cultivator would probably block him, but there was no other way right now.

BOOM CRRK!

Gravis released a full power kick to his front as he felt the Energy density increase. He wasn't able to be sure that the earth cultivator was in front of him, but he tried it anyway. His attack connected with something hard and felt the thing getting completely obliterated under his kick. Even though the earth cultivator had a higher realm than previously, his equipment was still the same. Yet, something else happened as well.

PUCHI!

Gravis' torso was impaled by the earth cultivator's mighty spear. They had already fought previously, so the earth cultivator knew that his shield would only be able to block Gravis' attack once before it crumbled into dust. Therefore, he had blocked with one hand while using the darkness to disguise his extended spear.

The earth cultivator flew for a long time, and his left arm even broke. Some fragments buried themselves into his body, but he was not as injured as back then. His realm had increased, after all. The earth cultivator had traded injury for injury.

The earth cultivator had also let go of his spear, which was still sticking out of Gravis, from both sides. Gravis didn't lose his cool and immediately jumped diagonally back.

SWOOOSH CLANK!

Another fully loaded attack from the wind cultivator's weapon barely missed Gravis' body. Yet, it didn't miss the spear. The attack landed on the side of the spear's shaft, worsening Gravis' injury as the force on the spear rotated his body. Gravis spat out a mouthful of blood since the spear had majorly injured his lungs.

Gravis barely managed to not fall over completely by catching his body with his right hand, which also carried his saber. If he tried to stick his saber into the ground to stop his fall, it would just cut into the

ground. He had to stop his fall with his hand. If he didn't, he would be a sitting duck.

Puchi Puchi!

Two daggers cut into Gravis' back, one of them penetrating his heart. More blood flowed out of Gravis' mouth, yet his mouth only showed a smile. 'I was waiting for you!'

BOOOOOOM!

Gravis' whole body exploded with lightning, completely destroying the surrounding smoke and the attacking darkness cultivator. He had used 100% of his lightning, creating an absolutely devastating explosion. A violent thunder echoed throughout the surroundings, blowing the hair of the wind cultivator back.

As the surroundings cleared, everyone could see everyone else again. The darkness cultivator was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that remained were two daggers lying beside Gravis. The earth cultivator was running back to the battlefield, blood coming out of his chest, his left arm hanging loosely from his torso. The wind cultivator looked a little exhausted, but uninjured. He still had about 40% of his Energy and Spirit left.

Instead, it was Gravis who looked the worst. When Gravis let his body explode, the spear and the daggers left his body, yet blood was flowing out crazily from all over his body. He lay helpless on the floor, breathing quickly.

The other two looked at him and sighed in relief. His major organs had been destroyed, and the darkness Energy of the daggers had sapped his inherent Life Energy. His body was empty of Life Energy, making it impossible to regenerate in the short term. Gravis would die before his body was able to heal itself. On top of that, this violent explosion had probably used up all his Energy.

As Heavenborn, they knew the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique, and they knew that it didn't regenerate Energy. It only increased its density. Right now, in their eyes, Gravis had no Energy and no way to heal himself. They simply had to wait until Gravis succumbed to his injuries.

They had won.

 

Chapter 210

They both looked at Gravis and walked closer. They saw how Gravis' face was slowly becoming blue due to his difficulty breathing. The Vice-Guild Master of earth smirked in disdain. "You did your best, but you never had a chance. In the next life, don't make Heaven your enemy."

Both of them put their weapons away as they watched Gravis. The Vice-Guild Master of wind showed no expression. It was just indifference.

"Ju… Ju…"

They heard Gravis trying to speak and went a little closer. He was already basically dead, after all.

"Just kidding," Gravis said through hard breaths.

They both didn't know what he meant by that. Gravis had no more Life Energy or Energy. What did he mean with 'just kidding'?

BANG!

Gravis' whole body shook like he had a seizure for a second. By all intents and purposes, he looked like lightning had hit his body. The two onlookers still weren't sure what was happening.

"Whoop!" said Gravis as he pulled his legs to his torso and then shot them out again. Like a spring, Gravis jumped up, landing gracefully on his feet. The two people's eyes widened in pure horror as Gravis jumped up elegantly like he was in his peak state.

His shirt was still destroyed, and streaks of blood could be seen on his torso, yet no new blood flowed out. Gravis had transformed his body's inherent Energy into Life Energy and then into Life Lightning. Like this, he healed himself to his peak state. Then, he turned to the two and smirked. "Hey!"

WHOOOM!

His Will-Aura exploded and pressed into them. They had deactivated their Heavenly Pressure, and in their shocked states, they hadn't been able to react on time.

BOOM BANG!

