Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis and Skye had been flying for about four days, with the occasional break, until they started closing in on the southern Lightning Guild of the Middle-Continent. The closer they got, the more serious Gravis got. He knew that this would not be pretty. In the Lightning Guild's eyes, Gravis was a traitor that had killed tens of their disciples, and they would probably make this matter problematic.

Gravis made Skye land when they could see the Lightning Guild on the horizon. How did Gravis know that what he had seen, was the Lightning Guild? That was mainly because of the oppressing, thick layer of black clouds that continually shot lightning onto a vast congregation of black buildings.

Gravis took a deep breath due to his shock. The Proxy-Lightning Guild and this Lightning Guild were like night and day. The Proxy-Lightning Guild had been spartan and simple like a village. There were only grey houses and the essential buildings to keep the guild running.

Yet, this Lightning Guild oozed power. The sound of thunder exploded throughout the surroundings, and Gravis could still hear the thunder very clearly, even from several kilometers away. Most of the buildings were rather sizable with, at least, five floors each. Gravis estimated that the Lightning Guild went on for several Kilometers.

Gravis didn't know what the buildings were made out of, but the material looked incredibly sturdy. He could also see several, even more gigantic, buildings splattered around the guild. Gravis could also see a way bigger version of the Lightning Tower in the middle of the guild. They probably needed more space for their higher number of disciples.

Gravis remembered that the Proxy-Lightning Guild had around 100 people. The chance of people in the Body Tempering Realm being able to sense the latent Energy in the air was only 10%, so one would think that only 10% of the disciples of the Proxy-Lightning Guild would ascend to the Energy Gathering Realm.

Yet, that way of thinking was wrong. Who were the Elemental Sects? They were the overlord of this world, only being under Heaven and the Heaven Sect. Not even their Proxy-Guilds accepted anyone with just average talent. Gravis expected that probably over 90% of the disciples of a Proxy-Elemental Guild would reach the Energy Gathering Realm.

So, if every guild sent 90 disciples every couple of years, and with the Outer Continent being the biggest Continent, by far, one could guess how many disciples an Elemental Guild in the Middle-Continent had.

Gravis knew that breaking into the Spirit Forming Realm required an intense will. He had learned about that in the theoretical lessons back in his homeworld. People might not need a Will-Aura to break through, but they needed to be close to having one. How many disciples could build such a will? Not many, so Gravis was sure that there were a lot of disciples remaining in the Lightning Guild for their entire life.

Someone in the Energy Gathering Realm could easily live for 200 years. With so many disciples joining the Lightning Guild from all around, Gravis expected the Lightning Guild to have an absolute minimum of over 10,000 disciples. That was a terrifying force.

The more Gravis thought about the size and power of the Elemental Guilds, the more his surprise increased that they couldn't put up a fight against the Heaven Sect. Heavenborn probably didn't even make up 0.1% of the experts in this world, so every Heavenborn would need to kill over 1,000 disciples to average out.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. 'But that is only how strength works for mortals,' he thought to himself. One person at the Self-Stage of Spirit Forming could roll through an army of people at the Seed-Stage of Spirit Forming. Gravis grew even more grave when he remembered that Forneus had also said that it was a genuine possibility that people at the illusory fourth realm would exist in a lower world.

Forneus never told the class much about the fourth realm. He only said that they would know what to do when they reached the Self-Stage in the Spirit Forming Realm. Yet, Forneus had told them that they had to survive a tribulation from Heaven when they reached the fourth realm. After they survived that, they could ascend back to their homeworld, which was different from people born in a lower world.

People born in the lower world would ascend into the "parent world" of the lower world. Apparently, the worlds everyone ascended to were predetermined. People from this world always ascended into a specific middle world. The world was always the same.

Surprisingly enough, world categories never crossed, except on very rare occasions. A lower elemental world would always lead to a middle elemental world, and people from elemental worlds never ascended to natural worlds or battle worlds. The same was, of course, also valid for the other kinds of worlds. This pattern would continue for the higher world, and after that, the ascenders would arrive in Gravis' homeworld, the peak world.

Every ascender from every world followed a path until they all arrived at Gravis' homeworld. Only then would different cultivation systems from different worlds clash with each other.

Gravis sighed when he thought about that. Thinking about how many disciples were in the Lightning Guild made Gravis sidetrack. 'I shouldn't think about these things. All of this is far in the future, and I don't need to care about that right now,' Gravis thought as he started walking to the Lightning Guild.

As a precaution, Gravis left Skye outside the guild and told it to hide. Skye might get killed by the disciples of the Lightning Guild "by accident". Gravis guessed that the Lightning Guild was hating him immensely, and he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't stoop so low to hurt him.

Before Gravis left the Heaven Sect, he had put on his new uniform. For the first time in a long while, Gravis was not wearing black cloth pants and a black shirt anymore. Just like every other member of the Heaven Sect, Gravis wore some white robes with golden rims.

Sometimes, Gravis got a little distracted due to all the added cloth and felt a little restricted. The robes were layered and went down to the floor, which made them touch Gravis' legs when he walked. He was unused to that.

When Gravis was about 100 meters away from the gate, four disciples suddenly shot at him with their weapons drawn. Gravis could feel that three of them were at the eighth level of Energy Gathering while one was at the ninth. Yet, despite the vast power gap, Gravis didn't grow afraid. He was wearing the Heaven Sect's robes, and the Lightning Guild would not dare to hurt him. If they did, the Lightning Guild would get annihilated.

"Traitor!" shouted the man at the ninth level of Energy Gathering, as they all surrounded Gravis, their weapons pointing at him. "How dare you appear before our Lightning Guild after what you have done? Have you not hurt the Lightning Guild enough?"

If it had been a couple of days ago, Gravis would have felt a deep pain in his chest from hearing this. Luckily, he had gotten over his emotional low and had regained his will to move forward. One thought had taken a significant burden off his shoulder. 'If I kill more, I only need to repay them more in the future. When I am strong, I can repay all their deaths.'

Of course, that thought only counted for the disciples of the Lightning Sect. Gravis knew that he couldn't repay Gorn, no matter what he did. Gravis could only do his best for now.

"I am here on official business," Gravis said as he took out the dossiers of the four criminals. Gravis had met some others from the Heaven Sect in his week of "relaxation" and had learned some tricks. Gravis inserted his Energy into the dossiers, and they shone with a heavenly light. This was a proof of authenticity. Only a branch manager of a Heaven Sect knew how to create this particular Formation Array.

The disciples looked at him and grimaced. They wanted to tear him apart and take revenge for their fallen brethren, but they couldn't. Some of them might even be fine with dying to the Heaven Sect after killing Gravis, but they couldn't implicate the Lightning Guild. Gravis was on the property of the Lightning Guild, and everything that happened to him here would be the fault of the Lightning Guild.

The leader loudly slammed the butt of his spear onto the ground two times, and the main entrance of the Lightning Guild opened.

"Step inside," the leader said coldly.