Gravis immediately used his lightning and body for maximum acceleration and punched the Vice-Guild Master of Earth in the chest, lightning exploding from his fist. By reflex, the Vice-Guild Master of earth had pulled his broken arm to his front to block with his shield, but it had no use. His shield didn't exist anymore. The fist easily hit him, and he exploded into a shower of blood that drenched the area behind him.

"How, how, how do you still have Energy?!" shouted the Vice-Guild Master of wind in shock. Fear and terror took ahold of his heart as he was the last person remaining. He quickly activated his Heavenly Pressure, but he was the only one remaining. Gravis' Will-Aura oppressed his Heavenly Pressure.

How did Gravis still have Energy? Of course, it was the Heaven's Balance Cultivation Technique. Normally, it would be impossible to regain Energy with this. Yet, since his dantian was different, all Energy that would have normally gone to condense his Energy instead got transformed to lightning.

How much lightning did Gravis have exactly? After he had exploded his body, his lightning had been entirely used up, leaving his dantian completely empty. Yet, he had also killed the darkness cultivator with that, and Gravis had absorbed all the remaining Energy of the darkness cultivator when he had killed him.

The darkness cultivator still had 80% remaining of his Energy when he had died. All of this went into Gravis' dantian and refilled his lightning to about 50%. In order to create one unit of lightning, it required two units of Energy, yet the darkness cultivator had been one realm higher than him.

But didn't a higher stage in the Spirit Forming Realm mean denser Energy? That was true, but only to a certain extent. The Energy increased, but not by much. Maybe by something like 25%. The thing that

really increased was the Spirit. That was why it was called the Spirit Forming Realm. If the darkness cultivator had been at the same stage as Gravis, Gravis would have only gotten 40% of his lightning back.

His two new attacks had used up another 20% of his lightning, decreasing his reserves to 30%. Yet, with the death of the Vice-Guild Master of earth, his lightning increased again to 80%. The Vice-Guild Master of Earth hadn't used up much Energy in his fight. Gravis turned to the Vice-Guild Master of wind with a smile.

"Gravis," the Vice-Guild Master of wind said, jumping back slightly, "I never wanted this," he said in fear and pleading. "We are friends! I helped you suppress Saron back then. I also never attacked you! Don't do something you'll regret!"

Gravis sneered. "Pathetic," he spat. "When you thought I was dying, you didn't care, but now I should? Give me one reason to let you live."

The insides of the Vice-Guild Master of wind shook in terror. With his higher Realm, he might be faster than Gravis, but his instantaneous acceleration didn't even come close. It was not Gravis' speed that was terrifying, but his acceleration.

"You don't want the Wind Sect as your enemy, do you?" he said threateningly.

Gravis spat some leftover blood to the side. "How would they even know that I killed you?" he said as he walked closer.

The Vice-Guild Master of wind saw a chance in that. "Every Spirit Forming expert from a sect put a part of their Spirit into a bottle that remains inside the Sect. When the person dies, the Spirit in the bottle gets destroyed by the corresponding element of their enemy."

Gravis raised his eyebrows in interest. "So, the Earth, Fire, Water, and Darkness Sect all know that a lightning cultivator killed their disciples?"

The Vice-Guild Master of wind nodded severely. "Yes. I don't know if you know, but the Elemental Sects in the Core-Continent are fighting on two fronts. The Lightning, Light, and Fire Sect are on one side, while the Earth, Water, and Darkness Sect are on the other. Killing someone from the Earth, Water, or Darkness Sect might not accomplish much since they would just think it was the Lightning Sect that had killed their disciples. They are at war after all."

"But, if you kill me, you will make the most powerful Sect, except the Heaven Sect, your enemy. They will ask the Lightning Sect for an explanation, and then everything will come to light. The Heaven Sect will also tell them the truth. You have already made the Fire Sect your enemy. Don't also offend the Wind Sect!" the Vice-Guild Master of the Wind Guild said threateningly.

Gravis narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. The Sects didn't know that all these people had been spies for the Heaven Sect. Even if they did, they'd have to swallow their grievances. There was nothing that they could do against the Heaven Sect, after all. On top of that, the Heaven Sect would probably even reward them if they managed to kill Gravis. What the Vice-Guild Master of wind said, made sense. If he killed him, the Wind Sect would hunt him down.

Gravis sighed. "I would have to be a suicidal idiot to kill you."

The Vice-Guild Master of the Wind Guild sighed in relief as he closed his eyes. He had managed to survive.

BOOM BANG!

And like that, this person was also reduced to a rain of blood. "Sadly, lightning forces me to repay grievances," Gravis said to the shower of blood. "Honestly, if lightning wouldn't force me, I probably

would've let you live. Yet, my path has changed. I have committed myself to move only on a singular path, and I have to walk it with stable and firm steps."

Gravis waited a little until all the bloody mist settled on the ground.

"I hope you don't mind."